CompTIA PenTest+
CompTIA PenTest+ covers the practical penetration testing skills measured by the PT0-003 exam. Participants study engagement management, reconnaissance and enumeration, vulnerability discovery and analysis, attacks and exploits, post-exploitation, and lateral movement.
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Description
CompTIA PenTest+ covers the practical penetration testing skills measured by the PT0-003 exam.
Participants study engagement management, reconnaissance and enumeration, vulnerability discovery and analysis, attacks and exploits, post-exploitation, and lateral movement.
Training typically combines guided instruction with hands-on exercises that follow a test lifecycle: planning scope, gathering information, using appropriate tools and techniques, validating findings, and preparing clear reports.
After completion, participants should be better prepared to assess systems ethically, communicate risk to stakeholders, and continue toward CompTIA PenTest+ certification.
What You Will Learn
CompTIA PenTest+ Course Content
This course follows the current CompTIA PenTest+ PT0-003 exam domains: engagement management, reconnaissance and enumeration, vulnerability discovery and analysis, attacks and exploits, and post-exploitation and lateral movement. Learning combines instructor-led teaching, guided labs, tool output review, scripting tasks, and report-writing exercises.
Module 1: Engagement Management and Reporting
Scope definition, rules of engagement, testing windows, exclusions, and escalation paths.
Legal and ethical requirements, authorization letters, NDAs, MSAs, statements of work, and terms of service.
Use of OSSTMM, CREST, PTES, MITRE ATT&CK, OWASP Top 10, OWASP MASVS, STRIDE, DREAD, and OCTAVE.
Penetration test reports, risk scoring, executive summaries, attack narratives, findings, and remediation guidance.
Module 2: Reconnaissance and Enumeration
Passive and active reconnaissance, OSINT, DNS review, certificate transparency logs, banner grabbing, web crawling, and network sniffing.
Enumeration of hosts, services, directories, shares, users, wireless networks, permissions, secrets, APIs, and WAF origin addresses.
Use of tools such as Nmap, NSE, Wireshark, tcpdump, theHarvester, Recon-ng, Shodan, Censys.io, Maltego, Amass, WHOIS, nslookup, dig, and Aircrack-ng.
Module 3: Vulnerability Discovery and Analysis
Network, host, application, mobile, container, wireless, authenticated, unauthenticated, and secrets scanning.
DAST, IAST, SAST, SCA, source code analysis, Infrastructure as Code review, and ICS assessment concepts.
Scan validation, false positives, false negatives, CVE, CWE, CVSS, EPSS, and exploit selection.
Tools may include Nessus, Greenbone OpenVAS, Nikto, TruffleHog, BloodHound, Grype, Trivy, and Kube-hunter.
Module 4: Attacks, Exploits, and Scripting
Network, authentication, host-based, web application, cloud, wireless, social engineering, IoT, mobile, AI, OT, NFC, RFID, and Bluetooth attack concepts.
Use and interpretation of tools such as Metasploit, msfvenom, Netcat, Impacket, CrackMapExec, Responder, Hydra, hashcat, John the Ripper, Burp Suite, Mimikatz, Rubeus, Pacu, Prowler, ScoutSuite, Scapy, Caldera, Infection Monkey, and Atomic Red Team.
Basic Bash, Python, and PowerShell scripting for reconnaissance, validation, and attack automation.
Module 5: Post-exploitation, Lateral Movement, and Cleanup
Persistence methods, reverse shells, bind shells, account creation, registry keys, C2 concepts, and web shells.
Pivoting, relay creation, credential capture, SMB, RDP, SSH, LDAP, RPC, WMI, WinRM, LOLBins, Proxychains, sshuttle, PsExec, and Metasploit.
Staging, controlled exfiltration concepts, artifact preservation, removal of tester-created credentials, removal of tools, infrastructure shutdown, and secure data destruction.
Certification & Exam
Certification: This course prepares participants for the CompTIA PenTest+ certification exam, currently PT0-003. Certification is earned by registering for and passing the CompTIA exam, not by course attendance alone.
The exam includes a maximum of 90 questions, with both multiple-choice and performance-based tasks that assess practical penetration testing skills. Candidates have 165 minutes to complete the exam and must achieve a passing score of 750 on CompTIA’s 100-900 scale.
CompTIA recommends 3 to 4 years in a penetration tester role before attempting the exam.
See the official CompTIA PenTest+ certification page for current exam details.
What You Will Achieve
After completing this CompTIA PenTest+ course, participants should be able to complete the following outcomes in line with the PT0-003 exam objectives.
Plan and scope a penetration testing engagement by defining authorization, rules of engagement, testing limits, communication paths, and legal or compliance requirements.
Apply reconnaissance and enumeration methods using OSINT, DNS analysis, service discovery, and tools such as Nmap, Nmap Scripting Engine, Wireshark/tcpdump, Maltego, Shodan, and theHarvester.
Analyze vulnerability scan results to identify true positives, assess business and technical risk, and prioritize findings for further testing.
Perform authorized attacks and exploits against network, web application, wireless, cloud, and hybrid environments while following agreed engagement rules.
Use penetration testing tools and techniques for vulnerability discovery, exploitation, post-exploitation, lateral movement, and evidence collection.
Evaluate scripts, code samples, and tool output to support reconnaissance, vulnerability analysis, and exploitation tasks.
Create a professional penetration test report that documents scope, methods, evidence, risk impact, findings, and practical remediation recommendations for technical and non-technical audiences.
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