 A few months ago, I put out a video on my PTS or Penetration Testing student or the EJPT or E-Learn Security Junior Penetration Tester course exam certification, all of that. And after I had released that video, I got a couple of comments and questions. It says, hey, John, can you do this for ECPPT or the PTP course, the Penetration Testing Professional or E-Learn Security Certified Penetration Testing Professional Penetration Tester? I'm gonna mess that up. I was like, in reality, I joked like it's the ECPPT TTT course, because I just feel like I say that all the time. Regardless, this is that video. This is a review and some discussion on the PTP course and the ECPPT certification and exam. So let's dive in. First of all, a little bit of overview and background, right? So this is the course and certification exam that E-Learn Security puts out in regards to their second tier of penetration testing and teaching that material. This is meant to come off the tails of PTS or the Penetration Testing student. It's supposed to be just a smidge more advanced or kind of more of an intermediate level of penetration testing in sort of their red team track. Next up after this is PTX or Penetration Testing Extreme, but PTP is kind of the middle ground for someone that wants to get into penetration testing and red teaming stuff. So their course and everything that E-Learn Security puts out is all hands-on and practical. It's all supposed to be on the keyboard. It's all supposed to be applicable stuff, real-world scenarios and situations, and I love that about their material. So if you actually go take a look at their course on the webpage, they discuss what they're going to cover in that course. So they discuss some network penetration testing, of course, a web app, pen testing, some Wi-Fi, which is super duper cool, system security, kind of the low-level stuff between buffer overflow, shell coding and reverse engineering and binary exploitation. It even covers some Windows stuff, not just Linux. Obviously a lot of post exploitation, a lot of privilege escalation, and it showcases Ruby and PowerShell. That's super cool because Ruby is all about, hey, this is what Metasploit is going to end up using. This is what Metasploit is written in, and you're totally welcome to use Metasploit. And the discussion of PowerShell makes it a lot more real-world because I know that's still out there, obviously. You need that all the time for whatever you're working in within Windows. So on their website, they showcase all the different sections and the modules of things that you're going to end up looking at. You could obviously go more in depth with that if you want to check out the syllabus, but that's the surface-level overview. That's what they cover in the course, and they showcase a lot of good stuff. Let me show you kind of the insides. Let me show you what you're looking at when you actually access the course, if you had bought it and you're working through all the material, because there are going to offer you, for one thing, slides, presentations. They have lab handouts and lab exercises for you to work through. The labs are fantastic because they're willing to give you the solution and actually showcase this is how you do this. This is the walkthrough if you get stuck. All of their stuff is super up to date. They obviously have the whole private student forums where you can go and ask for help if you need a little bit more instruction from someone that's really done this before, the actual instructors, the moderators, and facilitators in the student forum. And of course, this leads to the ECPPT certification. So the exam itself isn't just a multiple-choice test, kind of like PTS or that EJPT course was. Of course, that multiple-choice test was paired with a real-world application or an actual penetration test, an actual penetration testing scenario for you to work through. This one is all penetration testing, no multiple choice, and then after the fact you have to submit a report or formal, official, legitimate penetration testing report on everything that you've worked through inside of a corporate network. So with that said, the course will give you everything that you need to pass the exam. I know a lot of people ask me like, oh, how do I prepare for this exam? How do I prepare for this certification? How do I prepare for X? Well, if it comes with a course, take the course, right? Go through all the PDFs, read through all the slides, do all the labs, take notes, do everything that you can that the course is going to give you because that's the best way to prepare for what that course exam and certification challenge is going to be. And because eLearn security stuff is so real-world and in a corporate network, right, you're going to be moving from machine to machine and getting into different parts of a network. So you need to know how to pivot, how to use auto route, how to port forward, how to set up a SOX proxy, and all of their content is going to guide you through that. It also adds a really interesting dynamic and challenges that you wouldn't see in other certification exam or in other actual certifying bodies and their courseware that they put out. Like obviously, you know, there are certifications and tests out there that ask you to perform a buffer overflow and get exploit and access to a victim machine or the target. But I haven't seen them do that before inside of a pivoted network like compartmentalized space where you have to redirect that exploit to something that you've already compromised that's deeper inside of a layered segmented network. So that