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Hands-on cybersecurity labs — guided walkthroughs you can follow start to finish, plus curated external ranges worth your weekend. Everything here runs against legal targets: deliberately vulnerable machines and platforms built to be attacked.
New to this? Follow the guided ladder. Lab 00 sets up your practice environment in about twenty minutes, Lab 01 runs your first scan, then the OverTheWire series takes you from your first shell through your first web hacking one small step at a time — each a copy-paste walkthrough with progress you can track.
Working on AI? The LLM security lab spins up a deliberately vulnerable model on your own machine and walks the OWASP LLM Top 10 — prompt injection, system-prompt leakage, excessive agency.
Want a bigger playground? The curated entries below point to ranges like Hack The Box, LetsDefend and GOAD — honestly labelled, no fluff.
One Incident, Five Logs, One Timeline: a PBQ-Style Lab
IntermediateTestedTime ~45 minTool grep, awk, jqNeeds Lab 00 or WSLCost freeExam Security+ 4.9 · CySA+ 1.2 0 / 12 steps The goal One made-up incident, told…
Build your own research collector (free Python lab)
BeginnerTestedTime ~40 minTool Python 3Needs Lab 00 or WSLCost free 0 / 10 steps The goal Build a small Python tool that collects information from sources…
MISP threat intel lab: feeds, IoCs, STIX and the REST API
IntermediateTestedTime ~60 min (mostly waiting)Tool MISPNeeds Lab 00 + Docker, 6 GB RAMCost freeExam CySA+ 1 0 / 12 steps The goal Run MISP, the free…
Find C2 beaconing with Zeek: a hands-on threat hunting lab
IntermediateTestedTime ~40 minTool ZeekNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam CySA+ 1 0 / 12 steps The goal Build a pretend office laptop and a pretend internet inside your…
YARA rules lab: write, tune and test rules that find files
Beginner–IntermediateTestedTime ~35 minTool YARANeeds Lab 00 or WSLCost freeExam CySA+ 1 0 / 12 steps The goal Install YARA, the pattern-matching tool malware analysts use to…
Vulnerability scanning lab: find, rank and fix with Greenbone (OpenVAS)
IntermediatePartly testedTime ~2 hours (mostly waiting)Tool Greenbone / OpenVASNeeds Lab 00 + DockerCost freeExam Sec+ 4 · also 2 0 / 12 steps The goal Run…
Keycloak single sign-on lab: one login, two apps, one logout
IntermediatePartly testedTime ~45 minTool KeycloakNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam Sec+ 4 0 / 12 steps The goal Run Keycloak, a free identity provider, on your own machine.…
Suricata IDS lab: write rules, catch a scan, then block it
IntermediateTestedTime ~40 minTool SuricataNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam Sec+ 4 0 / 10 steps The goal Set up Suricata, a free intrusion detection system, on a tiny…
Network+ Troubleshooting Capstone: Fix 5 Broken Networks
IntermediateTestedTime ~60 minTool ip, ping, nc, nmap, dig, tcpdumpNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 5 · also 1, 2, 4 0 / 9 steps The goal Fix…
PHP2Shell and HTTP2Shell: Is Your Server Patched? 6 Checks (Tested)
BeginnerTestedTime ~15 minTool php, dpkg, dockerNeeds a Linux server or Lab 00Cost freeExam Sec+ 4 · CySA+ 2 0 / 6 steps The goal In the…
ARP Lab: Watch Your Network Find Its Neighbours (and Catch a Duplicate IP)
BeginnerTestedTime ~25 minTool ip neigh, tcpdump, arpingNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 1, 5 · Sec+ 2 0 / 8 steps The goal Build a tiny switch…
Parrot OS 7.4 vs Kali 2026.3: What’s Actually Different (Tested)
BeginnerTestedTime ~25 minTool Parrot 7.4, Kali 2026.3Needs DockerCost freeExam Linux+ 1 0 / 9 steps The goal Run Parrot Security 7.4 and Kali Linux 2026.3 side…
Kali 2026.3 just shipped 6 new tools: what they do and what they leave in your logs
BeginnerTestedTime ~30 minTool Kali 2026.3Needs Docker or a Kali VMCost freeExam PenTest+ 2 · CySA+ 1 0 / 8 steps The goal Kali Linux 2026.3 (released…
Syslog and SNMP lab: build a monitoring server and see what it sees
