To be honest, I am lost. Information security, is a huge, huge, enormously huge, world. And every time I learn a thing, I discover that there is other 1 million things than I already knew is there, and a million of these another stacked up and lead me to stop for awhile, because I didn’t know what to learn anymore, it’s all there, I know it’s there, but it’s too much, and all of it is exciting and I didn’t know which to start spending my fulminatory energy on! But finally, I know what to do, I decided to start somewhere, get a general feel of each major field InfoSec offers, and then start diving in what I like mostly.

I thought, I can learn what the OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional) certification requires and offers, that way at least I become a junior pentester, not a lost ‘looking to learn’ human. I can both officially achieve the OSCP, and dive more into this amazing world in a more structured path.

My knowledge base is simply that, I am good at fixing and building computers (actually this is what got me into technology in the first place since age 12), I understand TCP/IP at a basic level, I know how the Internet works, I love Linux and the terminal and used them a lot, I do C, Java, and I read bash, python and other scripting languages, but I don’t write them. I’ve followed security news and people for years, read books about nmap, metasploit, and the general hacking methodologies, but never really had the chance to DO it completely by myself for contiguous times. So what’s next?

Well, from my years of experience of following OSCP folks, reading OSCP reviews, and checking techexams OSCP journeys from time to time, OSCP focuses on the following topics: enumeration (a looottt!!), using and modifying public exploits, privilege exploitation techniques (Linux && windows), post-exploitation ‘enumeration’, pivoting, basic web app. exploitation, basic BOFs, time and stress management skills (especially for the exam), Google-fu spirit, and the passion to keep trying harder and hard’est’.

According to that info., and the info available at the following blog posts/articles:

I decided to follow this kind-of-plan whilst fine tuning it, complementing my base of beginner skills:

So I am at step 5 currently, and you can’t imagine how much I am excited about it! The PentesterLab Bootcamp seems pretty rich in knowledge, while implementing an extraordinary teaching method! And I will for sure do write-ups for every stage, as the only reason I didn’t write walkthroughs for the vulnhub machines is finishing many ones a day, letting me in no choice but skip the write-up step to pwn other boxes haha. Also, to be honest, walkthroughs for them are all over the internet, so mine wouldn’t render that of a difference.

Though I won’t promise you I will post anything this week, as I have a Digital Systems midterm exam coming, three Data Structures and Database projects (involving Java and interfaces), and a lot to study on for my CS bachelor degree.

This post got pretty long haha. I hope it was good enough for you to read all the way down into here! Because I would be honored to thank my friend whose advice is priceless in all my tough times, who joined my fun in pwning some of the above VMs, and who encouraged me to write this blog post. Thanks @BufferBandit, I will for sure write more of these !

Feel free to advise, recommend, or criticize me on Twitter (@BaraSec) or in the comments section below.

**UPDATE 0** November 27, 2017:

I had a question by someone who read the post, which I found interesting and provides a good point, that many may wonder about, so I will explain it to everyone reading this:

Q: Why do I put HackTheBox high up there, and postpone this step too much, while their “easy” rated machines are challenging yet very obtainable for a beginner ?

A: True. Their ‘easy’ ranked ones aren’t that of an obstacle for anyone. But HTB got a good amount of machines that are way harder than anything seen on OSCP. So instead of doing the easy ones, then hitting a wall, and going back to literal studying and offline labs. I thought that it would be better to postpone the HTB step till I am at least 70-80% prepared for their hardest machines, that way I can pwn them with more confidence, and probably be able to squeeze as much knowledge out of them as possible.