InfoSecs.com

CREST Registered Tester (CRT Exam)

2012-04-05T02:05:15Z

I have been meaning to get round to is this one for a while…

It seems that a lot people come across the site looking for information on how to prep for the CREST Registered Tester (CRT) exam, and this is also what I get asked the most about though the contacts page.

Everyone is different but here is my experience without breaking the NDA (note: should anyone from CREST have objections to this post please get in touch via the contacts page and I will remove it).

I sat the exam around 8 months ago, but this post is pretty generic and could be used in any technical exam prep really.

The first thing I did was downloaded the technical syllabus, this document lists everything you are expected to know in the exam. I used the document to mind map each topic and get down an overview of what I do know about the topics. Mind mapping the syllabus helped me work out what I needed to focus on and create a study plan to work on the subjects I needed to brush up on such as analysing router and switch config files. My background as a sys admin and experience in pen testing had pretty much covered everything I needed to know.

If you have not tried mind maps for learning yet I would suggest reading about the concepts then giving it a try, I find them really useful.

In the week leading up to the exam I tried to ensure I had memorised anything that I would expect to feature in the written exam which I don’t keep in my head at all times because it is rarely needed and always just a google away. Things like details around cryptography algorithms and which vulnerabilities popular worms exploited, etc.

I am not going to go in to the details around the exam format, it changes and all the information you need is on the site, but I will put some tips that I use to help me get though exams.

Exams are stressful, but under too much stress you will begin to find it difficult to think clearly. Make sure you go in relaxed and stay that way, if you feel like you are getting stressed out just take a minute to calm yourself down and get back in to a relaxed state of mind, then carry on.

Time is an important factor here, it is not the CISSP exam where you have enough time to do the exam twice and still take an hour break in the middle. Move quickly and make sure you get it right first time round, you may not have time to check your answers at the end.

If you get stuck, move on to the next question. Do not spend time staring at the screen hoping that the solution will just pop in to your head, mark it, move on and come back to it later if you get the chance.

Lastly, enjoy the challenge, maybe I am warped but I had a good time even though I had an epic drive home ahead of me. Next time for the CCT exam I think I will just take the train.

I think learning to learn is one of the most valuable things I have ever learned.
How about you? I am interested in hearing about your approach to learning a new subject. In this line of work you are constantly learning so having good techniques for quickly learning new things is helpful.

much much later...

2012-03-09T03:15:00Z

So it has been a year since I wrote anything here and I have had a fair number of people contact me via the contact page to discuss exams, courses, pen testing and careers.

This past year has been a busy one with work and I have had very little time for R&D, training. I told my boss I wanted to do as much pen testing as possible and my wish was granted, phew.

I have promised myself I will do my best to optimise my workflow and allow time for more fun stuff which I hope to be able to share here.

I am planning to do a series of non-technical posts about pen testing then move on to some more technical stuff, however the non-tech ones may not end up being published (they have been in draft for a while now).

Until next time...

GIAC Certified Penetration Tester

2011-03-28T23:03:58Z

Today I passed the SANS GIAC Certified Penetration Tester exam and thought I would write down a few notes to help people prepare for this exam.

The exam is 4 hours long and consists entirely of multiple choice questions, but unlike other multiple choice exams I have taken, this one does not let you come back to a question later, you can either answer the question or skip it entirely. The other thing with the exam that I have not encountered before is that it is an open book exam, meaning you can take whatever books and notes you want to take with you in to help you in answering the questions.

When I first found out it was multiple choice open book I wondered what the point was but after some research on the internet I soon found out that the exam covers many topics and tools and expects you to have a fairly in-depth knowledge of how they work and why. The practice tests helped me immensely in the preparation, I noted the subject of the question and made notes to get further information later on for anything I was not immediately familiar with. Further to this, experience in manual Penetration Testing and Systems Administration helped a whole lot too. Getting hands on with the tools covered in the exam is also important, for Metasploit there is the free “Metasploit Unleashed” course I have mentioned before and for the rest you can google, read man pages and search the Microsoft tech net archives.

I wont list all the software here on my site as there are lists out there on the internet and the practice exams will cover all of them too, it is worth taking a practice exam as early as possible in to your preparation, the report generated will give you a rating out of 5 in each area of focus, this will help you study more effectively for the actual exam.

So in a nutshell, if you are planning on sitting the GPEN exam I would suggest you:

Take your first practice exam as soon as possible
Note down the subject of each question as you go along (you have plenty of time)
Review your report and identify the gaps in your knowledge needed to pass the exam
Run through your notes and ensure you are comfortable and have extensive notes on the software in your list
Sit your second practice exam using your notes / books as you will do in the real exam
Study up on any remaining weak areas and improve your notes to take with you into the exam
Get plenty of sleep or caffeine and go pass the real exam =]

At the time I sat the exam SANS had some technical difficulties and the exam ended over an hour early, within four SANS had resolved this and I was able to complete the exam and score a pretty reasonable 93%.

I would love to attend some of the SANS training courses like SEC660 "Advanced Penetration Testing, Exploits, and Ethical Hacking" and SEC542 "Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking" but at the moment these are out of my price range and will have to stay on my "Someday Maybe" list.

