Your first week
Seven days, one page a day. Each link is a lesson or a lab that is already on this site. Do them in order. Nothing here is permission to test a system you do not own.
Day 1 · 11 min lesson
Scope, authorization, and the point of the work
Read this before anything else. Ethical work starts with a written scope, a reason that serves the owner, and a stop when the scope ends. Later pages assume you already know that.
Day 2 · 12 min lesson
Threat modeling without the theater
Name what can go wrong, for whom, and what you would change. A threat model is how you decide which lesson is worth the next hour, instead of collecting tool names.
Day 3 · 13 min lesson
Lab environments you are allowed to break
A lab is an isolated place where failure is expected. This lesson separates a machine you own, a public range with published rules, and a system that is off limits.
Next day: Day 4, Scope desk
Day 4 · Browser lab
Scope desk
Eight situations. For each one, decide whether the work is in scope, needs a written change, or stops. The lesson was the rule. This is the call.
Next day: Day 5, Ports and protocols: TCP, UDP, common services, and what a listening port tells you
Day 5 · 12 min lesson
Ports and protocols: TCP, UDP, common services, and what a listening port tells you
TCP, UDP, and what a listening port tells you. The names in this lesson are the ones the packet lab uses, so read it before you try to put a page load in order.
Next day: Day 6, Phishing header analyzer
Day 6 · Browser lab
Phishing header analyzer
Three messages are already in the mailbox. Follow the Received hops and say why SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass or fail. Read the header before you call a message phishing.
Next day: Day 7, Packet flow puzzle
Day 7 · Browser lab
Packet flow puzzle
Put one HTTPS page load in order, from the DNS question to the first encrypted byte. You are arranging evidence the lab already collected. You are not sending traffic.
Next: After day seven
After day seven
- Keep goingFoundations is the path these reading days come from. Stay there if the vocabulary is still new.Open
- Pick a jobSix short paths. Each one ends in a lab you can talk through.Open
- More labsThe rest of the browser labs, including the engagement workstation.Open
After the week, write one finding.