Path 14: Ethical Hacking — KashSec Academy

The 5-phase methodology, from reconnaissance through reporting. 24 free lessons, intermediate→advanced level, starting with "What ethical hacking really is"

Level: Intermediate→Advanced · 24 lessons · Free, no account needed.

Lessons in this path

  1. What ethical hacking really is — Same skills, opposite purpose. The RoE and scope.
  2. Rules of Engagement, Deep Dive — Scope, timing, get-out-of-jail letters, and why ambiguity has real consequences.
  3. The 5 phases — The mental map every methodology reduces to.
  4. Pentest Methodologies & Standards — PTES, OSSTMM, NIST SP 800-115, and why the named frameworks matter.
  5. Phase 1: Reconnaissance — OSINT, Google dorks, crt.sh, Shodan, GitHub.
  6. OSINT Tools, Deep Dive — Employee enumeration, document metadata, and certificate transparency logs.
  7. Phase 2: Scan & enumerate — Nmap deeper, per-service enum, searchsploit.
  8. Vulnerability Scanning Tools — Nessus, OpenVAS, and the honest limits of automated scanning.
  9. Phase 3: Exploitation — Metasploit, reverse shells, Metasploitable lab.
  10. Exploit Development Basics — Where Exploit-DB entries actually come from — buffer overflows, conceptually.
  11. Phase 4: Post-exploitation — Situational awareness, privesc, pivoting.
  12. Privilege Escalation Methodology — Enumeration-first thinking, tying Path 03/07's technique catalogs together.
  13. Lateral Movement Techniques — Credential reuse, Pass-the-Hash, and living off the land.
  14. Pivoting & Tunneling — Reaching a segment you can't touch directly, through one you already own.
  15. Phase 5: Reporting — The deliverable. CVSS, exec summary, details.
  16. Red Team vs. Penetration Testing — Comprehensive coverage vs. a covert, objective-driven simulation.
  17. Social Engineering in Pentests — Pretexting, phishing simulations, and the ethical line that keeps it professional.
  18. Wireless Pentesting Basics — Handshake capture, evil twins, and WPS — and why scope is harder to draw.
  19. Purple Teaming Basics — Red and blue working together, in real time, against the ATT&CK matrix.
  20. Your ethical-hacking path — Security+ → eJPT → PNPT / OSCP.
  21. Advanced Exploitation Lab — Take exploitation skills further.
  22. Metasploit Practical Lab — Get comfortable with the most popular exploitation framework.
  23. Practical Reconnaissance Lab — Hands-on OSINT and reconnaissance practice.
  24. Reporting Lab — Learn to write professional penetration test reports.