Certified Penetration Testing Professional

The published domains and objectives for CPENT. Your missions come from these objectives, and your progress is recorded against them.

• 7%

  M01

  Introduction to Penetration Testing and Methodologies

  • M01.F01Penetration-testing principles and objectives
  • M01.F02Methodologies and structured frameworks
  • M01.F03Practice guidelines for dependable engagements
  • M01.F04AI-assisted work across penetration-testing phases
  • M01.F05Compliance-aware penetration testing
  • M01.F06Self-study placement: penetration-testing essential concepts

• 7%

  M02

  Penetration Testing Scoping and Engagement

  • M02.F01Pre-engagement preparation
  • M02.F02Responding to requests for proposal
  • M02.F03Rules of engagement
  • M02.F04Legal and regulatory engagement constraints
  • M02.F05Engagement resources and tooling
  • M02.F06Scope-creep management

• 6%

  M03

  Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Attack Surface Mapping

  • M03.F01Domain-focused open-source intelligence
  • M03.F02Web-based organizational intelligence
  • M03.F03Employee-focused open-source intelligence
  • M03.F04Automated OSINT collection and validation
  • M03.F05Attack-surface mapping

• 4%

  M04

  Social Engineering Penetration Testing

  • M04.F01Social-engineering assessment concepts
  • M04.F02Off-site social-engineering assessment
  • M04.F03On-site social-engineering assessment
  • M04.F04Findings and countermeasure reporting

• 16%

  M05

  Web Application Penetration Testing

  • M05.F01Web footprinting and enumeration
  • M05.F02Web vulnerability scanning
  • M05.F03Deployment and configuration testing
  • M05.F04Identity, authentication, and authorization testing
  • M05.F05Session-management testing
  • M05.F06Input-validation testing
  • M05.F07SQL injection testing
  • M05.F08Non-SQL injection testing
  • M05.F09Improper error-handling analysis
  • M05.F10Weak cryptography analysis
  • M05.F11Business-logic testing
  • M05.F12Client-side security testing
  • M05.F13Self-study placement: database penetration testing
  • M05.F14Self-study placement: mobile-device penetration testing

• 9%

  M06

  API and Java Web Token Penetration Testing

  • M06.F01API reconnaissance
  • M06.F02API authentication and authorization testing
  • M06.F03JSON Web Token security testing
  • M06.F04API input validation and injection testing
  • M06.F05API security-misconfiguration testing
  • M06.F06Rate-limit and denial-of-service controls
  • M06.F07GraphQL security testing
  • M06.F08API workflow, business-logic, and session testing

• 4%

  M07

  Perimeter Defense Evasion Techniques

  • M07.F01Firewall implementation assessment
  • M07.F02Intrusion-detection implementation assessment
  • M07.F03Router security assessment
  • M07.F04Switch security assessment

• 10%

  M08

  Windows Exploitation and Privilege Escalation

  • M08.F01Windows penetration-testing methodology
  • M08.F02Windows reconnaissance
  • M08.F03Windows vulnerability assessment and exploit verification
  • M08.F04Initial access to Windows systems
  • M08.F05Enumeration from a Windows user context
  • M08.F06Windows privilege escalation
  • M08.F07Windows post-exploitation actions
  • M08.F08Self-study placement: Metasploit framework
  • M08.F09Self-study placement: PowerShell scripting

• 6%

  M09

  Active Directory Penetration Testing

  • M09.F01Active Directory architecture and components
  • M09.F02Active Directory reconnaissance
  • M09.F03Active Directory enumeration
  • M09.F04Active Directory vulnerability exploitation
  • M09.F05AI-assisted Active Directory testing

• 9%

  M10

  Linux Exploitation and Privilege Escalation

  • M10.F01Linux exploitation methodology
  • M10.F02Linux reconnaissance and vulnerability scanning
  • M10.F03Initial access to Linux systems
  • M10.F04Linux privilege escalation
  • M10.F05Self-study placement: Bash scripting
  • M10.F06Self-study placement: Python scripting
  • M10.F07Self-study placement: Perl scripting
  • M10.F08Self-study placement: Ruby scripting

• 4%

  M11

  Reverse Engineering, Fuzzing, and Binary Exploitation

  • M11.F01Linux binary-analysis concepts and methodology
  • M11.F02Windows binary-analysis methodology
  • M11.F03Buffer-overflow exploitation
  • M11.F04Application fuzzing concepts and tools

• 2%

  M12

  Lateral Movement and Pivoting

  • M12.F01Advanced lateral movement
  • M12.F02Advanced pivoting and tunneling

• 11%

  M13

  IoT Penetration Testing

  • M13.F01IoT penetration-testing foundations
  • M13.F02IoT information gathering and attack-surface mapping
  • M13.F03IoT firmware analysis
  • M13.F04IoT software analysis
  • M13.F05IoT network and protocol security
  • M13.F06IoT post-exploitation and persistence
  • M13.F07IoT reporting
  • M13.F08Self-study placement: wireless penetration testing
  • M13.F09Self-study placement: OT and SCADA penetration testing
  • M13.F10Self-study placement: cloud penetration testing

• 5%

  M14

  Report Writing and Post-Testing Actions

  • M14.F01Report purpose and structure
  • M14.F02Essential report components
  • M14.F03Report-development phases
  • M14.F04Report delivery
  • M14.F05Post-testing organizational actions