Beginner Guide for Pentester Students – Basic Knowledge for Pentesting

rom OSI & TCP/IP to ARP spoofing and cloud security?

I’ve been going through a “Beginner Guide for Pentester Students – Basic Knowledge for Pentesting”, and it feels like a complete journey from curious learner to structured pentester.

What this guide covers

Hacker mindset & ecosystem

Black/White/Grey hats, hacker groups, Cyber Kill Chain, APT flow, and Red / Blue / Purple team roles

Strong technical foundations

Linux & Windows CLI, TCP/IP, firewalls, VLANs, Active Directory, cryptography, PKI, virtualization, and cloud fundamentals

Real-world pentesting methodology (PTES)

Scoping → reconnaissance → scanning → vulnerability analysis → exploitation → reporting

Hands-on tools & attack techniques

Nmap, Wireshark, Metasploit, SQLi, XSS, ARP spoofing, Wi-Fi attacks, password cracking, and post-exploitation

This is the kind of reference you keep open while labbing, connecting concepts, and building your first real attack paths.

Which area are you focusing on next: Network, Web, or Active Directory?

Drop it in the comments — and follow Wojciech Ciemski for more well-curated pentesting roadmaps and learning resources

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