Python for SecuritySpecialists Cybrary Review

This is my review of the  Cybrary course, Python for Security Professionals, For starters, I must say i appreciate the Cybrary.it model, the lessons are all free and you can aquire a certificate of completion (which could help validate the 15 CPEs the course may be worth, if you need to justify that type of thing) if you prefer at the end. However, the whole site model is interesting in as possible "complete" some of the courses (lol in fact, I've "completed" all the courses), and purchase the relevant certificate, without ever having clicked some of the video links. That seemingly large security mistake sort of invalidates the certificates, as everyone can obviously say the've completed the course and have the certificate with no done so. All of the aside, I love the idea of free education material and we will now be delving into the information of the Python for Security Professionals course. Like my other reviews, I'm likely to review the material and recommend this based in your experience and time commitment. The course contains 10 hours of video content, which are pretty decent particularly if you want to learn Python from scratch, but slightly less when you want to learn the nuances of Information Security. All of the modules are video focused, but come with PDFs of slides, activities in python programs, and the completed methods to the activities in python programs. Overall, the first four modules are very basic and mostly just cover programming in python vs security specific tasks. Another issue is that currently most of the videos are pretty blurry and it's hard to see the code / command line utilized in the video series. For this reason you've to view the videos in HD, however they address this in the comments and mention how they will soon be re-releasing the videos in an increased resolution. At the conclusion of the weekend, I'd recommend this course to someone who is wanting to learn Python from scratch by having an Information Security focus, however for someone with increased of a background in Python, I would actually recommend a text more like Black Hat Python, for more of an Information Security focus. That said, even if you are experienced with Python and Information Security, you could find the final two modules interesting (The Packet Gathering Module and the Info Gathering Module).

The very first module, Intro and Setup, is pretty basic and be easily skipped when you have any prior Python experience. Here he goes over how to setup and install Python, as well as why it's an excellent language for rapid prototyping and security professionals.

The next module, Apprentice Python, can also be very basic and still doesn't touch on anything security related. This module is about basic usage and arithmetic in Python. There is also a stumbling block in the second video, as it's a little odd when he googles for solutions and then reads stack overflow through the tutorial.

The Journeyman Python module is interesting, but still doesn't delve into anything necessarily Information Security specific. In this module he talks a great deal about networking protocols and RFCs that govern these. These modules are interesting in that they're informative, but fairly incomplete in the info they relay, an example of this would be when he starts referring to ports and protocols he doesn't differentiate which transport protocol the application form protocols are traveling over, despite discussing the differences involving the TCP and UDP transport protocols. In this chapter you are shown you how for connecting to arbitrary TCP ports, which may be ideal for banner grabbing. The past activity in this module demonstrates to you how to hear a TCP port and thus create your own arbitrary file server, however these lack really any security controls.

With Advanced Python he covers ctypes, regular expressions, multi-threading, and finally fuzzing. The multi-threading exercise in this module is pretty interesting, but still nothing really advanced, merely a quick launching of multiple independent threads (vs something that has to take into account deadlocks). The fuzzing section can also be pretty interesting as this can be a core Information Security technique, so I appreciate the videos for Slides part 3, jperry even alludes to a load overflow in this video. Unfortunately, he also says fairly uneducated things like fuzzing and password cracking are similar in theory (the means of bruteforce may be similar, but that hardly scratches the theory associated with either subject) or that writing a password cracker is against the CFAA, which is obviously false as industry professionals use password cracking constantly in penetration testing (trafficking hacked information or the specific act of hacking another person's system is illegal, not writing a password cracker). In this module's activities he also writes a fairly insecure file server implementation. I say it's insecure not because it enables you to arbitrary read / write to a complete drive, but because it uses no authentication or encryption to protect the communications, meaning anyone could trivially hijack your fileserver activities.

Packet Analyzer module is where things get really cool. Simply two, jperry starts implementing an IP protocol parser and demonstrates bitwise manipulation to see exact fields out of the protocol. This can be a pretty awesome tutorial for writing a network protocol parser in Python and something I would truly call Python for Security Professionals. I suggest this section for those enthusiastic about finding a more thorough handle of protocols and automated parsers.

The Info Gathering module can also be really interesting, as here jperry writes a fast post-exploitation RAT in Python for Windows. This is excellent and where in actuality the class really starts digginging in to the Python applied to security specific applications. I enjoy where he uses python to parse the Windows registry key values, this is super ideal for various security applications. Overall, I believe this can be a very good Python for Security Professionals video. This module also covers a lot of the content from the Post Exploitation Hacking course in this script. I suggest this module for moderately experienced hackers looking to begin writing their particular implants.

Overall, the modules were well done and I appreciate the relaxed approach of the course and exercises. That said, I believe the whole course is great for someone trying to learn Python from scratch, however if you already are a newcomer Python / Information Security enthusiast you need to checkout something more like Black Hat Python, and even if you are well versed with Python and Information Security you could find the final two modules interesting. As for Cybrary.it, I must say i appreciate what they are doing with free education, I believe this is a great program and it deserves a lot of support, however I don't think the certifications are worth anything, on the basis of the lack of business-logic security preventing anyone from just acquiring the certificates without having to go through the courses https://www.scamrisk.com/cybrary-review/.