30 Days of Cybersecurity is an intermediate practice route composed of 30 challenge labs in six five-day stages. Curated from the Cybersecurity Engineer curriculum, it moves from traffic investigation and defensive controls through reconnaissance, web assessment, exploitation, forensics, incident response, and Python security automation.
This is an assessment-oriented path, not a sequence of introductory tutorials. Each day presents a scenario, required artifacts, and a verified end state; you must select commands and tools, interpret evidence, and produce the requested result. The final stage projects are marked Advanced and combine techniques from earlier challenges.
What You Will Learn
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Investigate packet captures with tcpdump and tshark, correlate indicators, and create Snort detections and analyst alerts
- Audit Linux hosts with auditd and AIDE, identify tampering or unauthorized access, and document defensive findings
- Perform passive reconnaissance, map hosts and services with Nmap, run focused vulnerability checks, and prioritize remediation
- Validate web weaknesses including SQL injection, broken authentication and authorization, XSS, XXE, JWT forgery, and server-side template injection
- Use Metasploit and Meterpreter in controlled workflows, pivot through an internal network, and identify Linux privilege-escalation paths
- Verify signatures and encrypted data, audit password hashes, preserve disk evidence, examine memory, and reconstruct observed malware behavior
- Build Python security utilities for banner grabbing, authenticated requests, log parsing, concurrent port scanning, directory enumeration, and structured reporting
Who This Course Is For
This course is for learners who have completed introductory cybersecurity study, junior SOC or penetration-testing practitioners seeking scenario-based review, and candidates who want broad hands-on practice across defensive and offensive workflows.
Prerequisites: Working knowledge of the Linux terminal, files and permissions, TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, and basic Python is strongly recommended. Prior exposure to packet analysis, Nmap, web vulnerabilities, and security-tool output will help because the challenges do not teach every tool from first principles.
Learning environment: The challenges run in Ubuntu 22.04 terminal environments, with course-provided local services, packet captures, disk or memory evidence, and isolated target instances. Passive reconnaissance queries the public training domain zonetransfer.me; use scanning, exploitation, credential, and automation techniques only against systems you own or are explicitly authorized to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to complete one challenge every calendar day?
No. The day labels provide a recommended sequence of 30 practice sessions, grouped into six stages. You can follow a daily rhythm or spend longer on complex challenges, but completing them in order helps because later projects combine earlier techniques.
Is this suitable as my first cybersecurity course?
Usually not. The route is rated Intermediate, all 30 units are challenges rather than guided labs, and three later project challenges are marked Advanced. Beginners will get more value after learning Linux, networking, web security, and basic scripting through guided material.
Are the challenges purely defensive?
No. The first stage emphasizes traffic analysis, host auditing, detection, and alerting, while later stages include reconnaissance, web exploitation, Metasploit, credential recovery, pivoting, and privilege escalation. These offensive tasks exist to practice authorized assessment in lab-controlled environments.
Does completing the course make me job-ready or prepare me for a specific certification?
No single certification blueprint is targeted, and 30 challenges cannot replace deep theory, repeated practice, reporting experience, or work on larger investigations. The course is best used to test breadth, expose weak areas, and build evidence of hands-on practice across several cybersecurity domains.
