Re: PWB - OSCP certification for newbies

[Stephen Mullins <steve.mullins.work () gmail com>]

"Try harder?"

What are you paying them for?

I agree with what one of the people here said though, "the one thing
it teaches you is that if you can't do it by yourself then you can't
do it."  I think that's a lesson that most people never learn - self
reliance.  The lesson is that if you can't research and solve problems
independently then maybe you're in the wrong business.

I imagine most people would just fail, say the course sucks, and fall
back on their CISSP and 6 figure salary to salve their wounded ego
though.

C'est la vie,

Steve Mullins

On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 6:36 PM, Eric Milam<emilam () coretechsg com> wrote:
> I passed my cert OSCP in July.  I would have to agree with what is said
> below with one small caveat.  There *are* people willing to help you,
> but it won't be the instructors.  Best thing to do is to try to make a
> few *friends* in the IRC room and they can help you.
>
> I personally have helped many people, b/c I know how it felt to be told
> "Try Harder" or "We don't give answers" when all you want to do is get a
> nudge.  There are people willing to help, but there is a lot of "Try
> Harder"
>
> I am taking the CTP course now and I find it the same, I don't even go
> to the chat room much anymore.
>
> I must note that is you go through the course and you do the challenge
> and pass, you will feel like king/queen of the world.  I've got a lot of
> certs and I have to say this one went straight to the top of my resume.
>
> Hope that helps a little more....
>
> Eric
>
>
> On Tue, 2009-09-01 at 09:56 +0100, Hari Sekhon wrote:
> > Myne Computer wrote:
> > > Ok, with that said, I have another question to add. I am in about same
> > > place as Mauricio and would like to get further into training. Say
> > > someone is ok with linux, ok with networking, ok with multiple
> > > operating systems and on a decent start, where would be a good place
> > > for training in your openion to get a bit more into security,
> > > pen-testing, router configurations, firewall configurations, and
> > > anything like that.
> > Just so you are clear on what you would be getting, there is nothing on
> > router configurations, firewall configurations etc etc, you are expected
> > to know all that already (which is why I mentioned they just assume you
> > are experienced and know it all already). There is absolutely no
> > instruction or information on such things in the course. You'd have to
> > do all the other vendor specific courses for those things (hope you have
> > a huge training budget!).
> >
> > > I have been using a lot of tools like Nmap, wireshark, metasploit, and
> > > cain&able but would really like to understand this better. I have a
> > > server setup at home with multiple operating systems on many
> > > partitions I do a lot of my testing on but most of my learning comes
> > > from just google, man pages on Backtrack and reading books. I feel a
> > > good bootcamp would be nice to go through not just for the experience
> > > but the chance to talk to other people about this. Any suggestions on
> > > training or directions to take.
> > As part of the course, answers are not given intentionally, which leads
> > to a lot of frustration and the usual response of "try harder" and
> > images blocking people from moaning all the time which can bring even
> > good people to tears when they hit something tough. The one thing it
> > teaches you is that if you can't do it by yourself then you can't do it.
> > I personally would have liked to have been able to ask people a few
> > things in discussions, we all would, but that's strictly not allowed
> > especially in public, it's  just not the way it operates, there is an
> > element of hacker l33tness culture and especially the part about not
> > giving answers, so can expect to lose a lot of sleep trying to figure
> > stuff out by yourself, which I think is the culture they are trying to
> > instill in you as the real one, and the whole atmosphere is against
> > "spoon feeding".
> >
> > -h
>
>
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This list is sponsored by: Information Assurance Certification Review Board

Prove to peers and potential employers without a doubt that you can actually do a proper penetration test. IACRB CPT 
and CEPT certs require a full practical examination in order to become certified.

http://www.iacertification.org
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