IntermediateTestedTime ~35 minTool rsyslog, Net-SNMPNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 3 · Sec+ 4 · CySA+ 1 0 / 9 steps The goal Build a pretend network…
WireGuard VPN lab: build a tunnel and see what it hides
IntermediateTestedTime ~30 minTool WireGuardNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 4 · Sec+ 1, 3 0 / 8 steps The goal Build two sites, “home” and “office”, on…
TCP vs UDP lab: watch the handshake, refused vs filtered, and what nmap sees
BeginnerTestedTime ~30 minTool tcpdump, ss, nmapNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 1, 5 · Sec+ 4 0 / 9 steps The goal Build a client and a…
Make your own lag: latency, jitter and packet loss lab
BeginnerTestedTime ~30 minTool tc netem, ping, mtr, iperf3Needs a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Network+ N10-009 · 5.4, 5.5 0 / 8 steps The goal You…
NAT and firewall lab: build a home router, port-forward, then lock it down
IntermediateTestedTime ~35 minTool nftablesNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 1, 2, 4 · Sec+ 3, 4 0 / 10 steps The goal Build a home router inside…
Routing basics: build two routers, break them, fix them
IntermediateTestedTime ~30 minTool ip + tracerouteNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 1, 2, 5 0 / 10 steps The goal Build two PCs and two routers inside…
VLANs and 802.1Q: build a switch, split it, and watch the tags
IntermediateTestedTime ~30 minTool ip + bridgeNeeds Lab 00Cost freeExam N+ 1, 2 · Sec+ 3 0 / 10 steps The goal Build a VLAN-aware switch and…
Catch a malicious kernel driver: BYOVD defense on your own machine
IntermediateIdea buildTime ~35 minTool Sysmon + WindowsNeeds a Windows PCCost free 0 / 7 steps The goal By the end you will have turned on driver-load…
Parse and query HTTP logs in Splunk: your first web-log hunt
BeginnerIdea buildTime ~30 minTool SplunkNeeds Splunk, freeCost free 0 / 8 steps The goal By the end you will have loaded a day of real web-server…
Linux for Defenders 13: Disks, fstab and a Backup You Have Actually Restored
Beginner to intermediateTestedTime ~40 minTool lsblk, fstab, findmnt, tar, rsyncNeeds a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Linux+ · Security+ 0 / 8 steps The goal By…
Linux for Defenders 12: Who Did What as Root? (auditd, ausearch and aureport)
IntermediateTestedTime ~40 minTool auditd, ausearch, aureportNeeds a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Linux+ · Security+ 0 / 8 steps The goal By the end you will…
Linux for Defenders 11: Run Containers Without Handing Out Root (Rootless Podman and Quadlet)
IntermediateTestedTime ~40 minTool podman, quadlet, systemdNeeds a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Linux+ · Security+ 0 / 8 steps The goal By the end you will…
Linux for Defenders 10: How Weak a Password Will This Box Accept? PAM, pwquality and faillock
IntermediateTestedTime ~40 minTool PAM, pwquality, faillock, chageNeeds a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Linux+ · Security+ 0 / 8 steps The goal By the end you…
Linux for Defenders 09: What Is This Machine Connected To? Network, DNS and Listening Ports
BeginnerTestedTime ~35 minTool ip, ss, resolvectl, netplanNeeds a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Linux+ · Network+ · Security+ 0 / 8 steps The goal By the…
Linux for Defenders 08: Capstone — A Daily Health-Check Script in Bash, Kept in Git
IntermediateTestedTime ~45 minTool bash, systemd timer, gitNeeds labs 01–07Cost freeExam Linux+ · CySA+ 0 / 7 steps The goal The capstone. By the end you will…
Linux for Defenders 07: Audit File Permissions — SUID, World-Writable, ACLs and AIDE
IntermediateTestedTime ~40 minTool find, setfacl, AIDENeeds a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Linux+ · Security+ · CySA+ 0 / 7 steps The goal By the end…
Linux for Defenders 06: Packages You Can Trust — Updates, Signing and File Integrity
BeginnerTestedTime ~30 minTool apt, dpkg, unattended-upgradesNeeds a Linux VM you ownCost freeExam Linux+ · Security+ 0 / 7 steps The goal By the end you will…