adds a serious challenge to that. And it's honestly really cool because now you're exploring different aspects of metasploit or some code that you've written or proxies that you've set up that you might not have done before. And because it's so real-world, you can use metasploit. Like there's no limitation on what tools you can use. And that's pretty awesome because that's something that you'd see out there doing actual pen tests. Like you're not going to be handicapped on what tools you can or cannot use just because some piece of paper says so. So I'm trying to be as like impartial as I can be and just like, you know, a surveyor of what's out there and give my input. So it's not all sunshine and roses, right? So as I'm saying, yes, all their content is fantastic. I love the stuff that they do. You can tell I'm a big fan of eLearn security. My gripe with this, when I was talking about the buffer overflow, right, I think it's well known to them. I think a lot of other people have said, going through the courseware, going through PTP or that penetration testing professional course, right in the members area, right when you get started on the course, they start off with the system security module. And that one is the one that's all about, okay, reverse engineering and doing assembly and crafting that buffer overflow exploit. And that can be, I think, a little intimidating for the newcomers or some that are just getting started, because it's dirty, it's dark, you know, it's in assembly, it's in the weeds, it's in the stuff where you're not just flying through commands on a command line with your terminal and Cali and breezing through machines with throwing exploits and stuff that some of the other cool, okay, web app pen testing or network pen testing stuff that the rest of the course showcases. So I don't want that to take away from anyone that's just getting started, because hey, that system security module upfront, right in the center, maybe that's going to spook a few people, but only gripe really only gripe. Okay, now that all that's out of the way, let's talk about the cool stuff, the stuff that you guys really care about. Let's talk about the certification itself and the exam. So I started the exam, no, I submitted the exam on March 6. And I got my results back to me on March 16. So that was 10 days. I know they say, okay, it's going to take us maybe 30 business days, it'll take us 30 days to get back to you after reading your report and grading everything. I know some people have had, they've been stuck in limbo and been waiting for their exam to be graded and get the results back and they might just get up to like the brink of the 30 day period, or that might even take longer. So mine came through quickly, I guess 10 days, I know, offensive security offset will say, okay, it'll take us 10 business days at max to get back to you. Maybe 30 days is a lot, maybe it's because it's a much more thorough and real world report. From what I understand, I think it's just one guy that is reading and going through the report and grading it all. One guy. I know that's tough, right? So eLearn security is growing, they're getting bigger, they're getting their whole reputation in the industry and they're certifying, I don't know, word of mouth everyone is getting to know who that eLearn security company is, it's certifying body and their stuff is great. Maybe okay, let's amp up that team. Maybe we could add a few more people that are going through and reviewing some of these so we can knock out those grades faster for people and getting the exam results back because 30 days, maybe it's a long time and I know some people that have been waiting for longer than that. Okay, so I want to be as transparent with you guys as I can be. I want to showcase to you everything that I can. I want to showcase, here's some of the files, this is kind of like my file structure for while I was going through the exam. Take notes, that's my always like go to advice, best advice, take as much notes as you can, organize things by the box and the machine that you're working against, have folders set up for each, keep track of your scans, keep track of everything that you can. One thing that I recommend to people and I know it's not an issue for the eLearn security guys is go ahead and screen record. You're going to need to have screenshots for your report as many as you can include. So there's no problem in like, okay, keep track of everything that you're working on all of your work while you're going through the exam. If you have that screen record going, you can go back to it and say, oh, when I forgot to accidentally grab this screenshot, I overlooked it. I didn't realize, crap, I wanted that screenshot. You've got the footage and you can go back to it. So one thing that I want to do and I'm actually kind of both weirded out by this and kind of excited for it is I want to showcase my exam footage, right, spooky, scary, but I'm speeding it up and I'm blurring it. So hopefully there are no secrets leaked. There's nothing bad in that, but I want to include that here, just kind of off the side so you guys can see this is a applicable, practical, hands-on exam. And that's what eLearn security is all about, doing the real world stuff and being on keyboard. So I want to showcase that. It's off to the side. I'll just let that go for the video. And then you can see, like, this is real stuff. This is really what we're talking about. This is the depth and how much goes into it, how much the exam could take, right, on the keyboard, real, real stuff. I do want to drive the point home that this whole