Any of y’all know how do a web app exploitation challenge for ncl.. been doing one for hours and can’t figure it out and it ends in like 2hrs and 26 minutes.

Hi everyone, for some context I’ve graduated with an associates in cybersecurity and this is my first year at a new university trying to get my bachelors. I don’t have any work experience in the field unfortunately. All my cybersecurity experience has come from what I learned and did in my classes to get my associates.

One class that I’m currently taking is focused on database and web application security. It feels like all the things that the assignments are asking from me are things that I’ve never been taught beforehand. Reviewing the online lectures the teacher will briefly explain topics and then the assignment for that week will ask us to do things they never taught us how to do in any readings or lectures.

Here’s some more context and one example of a previous lab. This class has us using the OWASP juice shop in an Ubuntu VM with burp suite and foxyproxy as our testing environment. Those are the only things we were asked to download and use for this class.

The last assignment that I was working on, it asked us to create three database roles with strong authentication control, configure auditing mechanisms that log all failed authentication attempts, and generate a test sequence that triggers audit events and exports a sample log file capturing different user identifiers.

Everything I’ve written above is how it’s phrased in the lab. There were no prior lectures or reading that explained to us how to even perform these actions. Is it expected of me to just know this information? None of my previous classes went in depth to teach me about SQL databases, and now I’m feeling very stranded and lost. I didn’t even know where to start for that project. It feels like the only option I have this far into this major is to ask AI to teach me these topics in a simple way. I really want to setup my home lab when I finally have the time to, and I’m hoping to get an internship down the road but as of right now I feel so lost and like I don’t know anything. It feels like this class isn’t teaching me anything because I’m not at the level to even understand what is being talked about. It feels like every assignment asks us to do something that was never taught at all how to do in the class. So I’m left googling for hours and trying to piece together information I find just to get a half-assed solution. I worry that using AI could further ruin the potential amount of things I could learn.

I can’t tell if it’s just a bad teacher or it’s my own problem. The main reason for making this post is I want to ask for input on what things someone in my position (recently graduated with associates, no on the job experience) should already know by now in regards to cybersecurity/IT. If there are things mentioned here I’m not familiar with then I want to start researching them ASAP. As well as any non-AI resources I should make myself familiar with that can help my learning. I really want to succeed in this field and make sure all my time spent was not a waste. It’s a scary feeling taking classes and feeling like the teacher isn’t teaching me anything.

Alguem pode me ajudar a baixar kali linux

Hey,

i'm working on those two little tools, any feedback is appreciated.

\\->>HostBadger, an open-source Windows hardening auditor in pure PowerShell.

One read-only script takes a snapshot of each host, and you can push it through your EDR (CrowdStrike RTR or any tool that runs scripts) to a whole fleet in about 15 seconds per host. The analyzer then works offline and writes a clean HTML report with A–F scores, plus CSV and JSON Lines for your SIEM.

\\- 138 checks: credentials, Defender and EDR, network exposure and NTLM relay paths, privilege escalation, logging, BitLocker

\\- 1475 DISA STIG rules plus the CIS benchmark of each host's own Windows version, with the value found next to the value required

\\- Vulnerable drivers (LOLDrivers), end-of-life and outdated software (endoflife.date), CISA KEV matches

\\- Read-only by design, with a safety script that checks this from the code. No network unless you ask. What it can't read is "not evaluated", never clean.

\\- Reversible fix scripts with rollback, and an optional AI summary where names become tokens before anything is sent

Nothing to install (PowerShell 5.1 or 7):

\[https://github.com/g4bri-3l3/HostBadger\\\](https://github.com/g4bri-3l3/HostBadger)

& ->>IDWolf: my own AD/Entra ID hardening tool that tells you whether your domain can be taken, and through which real-world attacks.

Open-source, pure PowerShell, read-only collection (native cmdlets only), offline analysis.

Recent attacks mapped to checks: BadSuccessor, Golden dMSA, coercion + NTLM relay to LDAP and AD CS (CVE-2025-24054), NTLM reflection (CVE-2025-33073), ESC15/16, password spraying, device code and consent phishing, and Intune mass-wipe exposure (Multi Admin Approval).

AI review with chaining: pseudonymized findings go to Gemini, which returns a verdict on whether the weaknesses chain into Domain Admin, the chains with their starting point and the one link to fix to break each, and which findings match publicly known attacks.

169 AD and 90 Entra checks · CIS / MITRE / NIS2 / ISO 27001 / DORA / GDPR mapping & tested on a real lab populated with Vulnerable-AD.

\[https://github.com/g4bri-3l3/IDWolf\\\](https://github.com/g4bri-3l3/IDWolf)

I work in incident response if that matters.

