CompTIA PenTest+ Lessons

Every lesson is free to read, with three practice questions each. Work through them in order, or jump to the objective you need.

Practise with the exam simulator

  1. What a penetration test actually is, and is notObjective 1.1Audio
  2. Building a lab you own and cannot accidentally escapeAudio
  3. Rules of engagement, testing windows and target selectionObjective 1.1Audio
  4. Authorisation, the law, and when you are obliged to reportObjective 1.2Audio
  5. Peer review, escalation paths and articulating riskObjective 1.3Audio
  6. Writing the penetration test reportObjective 1.4Audio
  7. Passive reconnaissance and OSINTObjective 2.1Audio
  8. Active reconnaissance, sniffing and protocol scanningObjective 2.1Audio
  9. DNS enumerationObjective 2.2Audio
  10. Service discovery and port scanningObjective 2.2Audio
  11. Directory and web content enumerationObjective 2.2Audio
  12. Nmap in depthObjective 2.3Audio
  13. Wireshark and Shodan for the testerObjective 2.3Audio
  14. Customising recon scripts in Python, PowerShell and BashObjective 2.4Audio
  15. What a vulnerability scan sees, and what it missesObjective 3.1Audio
  16. Authenticated and unauthenticated scanningObjective 3.1Audio
  17. SAST and DAST: testing the code and the running applicationObjective 3.1Audio
  18. Validating findings and killing false positivesObjective 3.2Audio
  19. When the scan is wrong: troubleshooting configurationObjective 3.2Audio
  20. Nessus and OpenVASObjective 3.3Audio
  21. Nikto and web scanningObjective 3.3Audio
  22. VLAN hopping and why segmentation failsObjective 4.1Audio
  23. On-path attacksObjective 4.1Audio
  24. Exploiting an exposed serviceObjective 4.1Audio
  25. Brute force, password spraying and credential stuffingObjective 4.2Audio
  26. Pass-the-hash and credential replayObjective 4.2Audio
  27. Privilege escalation on LinuxObjective 4.3Audio
  28. Privilege escalation on WindowsObjective 4.3Audio
  29. Process injection and credential dumpingObjective 4.3Audio
  30. SQL injectionObjective 4.4Audio
  31. Cross-site scriptingObjective 4.4Audio
  32. Directory traversal and file inclusionObjective 4.4Audio
  33. Container escape and cloud metadata servicesObjective 4.5Audio
  34. IAM misconfiguration in the cloudObjective 4.5Audio
  35. AI attacks: prompt injection and model manipulation, explainedObjective 4.6Audio
  36. Establishing persistenceObjective 5.1Audio
  37. Lateral movementObjective 5.1Audio
  38. Pivoting and tunnellingObjective 5.1Audio
  39. Cleaning up: restoring everything you changedObjective 5.1Audio
  40. Writing the attack narrativeObjective 5.2Audio
  41. Remediation recommendations that get acted onObjective 5.2Audio