This is my review of the Cybrary course, Python for Security Professionals, For starters, I really appreciate the Cybrary.it model, the lessons are free and you can aquire a certificate of completion (which could help validate the 15 CPEs the course may be worth, if you want to justify that kind of thing) if you like at the end. However, the entire site model is interesting in that you can "complete" the courses (lol in fact, I've "completed" all the courses), and purchase the relevant certificate, without ever having clicked the video links. That seemingly large security mistake sort of invalidates the certificates, as anyone can obviously say the've completed the course and have the certificate without having done so. All of that aside, I really like the thought of free education material and we shall now be delving into this content of the Python for Security Professionals course. Like my other reviews, I'm planning to review the material and recommend this based in your experience and time commitment. The course contains 10 hours of video content, which are pretty decent especially if you want to learn Python from scratch, but slightly less so if you want to learn the nuances of Information Security. All the modules are video focused, but have PDFs of slides, activities in python programs, and the completed methods to the activities in python programs. Overall, the initial four modules are extremely basic and mostly just cover programming in python vs security specific tasks. Another issue is that currently all of the videos are pretty blurry and it's hard to read the code / command line utilized in the video series. Because of this you have to view the videos in HD, nonetheless they address this in the comments and mention how they will be re-releasing the videos in a higher resolution. By the end of the weekend, I'd recommend this course to a person who is attempting to understand Python from scratch with an Information Security focus, however for someone with increased of a background in Python, I would actually recommend a text more like Black Hat Python, for more of an Information Security focus. Nevertheless, even if you are familiar with Python and Information Security, you could find the last two modules interesting (The Packet Gathering Module and the Info Gathering Module).
The very first module, Intro and Setup, is pretty basic and be easily skipped when you have any prior Python experience. Here he goes over how to setup and install Python, as well as why it's an excellent language for rapid prototyping and security professionals.
Another module, Apprentice Python, is also very basic and still doesn't touch on anything security related. This module is all about basic usage and arithmetic in Python. There is also a stumbling block in the 2nd video, as it's only a little odd when he googles for solutions and then reads stack overflow during the tutorial.
The Journeyman Python module is interesting, but nevertheless doesn't delve into anything necessarily Information Security specific. In this module he talks a great deal about networking protocols and RFCs that govern these. These modules are interesting in that they're informative, but fairly incomplete in the information they relay, a good example of this would be when he starts speaing frankly about ports and protocols he doesn't differentiate which transport protocol the application form protocols are traveling over, despite discussing the differences involving the TCP and UDP transport protocols. In this chapter you are shown you how to connect to arbitrary TCP ports, that could be useful for banner grabbing. The final activity in this module shows you how to be controlled by a TCP port and thus create your personal arbitrary file server, however these lack really any security controls.
With Advanced Python he covers ctypes, regular expressions, multi-threading, and finally fuzzing. The multi-threading exercise in this module is pretty interesting, but nevertheless nothing really advanced, only a quick launching of multiple independent threads (vs something that's to think about deadlocks). The fuzzing section is also pretty interesting as this can be quite a core Information Security technique, so I appreciate the videos for Slides part 3, jperry even alludes to a load overflow in this video. Unfortunately, he also says fairly uneducated things like fuzzing and password cracking are similar in theory (the technique of bruteforce might be similar, but that hardly scratches the theory involved in either subject) or that writing a code cracker is against the CFAA, which is unquestionably false as industry professionals use password cracking all the time in penetration testing (trafficking hacked information or the actual act of hacking another person's system is illegal, not writing a code cracker). In this module's activities he also writes a fairly insecure file server implementation. I say it's insecure not as it lets you arbitrary read / write to a whole drive, but as it uses no authentication or encryption to safeguard the communications, meaning anyone could trivially hijack your fileserver activities.
Packet Analyzer module is where things get really cool. Simply two, jperry starts implementing an IP protocol parser and demonstrates bitwise manipulation to read exact fields out of the protocol. This is a pretty awesome tutorial for writing a network protocol parser in Python and something I would truly call Python for Security Professionals. I recommend this section for those interested in obtaining a more in depth handle of protocols and automated parsers.
The Info Gathering module is also really interesting, as here jperry writes an instant post-exploitation RAT in Python for Windows. This is excellent and where the class really starts digginging into the Python placed on security specific applications. I like where he uses python to parse the Windows registry key values, this is super useful for various security applications. Overall, I think this is a pretty good Python for Security Professionals video. This module also covers a lot of the content from the Post Exploitation Hacking course in this script. I recommend this module for moderately experienced hackers looking to begin writing their particular implants https://www.scamrisk.com/cybrary-review/.
Overall, the modules were done well and I appreciate the relaxed approach of the course and exercises. Nevertheless, I think the whole course is ideal for someone trying to understand Python from scratch, however in the event that you already are a newcomer Python / Information Security enthusiast you must checkout something more like Black Hat Python, and even if you are well versed with Python and Information Security you could find the last two modules interesting. In terms of Cybrary.it, I really appreciate what they are doing with free education, I think this is a great program and it deserves plenty of support, however I don't think the certifications are worth anything, based on the not enough business-logic security preventing anyone from just acquiring the certificates and never having to feel the courses.
