This is my personal review of the Offensive Security Web Expert Exam Certification (WEB-300 course) I accomplished on the 12/10/2021.
Given that there are already plenty of these, I would like to focus on a small number of things that made a difference to perform well during the exam, hopefully helping you as well.
Exam Preparation
0x1: During the course walkthroughs there are plenty of images to follow the exploitation flow. This information is sometimes not enough to illustrate all the exploitation chain, so whenever possible, try to do your own search and study through the code to make sure you follow and understand it.
0x2: Enumerate and take notes on all the vulnerability categories present on the course. Some are easier to understand than others, but if you can map the vulnerabilities to their respective attack scope, it will help you understand which vulnerabilities make sense to find or exploit given your current situation.
As an example, if you are trying to bypass authentication you might consider searching for SQL Injection vulnerabilities in the code.
0x3: When exploiting or finding vulnerabilities there are some tools referenced within the course that can help you craft an exploit. Make sure to take notes of those and get used to them.
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0x4: All the extra exercises are worth doing, specially if you don’t have a strong programming background. It will put your new knowledge to the test.
0x5: There are explanations and references to some approach methodologies on finding vulnerabilities in source code. You can have your own custom methodology based on the ones provided, but make sure to test them out in the lab to prepare for exam.
0x6: For each programming language and vulnerability category, there are what’s called “low hanging fruits”. These are vulnerabilities that are usually known to be low effort to check/find and can lead to exploitation. Make sure you enumerate and make use of those, it can help progress faster.
0x7: All the material you gathered and created during your lab time can be useful in the exam. Try to build your own script templates, based on the various vulnerability categories, in order to facilitate and save time when creating exploitation chains.
0x8: Idealize and plan a time schedule for your breaks during the 48h exam. This will help you to evaluate your progress while at the same time avoiding exam burnout.
0x9: Read and re-read the Exam requisites and rules, you don’t want to fail cause you violated a rule.
Personal Verdict on Course and Exam
Overall this was the most challenging and rewarding certification I did until now. I have been doing web application assessments for while now and still there was plenty of room to learn and improve. Offensive Security really has a very high quality material.
When in doubt: Try harder!