Hi, I am spiderweb77, and I am a hacker on TryHackMe for about a month. Doing it has helped me a lot and I do not regret purchasing a subscription to them.
Recently a new path got release called Pre-Security. With a total of 15 rooms and an estimated completion time of 40 hours, it was made purely to get beginners started in hacking! Despite not being a beginner, I still decided to give it a try to see how well it was made and whether I still could learn anything from it. To my surprise, there were still things that I did not know and I am glad I decided to try it instead of simply ignoring it.
Pre-Security Learning Path consists of an introduction room and 4 categories. These categories are Network Fundamentals, How The Web Works, Linux Fundamentals and Windows Fundamentals.
This category consists of 1 room introducing beginners to Cyber Security. It is very insightful and everyone should do this room first before trying out the others. It teaches you on the basics of hacking, and even shows a preview of web and networking.
Network Fundamentals, a very useful category for understanding the basics of how networking works and how to exploit it. This category was very well done in ways that it split up the rooms evenly to ensure that beginners who want to learn networking would be able to understand how networking works easily.
The first room, What is Networking? teaches you the fundamentals of computer networking. Beginners should attempt this room first before any others to understand the core of networking. Following this, Intro to LAN, teaches you about Local Area Networks and their respective topologies. Knowing this would allow you to have a much greater understanding of how computers are set up to communicate with each other. Overall I find this room very interesting and I believe beginners would not have any issues understanding.
The next room is OSI Model. This room teaches you about the framework of networking. It has an in depth explanation of each of the OSI Layers and how each layer is important in communicating and what functions they each have. After doing this room, beginners would have a much better understanding on how computers communicate with each other.
The fourth room, Packets & Frames will teach you how packets and frames work. It explains how data is divided into smaller pieces and transmitted across a network to another device. This is useful in applying useful techniques to intercept these data. Thus, beginners need to have a basic understanding on what computers use to communicate with each other and how it works.
The last room in the networking category is Extending Your Network. This room explains about having a larger network. This allows you to apply firewalls, use VPN or just simply port forwarding. This was honestly a very fun room, and I thoroughly enjoyed completing it!
How The Web Works dives down into the web category. It is a great category first start on understanding how the internet works. Doing this is a great way for beginners to get started on learning Web, although it is not really that detailed. This is not an issue though, as it is targeted at beginners who only have recently just started TryHackMe and it is sufficient enough in explaining how the internet works!
The first room, DNS in Detail teaches you the basics of DNS and how it functions to allow access to the internet. Everything you need to know about the basics of DNS is in this room, such as Domain Hierarchy, DNS Record types as well as DNS requests. This should teach beginners exactly how DNS works and learning it would be highly beneficial.
The next room, HTTP in detail will teach you everything you need to know about Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This includes methods and requests. After completing this room, you should be familiar with sending and receiving requests, what each of the status codes mean and what methods to use appropriately. This was one of my favourite rooms because it was short and simple, yet very insightful.
Following that, How websites work would be next. Doing this room was enjoyable and it went straight into the basics of exploiting web. It would teach you common vulnerabilities and also what usually to look out for when doing a web challenge or just simply finding vulnerabilities in websites. In my opinion, this is an amazing room and I highly recommend you to try it!
The last room under the Web category is Putting it all together. Just like its name, it implies putting all the knowledge and skills learnt together. This room allows you to demonstrate your newly obtained skills and apply them. This would requires you to have a good understanding of the previous modules that you had completed in this category, so make sure you have actually completed them. If you are still confused, please redo them to ensure that you do not miss out on anything!
Linux Fundamentals is an essential room that beginners would need to complete to start their journey as a hacker. Knowing how to use a Linux system is very essential, as Debian machines such as Kali or Ubuntu would be a necessity to be used for multiple hacking challenges or in a workplace. Placing this category under Pre-Security path was a very excellent move done by TryHackMe. This way, beginners will have a complete understanding on how Linux works and how to use them.
Linux Fundamentals 1 starts you off by giving you some background history of Linux. This explains exactly why Linux is needed and how it can be useful. It then teaches you how to navigate through the Linux systems as well as use a few basic commands such as echo or ls. Overall, a great room to get you started on Linux!
After completing the previous room, Linux Fundamentals 2 will then show you much more complicated commands such as ssh and also file permissions. This knowledge is very important as it is widely used in the hacking community and knowing this would be very beneficial to you! It is a great room to familiarize yourself with Linux commands and the machine itself.
Lastly, Linux Fundamentals 3 ends it off with much more complex but useful commands and tools. These would be essential in using Linux machines, as many of the commands taught in here are very useful. I would suggest everyone to complete these 3 rooms, even if you already know how to use Linux machines. You will never know whether you might learn a thing or two more!
The very last category in this Pre-Security Learning Path is Windows Fundamentals. This category teaches you what you need to know about the Windows System. Similar to the previous category about Linux, Windows is just another operating system that is more modernize and exploiting it might be a little harder. The two rooms listed in this category only teaches you the basics of Windows and how it works. This knowledge would be very useful in Securing Microsoft Windows and you need to understand it before starting to exploit it.
The first room, Windows Fundamentals 1 teaches you about the basic structure of a Windows machine and how to navigate around it. It shows you how to use it and how to find key information about a window’s system such as going to system information. Some common applications such as control panel and task manager are shown also to give you a general gist of what it does and how it can be useful to you. A great room for beginners who have no clue on how to operate a windows machine.
The last room is Windows Fundamentals 2 teaches you more on Active Directory and Domain Controllers. This would be important in knowing how to navigate through machines connected through a domain and also teaches you on the permissions and policies. It was a very inspiring room as I was not that familiar with Windows and these two rooms helped me out a lot!
In conclusion, this room was really well made in giving a stepping stone for new hackers to integrate into the community. Even though I had already a few months of experience in TryHackMe, it was really enjoyable completing these rooms. Not to mention, I also learnt a lot from it! This would definitely help me in my journey towards getting OSCP! Currently, my goal is to complete beginner certifications such as EJPT and TryHackMe has really helped me in improving my CTF skills as well as hacking skills in general. This was a fun path to do and I am looking forward to more paths TryHackMe has to offer Also, you get a free certificate! You can enroll by the following link https://tryhackme.com/path/outline/presecurity.
