GPEN (GIAC Penetration Tester) (GPEN) Exam Blueprint

The candidate will be able to demonstrate the fundamental concepts associated with pen-testing, and utilize a process-oriented approach to penetration testing and reporting.

The candidate will be able to use the appropriate technique to scan a network for potential targets, and to conduct port, operating system and service version scans and analyze the results.

The candidate will be able to demonstrate the fundamental concepts associated with the exploitation phase of a pentest.

The candidate will be able to demonstrate the fundamental concepts of exploitation, data exfiltration from compromised hosts and pivoting to exploit other hosts within a target network.

The candidate will demonstrate an understanding of Entra ID implementation fundamentals, common Entra ID attacks, and Azure authentication techniques.

The candidate will demonstrate an understanding of Azure applications and the attacks against them including federated and single sign-on environments and Azure AD authentication protocols.

The candidate will understand types of password attacks, formats, defenses, and the circumstances under which to use each password attack variation. The candidate will be able to conduct password guessing attacks.

The candidate will understand the fundamental concepts of reconnaissance and will understand how to obtain basic, high level information about the target organization and network, often considered information leakage, including but not limited to technical and non technical public contacts, IP address ranges, document formats, and supported systems.

The candidate will be able to conduct vulnerability scans and analyze the results.

The candidate will demonstrate an understanding of common password hashes and formats for storing password data.

The candidate will be able to use additional methods to attack password hashes and authenticate.

The candidate will be able to obtain and attack password hashes and other password representations.

The candidate will demonstrate an understanding of the design, application, and use of Command and Control (C2) and common C2 Frameworks.

The candidate will demonstrate an understanding of common Windows privilege escalation attacks and Kerberos attack techniques that are used to consolidate and persist administrative access to Active Directory.

The candidate will demonstrate an understanding of attacks against Active Directory including Kerberos attacks.

The candidate will be able to use and configure the Metasploit Framework at an intermediate level.