Hey r/cybersecurity, wanted to share phish-zero. Unlike traditional tools that query external APIs (leaking corporate clicks), this operates with a strictly zero-egress architecture. It uses local neural phishing detection, character n-gram TF-IDF vectorizers, and actively surfaces TLD abuse flags. Check out the clean tactical monochrome UI. https://github.com/securitygeek15/phish-zero

I've been building a phishing URL detector to learn more about detection, using about 15k verified PhishTank URLs. A few things surprised me.

The most common phishing host in the whole dataset was docs.google.com. Firebase, 000webhost and other free hosting sites were near the top too. Kind of obvious in hindsight, but domain reputation doesn't help much when the domain is Google.

A lot of it is just simple URL tricks: paypal.com.account-verify.xyz, paypa1.com, punycode look-alikes, and the old google.com@evil.ru one where the browser ignores everything before the @.

False positives were honestly the hardest part. An early version flagged github.com/login as phishing because to the model every login page looked sketchy. I ended up tuning it so it stays under about 2% false alarms, since a tool that cries wolf just gets ignored.

It only looks at the URL text and never visits the site, and it tells you why it flagged something. Right now it catches about 90% of phishing on sites it hasn't seen before. The weak spot is hacked legit sites, like a small business site with a phishing kit dropped in /wp-includes/. Really hard to tell from the URL alone.

I made it open source and wrote up everything including my mistakes, so if you're just getting into cybersecurity it might be useful as a reference.

For people who work in a SOC or on email security, how do you deal with phishing on Google Docs, SharePoint etc? You obviously can't just block the domain.

https://github.com/1amaaaal/Phisguard

When I go to ic3[.]gov using chrome on two different networks I see an expired cert. Can anyone else confirm this independently? Thank you. I hope this is not off topic.

Kendi antivirüs programımı yapıyorum ve kendi laboratuvarımda antivirüsümü test etmek için bir solucan yazılım yazmak istiyorum not defterine kodu yazacağım ve farklı kaydederek sonuna .vbs uzantısı koyacağım projemi okul verdiği içinde acil bir şekilde yetişmesi lazım lüften yardım edin

Hi Everyone,

I’m planning to take the CyberArk PAM Sentry certification exam at a test center and would appreciate your guidance.

If anyone has recently taken this exam, could you please share your experience, preparation strategy, important topics, and any reliable practice questions or study resources?

I would also appreciate guidance on the exam pattern, difficulty level, and the types of questions to expect.

Any tips, sample questions, or legitimate practice dumps based on publicly available or authorized study material would be really helpful for my preparation.

Thanks in advance for your support!

As mentioned in the title, I'm actually curious on what the most useful was in terms of:

• Learning new concepts and apply them to your job
• Advance in your career by opening more doors to better paying positions

In the past 5 years, I've worked as a Software Engineer, SOC Analyst, Incident Responder and now as a Security Auditor.

In total, I've only done the GCFA (GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst) certificate hoping to use all of the tools in my every day job but unfortunately that was not the case despite the huge amount of study for that exam. Though not really beneficial for my learning, it helped me landing a better paid job.

Now I'm here and probably going to work on the CISSP as I probably would like to steer into the direction of CISO (while at the same time my heart is beating for something more technical.. like Security Architect).

Additional Quesiton:

• For the ones that did the CISSP, what was something that you were able to apply to your job and to what percentage did it open the doors to better carreer opportunities?
• For the ones that did both CISSP and GCFA - how would you compare the workload? What was harder and which needed more work?

Thanks for all your opinions in advance! :)

Researchers from Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant uncovered a sophisticated attack against software-update infrastructure belonging to AOMEI

AOMEI develops Windows backup, disk-cloning, and remote-access software.

Between April and July 2026, attackers repeatedly modified configuration files on the company's update servers.

What makes this attack unusual is how briefly the malicious changes remained active.

Some modifications lasted only five to ten minutes.

During those windows, computers checking for software updates could receive instructions to download malicious files.

The attack delivered malware researchers named CROSSROAD and SHINYROAD.

The attackers then restored the legitimate server configurations.

This made the compromise particularly difficult to discover through ordinary periodic security checks.

This is an important lesson about trusting legitimate software. Users could download the authentic application from its official developer and still become infected through a compromised update mechanism.

It also demonstrates why simply verifying a software publisher isn't always enough.

AOMEI reported taking corrective action after researchers notified the company. Just fixing the update servers does not always automatically remove malware from previously infected computers.