thing is all about learning, right? It's all about bettering yourself. It's all about sharpening your skill, educating yourself. And I want to say that that doesn't stop. Even when you get to the exam, it's a test, right? It's going to be testing you even on things that you might not have had exposure to before. The course is going to give you all the concepts. The course is going to give you all the mentality, the methodology, but you still got to do your own research and be that hacker, or that penetration tester, that red teamer. So, I mean, even taking the test, like the first initial foothold was something that I hadn't seen before, like that technique, kind of that vulnerability, or that avenue to gain command execution was something that I hadn't seen before. And I'm like, wow, this is really cool. Like, I'm having fun. And that's, I don't know why I enjoy doing these practical hands-on ones, because it's going to be so much more retained and so much more value than something like a multiple choice test or some rote memorization thing. So, I love that a lot. And I want to talk about the reporting, right? Because you can probably see in the video kind of going off of the side. It's like I'm taking notes and I'm writing my reports while I'm going through the exam. So, that might be just me taking a page out of my experience with a ton of off-sec certs and courses, because they always require a report. And now, eLearn Security for this certification, this exam, and the others going forward do as well. With that in mind, eLearn Security needs a much more thorough report. It needs like the real vulnerability classifications between what OWASP will say or what the CVE is or the CWE. Or what significance does this cause? How critical is this? How can this be mitigated or mediated or patched in the future so this isn't going to happen later on? How can this company, how can this business or this corporation actually take this penetration test and improve because of that? So, that's going to be left up to you. That's left up to the person taking the test, taking the exam to go do that research and learn, okay, I found this vulnerability. How can I defend against it? How can I patch this? How can I make sure that this doesn't happen again in the future? So, that report's going to be much more thorough and more than what you've been doing if you've been taking some other certifications. I know off-sec requires it. And between what I've said in other videos, I always say write your report while you're doing the exam, while you're taking the test, while you're going through all that steps and doing the penetration test. My opinion doesn't change on that. Still take your notes, write your report while you're going through it. And that might be hard to do in this because it's asking you to include that defensive stuff, get really in depth on what this vulnerability is, what classification does it have in the MITRE framework, what MITRE attack, TTP does this map against, etc. I still think having your, I guess what I called like my exploitation narrative or while I'm going through all the steps, you're writing down what I did, how I did it, what commands I entered, etc. I still think having that step-by-step sort of walk-through that you're pouring in is going to help you. I actually, when I wrote my report, I had both in there. I did what I would normally, I guess in my mind, I consider what I would normally do for a regular, I hate to say it, but off-sec report, right? Where I discuss and close, disclose everything that I did, step-by-step to walk through my exploitation. And that's my narrative. That's my write-up in all, like, that's the best word for it, I think. In all, what is that phrase that I'm trying to think of? In all intents and purposes. Yeah, that's right. It's my write-up. So with that, I would also add in the other sections and what the eLearn security wanted for their formal report, getting the defensive perspective in there. How can I patch or remediate these vulnerabilities? What really is this vulnerability? What is the significance or impact of what this does and what it can do? How could it be leveraged in other ways? And they require to be really, really that in depth. So I want to showcase actually a snippet of my report. Right, let me show you what my report looked like. It was, what a, let me check the page number here. 85 pages. So 85 pages for my ECPPT report. I don't know if that's the same for everyone. Maybe yours is going to be significantly less. Maybe yours is going to be significantly more. Again, I went through and wrote this all in Markdown. I've covered that in plenty of other videos where I just take notes, write everything in Markdown, then use the icevogel.tech or pandoc thing to convert it in delay tech and make it that PDF. Because you all require to submit this as a PDF. Another point related to the reporting is that because you're asked to do a full and thorough penetration test, you don't just include, okay, everything that you did to get root. Right, you need to go look at all of the other vulnerabilities that might be present on that web server, on that database, on that machine that you've gained access to. You want to have the coverage and track down every single hole in crevice that you can. So it's not just as straightforward. You want to be the professional. You want to be writing a professional report that's for a professional pen test that makes you a professional pen tester. So you cover everything. Don't forget to go look at all of those other vulnerabilities that you might not have used to escalate