CyberCode Academy

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: The early phases of a penetration test, focusing on intelligence gathering, infrastructure mapping, and active scanning techniques. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), collecting actionable data from publicly available sources without directly interacting with the target system. Google hacking (dorking), using advanced search operators like site:, filetype:, and i...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), an open community focused on improving software security through standards, tools, and best practices. The OWASP Top 10, a widely recognized awareness document outlining the most critical web application security risks. Common web application vulnerabilities, including: Injection flaws (e.g., SQL injection) Broken a...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Steganography fundamentals, the practice of concealing information inside other media files such as images, audio, or video without visibly altering the carrier file. Manual hiding techniques, including simple visual tricks like matching font color to background color and appending hidden data to files using command-line utilities. Least Significant Bit (LSB) st...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Data Representation and Encoding: ASCII: Uses 128 unique values to represent text characters in computing. Base64: Encodes binary data into text form for safe transfer across text-only channels like email or HTML. Numerical Systems in Computing: Binary (Base 2): Uses 0 and 1, fundamental to machine operations. Decimal (Base 10): Standard human-readable numbering...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Tradecraft Fundamentals: The structured set of tools, techniques, and methods used in modern intelligence gathering and espionage. Key Categories of Tradecraft: Agent Handling: Managing human assets for intelligence collection. Analytic Tradecraft: Techniques for correlating, validating, and interpreting collected intelligence. Black Bag Operations: Covert entri...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: The structured penetration testing lifecycle, a professional methodology that simulates real-world attacks while delivering measurable value to an organization. Pre-engagement interactions, including: Defining scope and boundaries Establishing timelines Securing written authorization Formalizing the Rules of Engagement (ROE) and Statement of Work (SOW) to ensure...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Core penetration testing terminology, including the difference between a vulnerability (a weakness in a system) and an exploit (the method used to leverage that weakness). Payload concepts, understanding how attackers deliver custom code to a target system after successful exploitation. Shellcode fundamentals, the low-level assembly instructions often embedded w...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Red vs. Blue Team operations, where Red Teams simulate adversarial attacks to uncover weaknesses, and Blue Teams defend, detect, and validate the effectiveness of security controls. The progression from vulnerability scanning to assessments, understanding how automated scans identify weaknesses, while vulnerability assessments prioritize and analyze risk without...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Preparing the Metasploit lab environment by configuring its required backend database components. Starting the PostgreSQL service, which stores scan results, hosts, credentials, and workspace data used during assessments. Initializing the Metasploit database using the msfdb init command to create, configure, and link the database properly. Launching the Metasplo...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Linux operating system fundamentals, including its architecture and why command-line proficiency is critical for cybersecurity tasks such as vulnerability discovery and command injection testing. File System Hierarchy Standard (FHS) structure, understanding key root directories like /etc (configuration), /bin (essential binaries), /home (user data), and /var (lo...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Kali Linux, a Unix-like operating system designed for penetration testing and security assessments, preloaded with hundreds of specialized tools. Deployment options, including full hard drive installation, portable live USB/CD for field testing, and virtualized environments such as VMware Workstation for safe lab setups. System maintenance best practices, using...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Building a digital forensics “utility belt” using open-source and low-cost tools to support incident response and investigations. All-in-one forensic suites, including bootable environments and remote response platforms that combine multiple tools for disk analysis, memory inspection, and evidence handling. Disk imaging and recovery techniques, using forensic im...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Core mitigation strategies and layered security controls used to defend modern network infrastructures against evolving threats. Asset inventory and continuous discovery, including identifying authorized and unauthorized devices and software using DHCP and DNS logs. Secure configuration management, ensuring hardware, software, and virtual systems comply with def...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: How to shift from reactive to proactive security by using intrusion detection tools and manually analyzing network logs to identify threats early. The importance of an Incident Response Plan (IRP), including clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and escalation paths to ensure proper and authorized incident handling. The structured incident handling lifecycle,...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: The Foundations of Organizational Risk Management Why security must begin with understanding a system’s requirements, limitations, and operational environment before deployment How improper preparation can lead to security failures, operational risks, and legal consequences The Four Stages of the Risk Management Process Framing: Defining the organizational conte...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: The Modern Cybersecurity Landscape How cybersecurity has evolved from an IT-only concern into a shared responsibility for all users Why understanding the attacker’s mindset is essential for identifying and preventing threats Social Engineering and Human Exploitation How attackers manipulate emotions like fear, curiosity, greed, and trust The differences between...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Converting Python Scripts into Executables Installing and using PyInstaller to package Python code into standalone .exe files Understanding how executables allow programs to run on systems without Python installed Compilation Process with PyInstaller Using the command pip3 install pyinstaller to install the packaging tool Running PyInstaller on a Python script t...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Programmatic Privilege Modification How to use the AdjustTokenPrivileges API to enable or disable specific privileges Understanding the TOKEN_PRIVILEGES structure and how privilege attributes are modified Enabling critical privileges like SeDebugPrivilege to allow advanced system access Preparing for Token Manipulation Identifying a target process or user throug...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Fundamentals of Windows Access Tokens Tokens define a process's privileges, such as shutting down the system or debugging memory Tokens are static: you can enable/disable existing privileges but cannot add new ones Difference between default tokens (limited rights, e.g., SeChangeNotify) and administrative tokens (powerful rights, e.g., SeDebugPrivilege) Programm...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Defining Windows Internal Structures in Python Representing structures like PROCESS_INFORMATION and STARTUPINFO using ctypes. Structure Mapping Windows data types (HANDLE, DWORD, LPWSTR) with the _fields_ attribute Instantiating structures for API calls to configure or retrieve process information Spawning System Processes Using CreateProcessW from kernel32.dll...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Interfacing Python with Windows API using ctypes Loading core DLLs: user32.dll and kernel32.dll Executing basic functions like MessageBoxW Mapping C-style data types (e.g., LPCWSTR, DWORD) to Python equivalents Error Handling and Privileges Using GetLastError to debug API failures Common errors such as "Access Denied" (error code 5) Understanding how token privi...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Fundamentals of Windows Processes and Threads A process is a running program with its own virtual memory space Threads are units of execution inside processes, allocated CPU time to perform tasks Access tokens manage privileges and access rights; privileges can be enabled, disabled, or removed but cannot be added to an existing token Key System Programming Termi...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: Building a Professional Portfolio Creating a GitHub account and configuring it for public repositories Initializing repositories specifically for Python projects Uploading and organizing files to showcase practical work for employers Setting Up a Windows-Based Technical Workspace Installing Python 3 and verifying it is correctly added to the system PATH Installi...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: The major security threat categories in machine learning: model stealing, inversion, poisoning, and backdoors How model stealing attacks replicate black-box models through API querying Why attackers may clone models to reduce costs, bypass licensing, or craft offline adversarial examples The concept of model inversion, where sensitive training data (e.g., faces...

In this lesson, you’ll learn about: What deepfakes are and how neural networks enable face, voice, and style transfer The standard face swap pipeline: extraction → preprocessing → training → prediction Why conducting a local dry run helps validate datasets before scaling to expensive GPU environments The importance of face alignment, sorting, and dataset cleaning to reduce false positives How ligh...