Updated in May 2025.
This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. In this course, you'll learn to install VMware and create a virtual environment with both hacker and target labs. You'll master advanced information gathering and reconnaissance in both active and passive modes, and receive templates and guides for professionally storing data. Using this data: - You'll conduct vulnerability assessments and leverage the Metasploit framework for easier exploitation, while also learning manual techniques. - You'll tackle security on custom websites with vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, unrestricted file uploads, command injection, and brute forcing. - Post-exploitation methods with and without Metasploit, as well as manual privilege escalation techniques, will help you gain full root/admin access. The final section focuses on writing professional penetration testing reports. By the end, you'll be ready for professional penetration testing. This course is ideal for those curious about hacking, aspiring pentesters, and students exploring security testing. Basic Linux, networking, and hacking knowledge are advantageous.