your privileges or actually gain an initial foothold. But you want to be able to include, I also see SQL injection over here. I also see cross-site scripting over here. I also see local file inclusion over here. I also can tell that I can privisk with this set UID binary, whatever the case may be, right? And on that note, since I mentioned the privisk, obviously you need to get to the core center of the network and own it, become root, compromise that machine. And that is the passing criteria to be able to actually say, you completed it and successfully accomplished everything that you needed to to pass the exam, pass the test and get the certification. What that requires and what I really like about this is ECPPT and eLearn security stuff is it's about understanding the software and the technology and the programming language that's being used in an application and why it's working the way that it does and how you can abuse it yourself. Like what technique, what trick, what can you unveil or unravel about the application that can allow you to manipulate it and escalate your privileges or abuse it to get code execution or reach local files, whatever the case may be. It's more than, oh geez, so this is where I get to answering the questions that I know people are lurking in the back of their mind or the obvious elephant in the room because people are always comparing and looking at these certifications, everything that's out there and saying like, why should I take this one rather than this one or how can this prepare me for this or what do I do? Obviously you are up to compare ECPPT and OSCP, so eLearn security and offensive security stuff. Again, want to be impartial, I'm disclaimer, I'm trying to be as unbiased as I can be because I am just some guy out there on the internet that's doing these as well. I'm just a surveyor, I'm just hopefully someone in the community that can talk about my opinion in my experience and offer my input. So I think when you're trying to compare these two, you can't, you're comparing apples and oranges. Obviously they're different tests, but not so much that, they're testing you on different things. Like OSCP is there to test you on can you look at this software, identify the software name and the software version number, and then go research and find a vulnerability and exploit. You can pull off the shelf, adjust some IP and like the target victim IP address and the port number, fire it off and see if it works, adjust it as needed. eLearn security ECPPT is testing you on understanding that program, understanding that language that it's running in and knowing what to do when something is strange and odd and being able to do that yourself. OSCP's different tests and they're asking you to do different things. One is asking you to research, one is asking you to explore and tinker and break and manipulate and they're just different. So when people ask me should I use this as a jumping point to go take another certification and you can switch and swap what certification goes in which spot in there. Can I use X to prepare for Y or Y to prepare for X? In my opinion, I think that someone who has gone through all of the material and has taken the ECPPT exam and passed it, they could go and take OSCP without studying, without looking at their material, without going through the course and they could pass right away. They could breeze through it, instant go through. I don't think that it's true the other way around. Vice versa, I don't think that someone that has gone through all the material for OSCP could do this for ECPPT. That's because of the pivoting, that's because of the understanding of the languages and the understanding of the programming. Again, just my opinion, I think that what ECPPT asks of you is more so than what OSCP asks of you. My opinion might be wrong, just wanting to share that is my take on it. I think that one taking this exam could go take the other without a problem, not the other way around. That's my pick on that. Unbiased, disclaimer, not trying to bash or point fingers to do anything. Just when I weigh these two in my hand, in my head, and in my hands figuratively, that's what I think. Does it help you prepare for OSCP? Absolutely. Does OSCP help prepare you for this? Absolutely. Where does CEH work? Where does PEN Test Plus work? Where do all these other certifications go? They're all different. They're all testing you for different things. This one I think asks a lot of you and you'll get a lot of value and worthwhile learning and education out of it. When people say, should I go for the certification? Should I look at eLearn security stuff? My immediate answer is, yeah, duh, obviously, look at all this. So should you go for the certification? Do you feel like you're not ready for it? Do you feel like you're not prepared? That doesn't matter. You're never going to feel prepared. You're never going to feel like, oh, I've studied for X, I've studied for Y for so long and I still don't feel like I'm ready for it. It doesn't matter. Jump in, do it, take it. And if you fail, that's okay because now you know what you're up against. Now you can take it again, get that real take in, and just cruise right through it because now you know what to study. Now you know what more to prepare for. Now you know the gaps in the holes that you need to fill to expand your learning, to expand your knowledge. That's my take. That's my cut. Okay. With this, obviously I'm comparing again and some certifications, some tests are they're limiting you to a day, they're limiting you to two days. This exam ECPPT gives you seven