Metasploit resource files

2011-03-21T01:15:23Z

Metasploit has a handly feature that allows you to load settings from a file, this allows us to create easily repeatable configurations. I like to crate a directory structure when pen testing keeping notes and tool output in plain text files and find it useful to create and store the metasploit config files along with these.

Armitage - fast and easy hacking

2010-11-30T12:37:08Z

Armitage - Fast and Easy Hacking Metasploit is a fantastic and huge framework and things just got better with the addition of Armitage, a graphical attack management tool. Armitage will visualise targets, recommend exploits and give you direct access to the advanced features of the metasploit framework.

CREST Registered Tester

2010-11-11T01:07:03Z

Since my last update I have not been sitting round idling, I have been offered a new position on a penetration testing team which starts in January and I have set my sights on doing the CREST Registered Tester exam early in 2011. More information including the CREST Technical Syllabus can be found at crest-approved.org.

The CREST exams look interesting with a mix of practical assessment, multiple choice and long form written exam questions. The syllabus looks to be well rounded covering a range of topics from both infrastructure and application testing. The NBSIE have posted some material with suggestions on how to prepare for the exam here.

Interestingly the NBISE (national board of information security examiners) in the US have teamed up with CREST and are piloting the exams in the US. Paul Roberts wrote an article over at threatpost “New Certification Will Set High Bar for IT Security Pros” which is worth a read.

Personally I think a lot more value is gained from a certification that actually tests your hands on skills rather than your ability to retain enough information long enough to pass a written exam.

OSCP Certification

2010-08-26T17:25:02Z

Quick update to let anyone who reads this know how I got on…

I sat the exam last week and passed, which I am really pleased about. I did expect it to be harder but it was no walk in the park either, it was well designed and enjoyable. I had the points I needed after 11 hours but carried on for a good while longer, it was good to see the offsec humor present on the target machines.

Really not a whole lot I am allowed to say about the exam but it was good fun and not as painful as I expected after reading some of the experiences others have had.

I am now extending on what I have learned so far and hope to sit the second course from offensive security “Cracking the Perimeter” some time in the not to distant future.

Recommended Preparation - PWB - OSCP

2010-08-04T18:57:59Z

When I was doing research prior to starting the PWB v3 course I spent some time trying to find out what I should know before the course starts. This is just me, I try to prepare for everything I do in advance, read articles and reviews, buy books and learn as much as I can. I was very pleased to find the course is really well taught and I have not had a problem with any of it so far, although it has certainly been a challenge.

Firstly the course does not assume too much, and you can learn everything you need to know as you go along. If you are like me though you will be itching to get started and learn something.

Course syllabus, have a look at the course syllabus and make sure you are at least familiar with the concepts of the material you are going to be learning about. Google is your friend here, I would reccomend learning a little about the tools you will be using. The syllabus and objectives can be found here.

Linux, unless you are familiar with Linux and the command line I would recommend doing some preparation, this is not mandatory as you will learn during the course but it save you time in the long run, linuxcommand.org will help get you up to speed.

Get familiar with BackTrack Linux, sounds like a no-brainer but there is a whole lot of tools included with this operating system, many of them you will be using during the course so knowing your way around the OS will help.

Programming, this is the part that had me worried. I have very little programming experience and thought that I would be really held back by this but during hte course I have written small programs in Python, Perl and edited exploits in Ruby and C, understanding how a program works will help, but knowing how to program is not essential. If you are planning to learn programming in python check out “Think Python - How to Think Like Computer Scientist” by Allen B. Downey.

If it will be a while before you start the Pentesting with Backtrack course you may want to check out the free Metasploit Unleashed course from Offensive Security, if you can, please also consider donating some money to hackers for charity, more information on the front page of the course.

That’s all for today, hope you found this helpful. If you have some good resources to add please comment below.

OSCP PWB Update

2010-07-28T04:01:51Z

Well I am around 60 days in to the course and have just booked the OSCP exam / challenge.

I am feeling fairly confident now and can’t believe how much I have managed to learn in the past two months. I am going to spend the next 3 weeks focusing on web application security and buffer overflows in preparation for the exam.

I have some recommendations to make about things to learn about and books to buy prior to starting the PWB course so I will get round to posting them soon along with some interesting materials I have come across in my quest to improve my penetration testing ability.

Penetration Testing with Backtrack v3

2010-06-01T21:03:04Z

Well it has been quite some time since my last post. I did not die though, I have just been very busy with my new job but I decided it was about time I started to make some time to blog.

Anyway, I am currently working on the PWB v3 course from Offensive Security and it is the best training course I have ever done. I am two weeks in and have learned so much already, even if I don’t pass the final exam and get the OSCP certification it will have been well worth while (I will pass the exam though, even if it takes me more than one try).

The training materials consist of a PDF file and over 7 hours of video where Mati Aharoni (muts) demonstrates the material covered in the PDF, you can find the course syllabus here and also a demo video here.

At the end of each module you are given exercises to carry out in offsecs fantastic lab network. Each student is provided with a VPN connection to the lab network, a Windows XP lab machine and a large variety of servers to practice your skills on. The course also has ‘extra mile’ exercises which will encourage you to expand on what you have learned in the course by giving you problems to solve that will require further research and learning. You are then invited to gain access to as many machines on the lab network as you can and detail all of your findings in a penetration test report.

I have not sat the final exam and don’t think I will be ready for some time yet, but I will report back when I do and let you know how I got on.