Try Harder: A Guide to “Smash and Grab” Your OSCP Certification — Part 1

An inside look at the Penetration Testing with Kali Linux course and the notorious OSCP exam

Kali Linux — The focal point of the PWK course

For those yet to take the Penetration Testing with Kali Linux (PWK) course, the OSCP exam has a lot of mystery surrounding it. It’s somewhat common knowledge that it is a 24 hour exam with the goal of hacking into 5 systems; followed by another 24 hour time frame to write an exam report. For the most part, however, the rest of the course and exam contents are kept somewhat secret due to the non-disclosure agreement put in place by Offensive Security.

I passed the exam about a year ago (on my second try) and have been meaning to share my experience with the course, as this is the kind of article I looked for when I was preparing for the exam. While I obviously won’t be breaking the non-disclosure agreement, I’d like to share as many tips as possible to those who are interested in taking the course.

~$whoami

I started my journey in IT as a help desk technician. After three years in the help desk role I decided to make the transition into the information security field, and eventually ended up in a red team role where I currently reside. Two years into my time as a red team operator, I…