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// Knowledge vault4 pillars · 29 assets

Resources

A curated directory of the outside world: where to learn, what to practise on, who to read, and where to ask. Everything here is a live resource I would send someone to myself.

Learning resources

Start here, in this order

  1. CTF progression — TryHackMe to HackTheBox

    Start on guided rooms where the answer is checked for you, then move to boxes where nothing tells you if you are close. The jump is the point: it is the first time you have to decide for yourself whether an idea is worth ten more minutes.

    tryhackme.com

    RoadmapHands-onFree tier

  2. Web security fundamentals — PortSwigger Academy

    Free, and still the most complete treatment of web vulnerability classes anywhere. Work the labs in order rather than cherry-picking: the later ones assume the mental model the earlier ones build.

    portswigger.net/web-security

    RoadmapWebFree

  3. Certification prep — CPTS and OSCP

    Both reward methodology over tool knowledge. Keep a written enumeration checklist from day one and refine it every box; by exam day the checklist is the thing being tested, not your recall.

    offsec.com — PEN-200

    CertCPTSOSCP

Roadmaps & certification prep

TryHackMe learning pathsGuided rooms with the theory built in. The gentlest on-ramp, and still the fastest way into a topic you have never touched.FundamentalsGuidedBeginnerOWASP Top 10The shared vocabulary for web risk. Worth reading as a document rather than a checklist — the reasoning behind each ranking is the useful part.WebReferenceFreeMITRE ATT&CKAdversary behaviour catalogued as techniques rather than tools. The map both offence and defence plan against, which makes it the common language between them.FrameworkThreat intelFree

Tools & labs

Platforms & essential tools

HackTheBoxUnguided machines and multi-stage pro labs. The place to go once a walkthrough stops feeling necessary.PlatformCTFOffensiveTryHackMeGuided rooms with the theory built in. The gentlest on-ramp, and still useful for a topic you have never touched.PlatformGuidedBeginnerBlue Team Labs OnlineThe defensive counterpart: investigations, log analysis and incident response against realistic telemetry.PlatformDefensiveDFIRBurp SuiteThe intercepting proxy every web assessment runs through. The Community edition is enough to learn on.ToolWebProxyBloodHoundMaps Active Directory as a graph, so a path to Domain Admin becomes a query rather than a hunch.ToolActive DirectoryGraphGhidraThe NSA's open-source reverse-engineering suite — a decompiler that holds its own against paid tools.ToolReverse engineeringFreeGTFOBinsWhat a Unix binary can be talked into doing when it is setuid or reachable through sudo. The first place to look after `sudo -l`.ReferenceLinuxPrivescCyberChefEncoding, decoding, decryption and data mangling as composable steps. Saves writing a throwaway script for the tenth time.ToolAnalysisFree

News & blogs

Threat intel, original research, and the newsletters worth an inbox slot. Read the research slowly; the news exists to tell you what to go and look up.

Krebs on SecurityLong-form investigative reporting on cybercrime, usually well ahead of the trade press and frequently the original source they cite.NewsInvestigativeCybercrimeGoogle Project ZeroFull technical write-ups of real zero-days, at a depth almost nothing else publishes. Slow to post, worth reading every time.ResearchExploitationDeep divePortSwigger ResearchOriginal web security research from the team behind Burp — new attack classes, not commentary on other people’s findings.ResearchWebOriginalSANS Internet Storm CenterA daily diary of what is actually being scanned and exploited right now, written by handlers looking at live sensor data.Threat intelDailyFreeBleepingComputerFast, reliable breach and ransomware reporting. The place a story usually breaks before it reaches the mainstream outlets.NewsBreachesRansomwareThe Hacker NewsHigh-volume industry news. Useful as a wide net for what happened this week, best paired with a source that goes deeper.NewsDailyIndustrytl;dr secA weekly newsletter summarising conference talks, tools and research. One of the few that reliably saves more time than it costs.NewsletterWeeklyCuratedDarknet DiariesNarrative interviews with people who were actually there — breaches, intrusions and the occasional arrest, told first-hand.PodcastStoriesInterviewsRisky BusinessA weekly news podcast with practitioner commentary rather than vendor talking points. The news segment alone is worth the subscription.PodcastWeeklyAnalysis

Communities & forums

Discord entries point at each platform's own community page rather than an invite code — invite codes expire, and a dead invite is worse than no link.

r/netsecA moderated feed of technical security content. The moderation is the feature — low-effort posts do not survive, so the signal holds up.SubredditTechnicalCuratedr/AskNetsecWhere the questions go that r/netsec would remove. Genuinely useful for the "am I thinking about this correctly" class of problem.SubredditQ&ABeginner friendlyHackTheBox DiscordThe busiest room in offensive security practice. Machine-specific channels mean help is scoped to the box you are stuck on.DiscordRed teamActiveTryHackMe DiscordBeginner-tolerant in a way most security communities are not. A reasonable first place to ask something you are worried is obvious.DiscordBeginner friendlySupportOWASP chaptersLocal, free and mostly in person. The fastest route from reading about the field to meeting people working in it.MeetupLocalFreeThe DFIR ReportFull intrusion reports with timelines and detection opportunities. Less a community than a standing invitation to study real incidents.Blue teamDFIRCase studies