Are any organisations routing their azure access through PAM ? We are in a process of getting a PAM solution and would like to now the thoughts.

Hey everyone,

I've been working in cybersecurity for the last 5 years, and over the past year I've been building a project called Vader-Pro-VDR, an AI-assisted Vulnerability Detection & Remediation platform.
So far, I've built:
A Go-based endpoint agent that collects system and software inventory information.

A backend API that receives and processes agent data.

AWS-hosted infrastructure for communication between endpoints and the backend.

A working proof of concept that can identify installed applications and their versions across endpoints.

My long-term vision is to build a platform that can:
Continuously identify vulnerable software and configurations.

Correlate findings with CVE intelligence.

Use AI agents to provide remediation recommendations.

Eventually automate certain remediation workflows in a controlled manner.

The challenge I'm facing isn't necessarily technical anymore. I've realised that a project of this scope is difficult to build alone.
I work remotely and don't have much exposure to the open-source community, so I'm looking for advice from people who have built or maintained open-source projects before.
Some questions I have:
How did you find your first contributors?

At what stage did you make your project public?

What communities have been most helpful for cybersecurity-focused open-source projects?

Are there common mistakes first-time maintainers should avoid?

What would make you interested in contributing to a project like this?

The repository is here:
https://github.com/Tridents10/Vader-Pro-VDR

I'm looking for honest feedback, technical criticism, and advice on how to take this from a personal project to a community-driven one.

Thanks in advance.

A open-source tool called CVE Intel. In simple terms, it pulls a bunch of security information sources into one place, and it doubles as an MCP server, so you can plug it into any of your AI agents.It's MIT licensed and written in Rust.

Paste in a CVE and it pulls from NVD, CISA KEV, EPSS, OSV, public exploit sources and others in parallel. You get a 0–100 risk score and a short "act now or later" answer, with the evidence listed so you can check it yourself. It also handles IPs, file hashes and dependency files. You can use it as a desktop app, a CLI, a REST API, or an MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor and similar tools. The AI part is optional and runs locally by default, so nothing leaves your machine unless you switch it to a hosted model. information is only as current as the public data.

I had this idea for a while and I'm still not sure exactly where I want to take it, so if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Feel free to contribute to the project. Thank you!

https://github.com/Fazmin/cve-intel

Given the recent talks online about how frequently users experience refusals despite using frontier models from Cyber-approved programs like Anthropic CVP or OpenAI Daybreak, to what extent are organizations utilizing open-weight models to perform internal red-team/pen-tests, and what does the setup look like?

1. Are you running the open-weights fully local on a self-hosted setup?
   1. If yes - What does that look like?
   2. While light-weight quantized SLM/MLMs can run on relatively cheaper setup but may compromise on quality and accuracy of data; whereas dense LLMs may require larger compute which isn't cheap. How do you balance this?
2. Are you using cloud-hosted models from third party inference providers like OpenRouter or CheaperInference which can help provide speed for a pay-to-use model? If yes, how do you ensure data privacy such that your data doesn't get processed or retained by the third party provider?
3. Are you geo-restricted to using American open-weight models only? if not, how do you justify leadership to use Chinese open-weight models like Deepseek or GLM?

PhantomBuffer EDR evasion uses stealth injection via SendMessage with WM_SETTEXT to effective bypass EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response).

Unlike traditional edr bypass techniques, it does not use the VirtualAllocEx and WriteProcessMemory APIs.

From Warehouse to Blue Team – My Journey Towards SOC L1 and Eventually DFIR

Hey everyone!

Back in 2010, I was doing some amateur web design, which I continued until around 2014. After that, my PC was pretty much just for gaming. I've always been a gamer, and I've always wanted a job that involved computers, but you know how life goes. I never had the experience, and probably not enough motivation to actually make it happen.

But over the past year, something changed. My motivation has been stronger than ever, and I finally decided to do something about it.

I spent about two months just watching videos, reading, researching, and trying to figure out what I actually wanted to do.

At first, I thought networking was the way to go, so I started with Cisco Packet Tracer and completed Network+ and Security+. But deep down, cybersecurity was always something I wanted to get into, even as a kid.

So I decided to fully commit to it. My long-term goal is DFIR (Digital Forensics and Incident Response).

I know this path takes a lot of hard work, patience, and curiosity. Luckily, I've got plenty of curiosity and motivation!

Over the last month and a half, I've been studying pretty much every day. I completed the TryHackMe SOC Level 1 pathway, along with a few additional rooms related to SOC and incident investigation.

At the same time, I've been doing LetsDefend and BTLO labs almost daily.

