PT0-003
- Duration
- 165 min
English, French, Japanese, Portuguese
CompTIA
Credential
Certification
Level
Certification
Exam duration
165 min
credential overview
About this credential
Penetration-testing certification validating engagement management, reconnaissance and enumeration, vulnerability analysis, attacks and exploits, and post-exploitation/lateral movement across modern attack surfaces.
Who this is for
Penetration testers, security consultants, and cybersecurity professionals who assess and report vulnerabilities.
Assessment
Exam details
Exam blueprint
Skills measured
Engagement management (13%)4 topics
- Define rules of engagement, testing windows, and target selection.
- Ensure legal and ethical compliance, including authorization and mandatory reporting.
- Align with stakeholders through peer reviews, escalation paths, and risk articulation.
- Create penetration-test reports with executive summaries, findings, and remediation recommendations.
Reconnaissance and enumeration (21%)4 topics
- Perform active and passive reconnaissance using OSINT, sniffing, and protocol scanning.
- Perform DNS, service, and directory enumeration.
- Use tools such as Nmap, Wireshark, and Shodan.
- Customize Python, PowerShell, and Bash scripts for reconnaissance and enumeration.
Vulnerability discovery and analysis (17%)3 topics
- Conduct authenticated, unauthenticated, SAST, and DAST vulnerability scans.
- Validate findings, troubleshoot configurations, and identify false positives.
- Use tools such as Nessus, Nikto, and OpenVAS.
Attacks and exploits (35%)6 topics
- Perform network attacks such as VLAN hopping, on-path attacks, and service exploitation.
- Perform authentication attacks including brute force, pass-the-hash, and credential stuffing.
- Conduct host-based attacks such as privilege escalation, process injection, and credential dumping.
- Perform web application attacks including SQL injection, XSS, and directory traversal.
- Exploit cloud attack surfaces such as container escapes, metadata services, and IAM misconfiguration.
- Explain AI attacks including prompt injection and model manipulation.
Post-exploitation and lateral movement (14%)2 topics
- Establish persistence, perform lateral movement, and clean up artifacts.
- Create attack narratives and remediation recommendations.
Before you certify
Requirements and recommended experience
Recommended experience
3-4 years in a penetration tester job role
Recommended
Network+ and Security+ or equivalent knowledge
Corporate certification enablement
Turn this pathway into a team capability plan
We can align the learning path, instructor support, practice environment and delivery schedule to your team’s roles and certification target.