Top all-time · #2498
Pentesterlab
Company blog · pentesterlab.com/blog · on HN as snyffsecurityprogramming
Pentesterlab is the company blog at pentesterlab.com, writing about security and programming. Since 2012, 29 different Hacker News readers have linked it 54 times, most often “PentesterLab”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (22) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Cited on HN as a hands-on web security training site with exercises, a bootcamp and a paid Pro tier; many commenters point people learning pentesting to it.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 22 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Learn advanced web hacking and security code review through real-world CVEs, vulnerable code, hands-on exploitation, and detailed technical walkthroughs.
Most-linked posts?
- PentesterLab10 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2014-07-15
- Free hands-on web penetration testing (hacking) training and exercises3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2014-07-15
- PentesterLab – Computer Hacking Bootcamp3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-01-30
- More free exercises3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-09-10
- Private Exercises Now Available with PentesterLab Pro2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-01-10
- CVE-2026-23993: JWT authentication bypass in HarbourJwt via "unknown alg"2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-01-23
- Learn Web Penetration Testing The Right Way2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-05-12
- The Guide to JWT Vulnerabilities and Attacks (With Exploitation Examples)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-06-05
- PentesterLab Bootcamp2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-12-30
What Hacker News says?
Check out this https://lab.pentestit.ru and https://www.reddit.com/r/securityCTF and https://pentesterlab.com/bootcamp Idk if this is what you are looking for. Here's an example of a write up for one of the labs https://lab.pentestit.ru/docs/TL8_WU_en.pdf
Comment linking /bootcamp
on “Penetration Testing Tools Cheat Sheet”Submitted Learn Web Penetration Testing The Right Way as a story · 151 points
HN discussionFor developers looking for application security information, I can't recommend PentesterLab[1] strongly enough. It has changed how we approach security education internally and has made going through security code reviews and penetration testing audits much less stressful. [1] https://www.pentesterlab.com/
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on “Security Checklist”Submitted From SQL injection to shell: PostgreSQL edition as a story · 30 points
HN discussionAnother one for all your keen folk: https://pentesterlab.com/exercises/ I've personally found them great as introductions for web-pentesting
Comment linking /exercises/
on “Exploit Exercises”Submitted PentesterLab Bootcamp as a story · 11 points
HN discussionWhy not try it out by start messing around with it and get a feel for it? But to answer your question: no, you don't. You already have more than enough prerequisites for an easier transition. https://pentesterlab.com https://portswigger.net/web-security Have fun! Edit: I'm completely self-taught and I've been working in the field for a few years. No dev or even IT background prior to getting into network pentesting…
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on “Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?”Submitted The Guide to JWT Vulnerabilities and Attacks (With Exploitation Examples) as a story · 6 points
HN discussionYou have a long but very interesting road before you. Infosec is huge. Lesley “hacks4pancakes” Carhart has a great series which provides an overview of what you can choose from: https://tisiphone.net/2015/10/12/starting-an-infosec-career-... If you're serious about infosec and not just want to run tools and call it a day, I suggest covering the basics first: - programming: would be cool if you learn not only some la…
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on “Ask HN: How did you get started in Network Security/Penetration Testing?”Submitted PentesterLab – Computer Hacking Bootcamp as a story · 5 points
HN discussionIn terms of languages I'd echo the sibling comment, Ruby or python are likely to be good choices. If you're looking for things to start getting into security type learning, you could do a lot worse than start with CTFs ( https://ctftime.org/ctf-wtf/ ) Whilst they're not identical to what you'll face as a security tester, they cover a lot of similar skills. Also you'll likely meet people in the industry by doing them…
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on “Ask HN: How did you get started in Network Security/Penetration Testing?”Submitted Free hands-on web penetration testing (hacking) training and exercises as a story · 4 points
HN discussionCheck out https://pentesterlab.com/bootcamp/
Comment linking /bootcamp/
on “Ask HN: How can I learn computer security?”Submitted JWT Libraries Block Algorithm Confusion: Key Lessons for Code Review as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe repository seems to only include the website markdown content and not the vulnerable code examples. I recently started sharing PentesterLab[1] with new developers at work to help uplift their security knowledge. [1] https://pentesterlab.com/
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on “Hacker101: A free class for web security”Submitted How to Securely Design Your JWT Library (2024) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere is a lot of more classroom style learning on: http://opensecuritytraining.info/Training.html I also like: https://pentesterlab.com/exercises/ for web based attack walkthroughs and practice. http://vulnhub.com/ is a great resource for vulnerable systems to practice on.
Comment linking /exercises/
on “Meet ‘Project Zero,’ Google’s Secret Team of Bug-Hunting Hackers”Submitted The Certification Trap as a story · 2 points
HN discussionTry these courses/exercises: http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~redwood/OffensiveComputerSecurity/ https://pentesterlab.com/ http://exploit-exercises.com/
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on “Meet ‘Project Zero,’ Google’s Secret Team of Bug-Hunting Hackers”Submitted PentesterLab as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttps://pentesterLab.com/ . I started a paid version with additional content and videos in December. It's bring more and more revenue every month.
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on “Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make?”Submitted PentesterLab – Introduction to Code Review as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere's quite a few ways to get started with the skills you need for pen. testing and the good news is that a lot of them are free or low cost. You should probably start by picking an area that you're interested in (e.g. web, infrastructure, mobile) as whilst there's some commonalities each area has it's own toolset and specific areas of focus. For learning there's things like https://pentesterlab.com/ , https://www…
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on “Show HN: Building a Market for Penetration Testing”Submitted PentesterLab – List of Free Penetration Testing Exercises as a story · 2 points
HN discussionPentesterLab has a special for Black Friday: https://pentesterlab.com/pro
Comment linking /pro
on “Ask HN: Black Friday/Cybermonday deals for hackers?”Submitted PentesterLab: Hands-on exercises to learn web penetration testing as a story · 2 points
HN discussionbe sure to read the prequel if you haven't done anything like that before: https://www.pentesterlab.com/from_sqli_to_shell.html
Comment linking /from_sqli_to_shell.html
on “From SQL injection to shell: PostgreSQL edition”Submitted Introduction to code review (Application Security) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAs a dev, you should start learn about the most common bug classes and get a proper understanding on what is happening and how you can prevent them. Then it's worth looking into how you can exploit them. If you work for a big company, you may be able to spend some time working along your security team, that will help you get a foot in the door. Security teams are always looking for people who already understand the…
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on “Ask HN: How can I learn to be a cyber security expert?”Submitted Learn Penetration Testing with Free Exercises as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