Here's a rough overview of what I've been learning and working with:

• Linux & CLI: Bash, sed, awk, grep, manually extracting data, filtering and investigating logs through the command line, including Linux and web server logs.
• Windows Event Logs: Spent quite a bit of time learning Sysmon, Security Event Logs, and System Events.
• Log analysis tools: Timeline Explorer for CSV files, Hayabusa for deeper Windows event log parsing, and occasionally DeepBlueCLI.
• Network analysis: Zeek logs, some basic RITA, Wireshark, and a bit of TShark through the CLI. Enough to start recognizing things like DNS exfiltration and suspicious network activity.
• Malware & email analysis: Basic malware investigation and analyzing suspicious email attachments using CLI tools.
• Memory forensics: Worked through a few labs involving raw memory dumps.
• SIEM: Hands-on experience with Splunk, ELK/Kibana, and Microsoft Sentinel. Splunk feels the most comfortable to me, although I have to admit that I find SIEM work a little boring compared to digging through logs manually in the CLI.
• Threat intelligence & enrichment: IP reputation checks, sandbox analysis, and other enrichment techniques during investigations.

I also have a ridiculous amount of printed cheat sheets lying around, and I'm constantly trying to learn several things at once.

And that's exactly where my problem starts.

After roughly a month and a half of seriously focusing on SOC L1 skills, I feel like I've hit a wall.

There's just so much to learn, and I'm starting to realize that trying to keep up with everything at the same time isn't sustainable. The more tools and techniques I discover, the harder it gets to decide what actually deserves my attention.

I enjoy digging into logs, investigating suspicious activity, and figuring out what happened. But I'm also aware that what I personally enjoy and what an entry-level SOC analyst actually needs to know might be two different things.

So here's my main question for you guys, especially anyone currently working as a SOC L1 analyst or who started their career in that role:

What should I REALLY focus on to become job-ready for a SOC Level 1 position?

Which skills should I know really well, and which ones am I probably going too deep into for an entry-level role?

I'm not looking for shortcuts, and I definitely don't expect to become an expert overnight. I'm more than willing to put in the hours. I just want to make sure I'm putting those hours into the right things instead of spreading myself too thin.

My motivation is huge, but I'm starting to understand that motivation alone isn't enough if there's no structure behind it.

Any advice, even a rough roadmap based on your real-world SOC experience, would mean a lot.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this and share some advice!

31y Croatian [ live in Ireland ]

All the best guys

Lynis Hardening Index scores from different Linux distributions, tested with their default configurations.

This is only a basic comparison of the results and is not intended as a definitive measure of overall security.

If you want to run your own test, read the installation instructions:
https://github.com/cisofy/lynis

Higher score: More security measures are in place.

Lower score: More security improvements are needed.

Lynis version used in the test:
3.1.7
Lynis command:
lynis audit system

 OPENSUSE  TUMBLEWEED (KDE)

Hardening index : 89 [#################   ]

  Tests performed : 250

  SECUREBLUE (KDE)

It was extremely slow during the test.

Hardening index : 79 [###############     ]

  Tests performed : 265

 FEDORA  (KDE)

Hardening index : 70 [##############      ]

  Tests performed : 253

  ANDUINOS 

Hardening index : 68 [#############       ]

  Tests performed : 262

  VOYAGER LIVE 

Hardening index : 68 [#############       ]

  Tests performed : 266

  ENDEAVOUROS  (KDE)

Hardening index : 67 [#############       ]

  Tests performed : 261

AURORA 

Hardening index : 66 [#############       ]

  Tests performed : 267

  BAZZITE  (KDE)

Hardening index : 66 [#############       ]

  Tests performed : 262

  GENTOO  (KDE)

Hardening index : 65 [#############       ]

  Tests performed : 240

  TUXEDOOS 

Hardening index : 64 [############        ]

  Tests performed : 268

  CACHYOS  (KDE)

Hardening index : 64 [############        ]

  Tests performed : 262

NIXOS  (KDE)

  Hardening index : 63 [############        ]

  Tests performed : 235

VOID Xfce (musl)

  Hardening index : 63 [############        ]

  Tests performed : 228

GARUDA  (Dr460nized)

  Hardening index : 62 [############        ]

Tests performed : 261

SOPLOS  (Tyson)

  Hardening index : 61 [############        ]

  Tests performed : 265

 GLF OS  (KDE)

Hardening index : 60 [############        ]

  Tests performed : 228

  KUBUNTU

Hardening index : 59 [###########         ]

  Tests performed : 240

  PIKAOS  (KDE)

Hardening index : 59 [###########         ]

  Tests performed : 252