days, gives you a whole week to work inside the exam environment and to break stuff, be the pentester, exploit the machines and compromise your end target. Seven days after the fact to write your report. So a lot of time, pretty generous and not extremely stressful like some others might be. You don't lose as much sleep over it as you would. And it's very real world in that sense, right? Because it's going to give you an actual legitimate amount of time to go look at the network and to go write your report. When people ask me, like, hey John, how long did it take you to go through the exam? I think I split it up into like two days because the first day when I jumped into it I was having a lot of fun, like I feel like I got into a lot of different boxes or found a lot of little holes and vulnerabilities that I could work with and then when I, I don't know, I ran out of steam and put it away for a little bit and came back to it a few days later. Having the footage, again, having the video footage just being a godsend, I looked through that and I guess calculating and measuring how long all the videos took and all that screen recording, that's a total of like 12 hours and almost 12 and a half hours. So I guess that is how long it took me on like real actual time on the keyboard. But writing the report was a much more significant time sink again because of how much we needed to pour into it to make it that thorough professional penetration testing report. I think I took almost five, six the whole week for that just to get that in. And I mean, you could see it. I think it was February 25th if you saw on the video when I started the exam and submitted the report on March 6th. So it's not something to take lightly and I'm not trying to say any of those numbers or days just a boast or anything. It's just I want you to see everything. I want you to be as in the know as you can be and I want to share everything that I can with you so you are much more aware and understanding. So okay. I've been talking for a while. I want to wrap this up. Last thoughts, parting notes. You guys know me, right? You know I'm a big fan of eLearn security and this PTP course and the ECPPT certification exam. It was honestly just a lot of fun. You know, I love the practical hands-on application based exams and tests and challenges. And this was no exception. Being able to pivot and use auto route and Sox proxy and port forward and all those crazy cool things. I don't see that anywhere else and eLearn security just hits the nail on the head with that. Same thing with all of their potential privests and vulnerabilities. I'm learning about things that I hadn't seen before and being able to do that both in the course and outside of the course even in the exam is really, really cool. So when people say, hey, do you recommend this? Yeah. Yeah, I do recommend this. I think you should go for it and I think you should check out some of the other eLearn security certs. I hope I can maybe roll through like PTX next. The penetration tests are extreme and hopefully roll through some of those others in that network penetration testing path that they have there. We got EJPT out of the way. We got ECPPT out of the way. What else do you guys want to see? Should we see PTX? Should we move on like, hey, do some web pen testing to some of their mobile stuff? They got so much stuff and I love it. So I hope you guys do as well. If you're curious about this course, if you're curious about the certification exam, go check it out. I hope this video helps you learn a little bit. Hope you get a little bit of insight as to what it really looks like and what someone who's taken the test and what they can share with you and give their opinion and review. So I hope you study. I hope you take a lot of notes. I hope you screen record. I hope you just dive into it and learn as much as you can and absorb and take notes. Man, I can't say it enough. You always want to take away something that you can use in the future. You want to encapsulate and capture what you're working on, what you've worked with, what you can use later on when you see a similar bug or vulnerability or exploit or something that you've, you know you worked with before. That's why you probably saw earlier in my folders, I saved all of the videos, all of the slides, all the PDFs, all the presentations that they can give and even everything that I covered going through the exam. So capture it all, be a sponge, absorb everything and I hope you guys enjoyed. So thank you guys so much for watching. If you did like this video, please do press that like button. I'd love to see you guys leave a comment. I appreciate constructive criticism, feedback. What do you think? What do you think about this ECPPT? I worried I got the number of letters wrong again. It was going to be ECPPTTT. What do you think about the course, PTP? What do you think about it, comparison to other certifications? What are you going to tackle next? Have you taken the certification? What other ones are you interested in? I want to hear from you. Love to see you guys on the Discord server. There is a link in the description. I'd be so grateful if you could subscribe, help out the YouTube algorithm a little bit. Love to see you guys on Patreon and PayPal if you're willing to support. Thank you and LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, all the other silly social media stuff. All righty. Thank you guys so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed this video. It took a little bit of time to put it together, but I'll see you in the next one. Thanks. Take care, guys.