Table of contents
This is my personal journey that I'm sharing on how I managed to pass the exam. I made sure to understand the exam objectives, sections, and sub-sections, and determine how many days I needed to prepare for the course and take the exam.
I started preparing for this exam sincerely from mid-February 2024, and I had it scheduled for April 26th, 2024. I took the On-Demand course as it was sponsored by my previous company. With On-Demand, candidates have 120 days to finish the course and, if they choose, they can take the exam.
I got 2 practice test attempts when I bought this course. They are really helpful and will give you an idea of what the real exam will look like. It's a great way to test your learning. I failed my 1st practice test, scoring 50%, but in my 2nd attempt, I scored 74%. The best way to score higher marks is in the labs. I practiced every lab topic from the exam objectives twice to feel confident for the real exam. This really helped boost my confidence after failing my 1st practice attempt.
I read questions thoroughly twice to understand them well and logically answer them. At one point during the real exam, I found it incredibly tough to answer the questions, but I didn't want to give up. This determination somehow helped me pass the exam with 77%. I personally consider this relatively low. The MCQs were extremely tough and tested knowledge in depth. However, the labs were interesting and fun. I got all 7 labs correct, and I believe that's why I was able to pass the exam.
Below, I will list the exam objectives, exam pattern, and every module in each section. These will help you prepare better for the course and exam.
Exam Objectives:
Theory Section:
Web Application Overview
Web Application Testing Tools
Reconnaissance and Mapping
Web Application Configuration Testing
Web Application Session Management
Web Application Authentication Attacks
Web Application SQL Injection Attacks
Cross Site Request Forgery, Cross Site Scripting and Client Injection Attack
Labs/CyberLive:
CyberLive GWAPT Metasploit
CyberLive GWAPT Fuzzing
CyberLive GWAPT Command Injection/File Inclusion
CyberLive GWAPT Authentication
CyberLive GWAPT SQL Injection
CyberLive GWAPT Spidering
Exam Pattern:
75 MCQs + 7 Cyber Live Labs = 82 Questions. 180 Minutes.
Theory Topics: 50 Labs: 28
Section 1: Introduction & Information Gathering (Theory)
Web Overview
Application Assessment Methodologies
Web Application Penetration Tester Toolkit
Interception Proxies
OSINT
Virtual Host Discovery
HTTP Syntax and Semantics
HTTPS and Testing for Weak Ciphers
Target Profiling
Section 1: Introduction & Information Gathering (Labs)
Configuring Interception Proxies
Virtual Host Discovery
Testing HTTPS
Gathering Server Information
Section 2: Content Discovery, Authentication, and Session Testing (Theory)
Insufficient Logging & Monitoring
Spidering Web Applications (Crawling)
Forced Browsing
Fuzzing
Information Leakage
Authentication
Username Harvesting
Burp Intruder
Session Management
Authentication & Authorisation Bypass
Vulnerable Web Apps: Mutillidae
Section 2: Content Discovery, Authentication, and Session Testing (Labs)
Web Spidering (Crawling)
ZAP & ffuf Forced Browse
Authentication
Username Harvesting/Enumeration
Fuzzing with Burp Intruder
Burp Sequencer
Authentication Bypass
Section 3: Injection (Theory)
HTTP Response Security Controls
Command Injection
File Inclusion & Directory Traversal
Insecure Deserialisation
SQL Injection Primer
Discovering SQLi
Exploiting SQLi
SQLi Tools
Section 3: Injection (Labs)
Command Injection
Local/Remote File Inclusion
Insecure Deserialisation
Error-Based SQLi
sqlmap + zap
Section 4: XSS, SSRF, & XXE (Theory)
Document Object Model (DOM)
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Primer
XSS Impacts
BeEF
Classes of XSS
Discovering XSS
XSS Tools
AJAX
Data Attacks
REST & SOAP
Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
XML External Entity (XXE)
Section 4: XSS, SSRF, & XXE (Labs)
HTML Injection
BeEF
DOM-Based XSS
XSS
Server-Side Request Forgery
XML External Entities (XXE)
Section 5: CSRF, Logic Flaws, & Advanced Tools (Theory)
Cross-Site Request Forgery
Logic Flaws
Python for Web App Pen Testers
WPScan and ExploitDB
Burp Scanner
Metasploit
Nuclei
When Tools Fail
Business of Pen-testing: Preparation
Business of Pen-testing: Post Assessment
Section 5: CSRF, Logic Flaws, & Advanced Tools (Labs)
Cross-Site Request Forgery
Python for Web App Pen Testers
WPScan and ExploitDB
Metasploit
Nuclei and Jenkins
When tools fail