Introduction
Virtual Hacking Labs combines a Penetration Testing Courseware with a Penetration Testing Lab.
I started with VHL before I enrolled in PWK in order to get my hands dirty and gain some experience. Before VHL I only did a few machines on Hack The Box. Even though Hack The Box is free to use, it doesn’t include course materials to learn Penetration Testing basics.
Courseware and Lab
The courseware of VHL was around 350 pages long and covered every step normally done in a Penetration Test. It covers everything from Information Gathering to finding and modifying Exploits and finally Privilege Escalation.
When I enrolled the lab had around 40 machines in three categories:
- Beginner
- Advanced
- Advanced+
The machines within the Beginner category usually don’t need to escalate privileges after initial compromise and were rather easy. The only real difference between the Advanced and Advanced+ machines is that there are no hints for the Advanced+ machines. Some were more, some less difficult.
I booked the 3 Month Pass, but was done with all machines and Report after one month.
Summary
Overall I enjoyed the lab and course materials offered by VHL. Unfortunately there is no “real” community behind VHL. But there is one Discord server I’d recommend joining: VHL.
