CompTIA PenTest+® Training
Course 2049
5 DAY COURSE

The CompTIA PenTest+ (PTO-003) course is designed for cybersecurity professionals who want to develop and validate their penetration testing and vulnerability assessment skills. It provides a hands-on, performance-based approach to ethical hacking, focusing on real-world attack techniques, tools, and strategies used by security professionals to identify, exploit, and mitigate vulnerabilities in IT systems. This course bridges the gap between security analysts and penetration testers by covering both offensive and defensive cybersecurity tactics.

U.S. DoDM 8140.03 APPROVED BY DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

CompTIA PenTest+® Training Benefits

• In this course, you will learn the following:

  • Plan, scope, and perform information gathering as part of a penetration test.
  • Perform attacks that are aligned to and fulfill legal and compliance requirements.
  • Perform each phase of a penetration test using and modifying appropriate tools and use the appropriate tactics, techniques, and procedures.
  • Analyze the results of each phase of a penetration test to develop a written report, effectively communicate findings to stakeholders and provide practical recommendations.

• Training Prerequisites

  While prior experience is not mandatory, having a background in cybersecurity and hands-on practice with penetration testing tools will significantly improve comprehension and performance in the course and certification exam.

• Certification Information

  You must take and pass the CompTIA PenTest+ (PTO-003) certification exam to earn this certification. Exam vouchers are available upon request and included in the tuition fee.

CompTIA PenTest+ Training Outline

Learning Objectives

1.0 Engagement Management

1.1 Summarize pre-engagement activities.

• Scope definition
• Shared responsibility model
• Legal and ethical considerations

1.2 Explain collaboration and communication activities.

• Peer review and  Stakeholder alignment
• Root cause analysis
• Escalation path and Secure distribution
• Articulation of risk, severity, and impact
• Goal reprioritization and  Business impact analysis
• Client acceptance

1.3 Compare and contrast testing frameworks and methodologies.

• Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM)
• Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST)
• Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES)
• MITRE ATT&CK
• Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10
• OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS)
• Purdue model
• Threat modeling frameworks

1.4 Explain the components of a penetration test report.

• Format alignment
• Documentation specifications
• Risk scoring
• Definitions and Report components
• Test limitations and assumptions
• Reporting considerations

1.5 Given a scenario, analyze the findings and recommend the appropriate remediation within a report.

• Technical, Administrative, Operational and Physical controls

2.0  Reconnaissance and Enumeration

 2.1  Given a scenario, apply information gathering techniques.

• Active and passive reconnaissance
• Open-source intelligence (OSINT)
• Network reconnaissance
• Protocol scanning
• Certificate transparency logs
• Information disclosure
• Search engine analysis/ enumeration
• Network sniffing and Banner grabbing
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) scraping

2.2 Given a scenario, apply enumeration techniques.

• Operating system (OS) fingerprinting
• Service discovery
• Protocol enumeration
• DNS and Directory enumeration
• Host discovery and  Share enumeration
• Local user and Email account enumeration
• Wireless, Permission and Secrets enumeration
• Attack path mapping
• Web application firewall (WAF) enumeration
• Web crawling
• Manual enumeration

2.3 Given a scenario, modify scripts for reconnaissance and enumeration.

• Information gathering
• Data manipulation
• Scripting languages
• Logic constructs

2.4 Given a scenario, use the appropriate tools for reconnaissance and enumeration.

• Wayback Machine
• Maltego
• Recon-ng
• Shodan
• SpiderFoot
• WHOIS
• nslookup/dig

3.1 Given a scenario, conduct vulnerability discovery using various techniques.

• Types of scans
• Industrial control systems (ICS) vulnerability assessment
• Tools

3.2 Given a scenario, analyze output from reconnaissance, scanning, and enumeration phases.

• Validate scan, reconnaissance, and enumeration results
• Public exploit selection
• Use scripting to validate results

3.3 Explain physical security concepts.

• Tailgating
• Site surveys
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) drops
• Badge cloning
• Lock picking

4.0 Attacks and Exploits

4.1 Given a scenario, analyze output to prioritize and prepare attacks.

• Target prioritization
• Capability selection

4.2 Given a scenario, perform network attacks using the appropriate tools.

• Attack types and Tools

4.3 Given a scenario, perform authentication attacks using the appropriate tools.

• Attack types and  Tools

4.4 Given a scenario, perform host-based attacks using the appropriate tools.

• Attack types and Tools

4.5 Given a scenario, perform web application attacks using the appropriate tools.

• Attack types and Tools

4.6 Given a scenario, perform cloud-based attacks using the appropriate tools.

• Attack types and Tools

4.7 Given a scenario, perform wireless attacks using the appropriate tools.

• Attack types and Tools

4.8 Given a scenario, perform social engineering attacks using the appropriate tools.

• Attack types and Tools

4.9 Explain common attacks against specialized systems.

• Attack types and Tools

4.10 Given a scenario, use scripting to automate attacks.

• Attack types and Tools

5.0 Post-exploitation and Lateral Movement

5.1 Given a scenario, perform tasks to establish and maintain persistence.

• Scheduled tasks/cron jobs
• Service creation
• Reverse and Bind Shell
• Add new accounts and Obtain valid account credentials
• Registry keys
• Command and control (C2) frameworks
• Backdoor and Rootkit
• Browser extensions
• Tampering security controls

5.2 Given a scenario, perform tasks to move laterally throughout the environment.

• Pivoting
• Relay creation
• Enumeration
• Service discovery
• Window Management Instrumentation (WMI)
• Window Remote Management (WinRM)
• Tools

5.3 Summarize concepts related to staging and exfiltration.

• File encryption and compression
• Covert channel
• Email
• Cross-account resources
• Cloud storage
• Alternate data streams
• Text storage sites
• Virtual drive mounting
• Remove persistence mechanisms
• Revert configuration changes

5.4 Explain cleanup and restoration activities.

• Remove tester-created credentials
• Remove tools
• Spin down infrastructure
• Preserve artifacts
• Secure data destruction