You will learn tried-and-true tools and techniques for discovering zero-day vulnerabilities in this course. The topics addressed range from fuzzing browsers to creating fuzzing harnesses. Additionally, you will be required to create exploits that bypass modern exploit protections. Once certified, you'll be able to find bugs that can be sold.

"Cybersecurity experts can be divided into two groups: those who can discover zero-day vulnerabilities and those who can't."

A zero-day market is a market where vulnerabilities are bought and sold. These vulnerabilities are called "zero-day" because they are not known to the public and have not been patched. Vendors often release patches for known vulnerabilities, but because zero-day vulnerabilities are unknown, there is no patch available.

Zero day vulnerabilities are extremely valuable because they have not been discovered by anyone else. This means that the person who discovers and sells the vulnerability has a unique advantage over everyone else in the world. They are typically sold to government or corporate entities for a large sum of money. The amount that can be earned by selling these exploits is astronomical. It can range from a few thousand dollars to as much as seven figures.

In order to discover zero day vulnerabilities, you need a deep understanding of computer systems, operating systems, network protocols, and application programming interfaces. You also need to be able to reverse engineer software applications and firmware in order to find security flaws.

The MVRE certification program is designed to teach students how to find and exploit vulnerabilities in software applications. Specifically, our course will equip you with the skillset necessary to carry out the following tasks:

• Identify and select high-value targets for vulnerability research
• Perform Attack Surface Identification and establish key focus areas for vulnerability research
• Employ research techniques such as fuzzing harnesses, patching diffing and OSINT research
• Triage crashes and identify the best bugs to spend energy and time exploiting
• Bypass modern exploit mitigations on Windows 11
• Develop and weaponize N-Days and Zero-Days

This Certification focuses 100% on teaching vulnerability research and exploitation techniques for the Windows operating system. Nonetheless, all the knowledge and tradecraft learnt can be applied on other operating systems such as Unix, OSX, and iOS.

MCSI is one of the most respected and trusted names in cyber security education and training. Our certifications teach critical skills, knowledge and abilities needed to advance a career in cyber security. Our courses are comprehensive and up-to-date, and our instructors are experienced professionals who are dedicated to helping students learn. MCSI provides the real-world skills and knowledge you need to protect any organization from cyber threats.

• Fundamental theory and concepts to successfully perform vulnerability research and exploitation

  Static Analysis

  Static analysis is the process of analyzing a program without actually running it. This can be done by examining the code or by extracting information from a compiled program. Static analysis is used in vulnerability research to find security vulnerabilities in programs.

  Dynamic Analysis

  Dynamic analysis is the process of examining a running system to find vulnerabilities. This can be done manually, by observing the system's behavior and looking for potential exploits, or automatically, by running tests against the system and looking for results that may indicate a vulnerability. Dynamic analysis is often used in conjunction with static analysis.

  Attack Surface Identification

  Attack surface identification is the process of finding and cataloging every potential way software can be attacked. This includes identifying every system component and service, as well as understanding how each of those components and services interacts with one another.

  Fuzzing Harnesses

  A fuzzing harness is a software tool used for automated testing of software. It is a collection of scripts that allow you to run a variety of tests against a target program or application. A fuzzing harness can help you identify security vulnerabilities in your software.

  Stack Overflow Vulnerabilities

  A stack overflow exception is an error that can occur in computer programming when the program attempts to allocate memory on the call stack beyond what is allocated statically or allocated dynamically.

  Heap Overflow Vulnerabilities

  A heap overflow is an exploit in which user-supplied data is written past the end of an allocated memory buffer, typically affecting the program's control flow or data.

  Use-after-Free Vulnerabilities

  A use-after-free vulnerability is a type of software vulnerability that occurs when a program or process attempts to use a memory address after it has been freed by the operating system.

  Race Condition Vulnerabilities

  Race conditions are situations in which the result of a computation is dependent on the order in which two or more operations are performed. This can create opportunities for exploits if the order of operations can be controlled by an attacker.

  Triaging

  Triaging is the process of sorting and prioritizing vulnerabilities according to their severity. Triaging is the process of sorting and prioritizing vulnerabilities according to their severity. The goal is to determine which bugs are exploitable and which ones are the easiest to exploit.

• How to use industry vulnerability research tools to discovery security bugs

  Ghidra

  Ghidra is a software reverse engineering (SRE) suite developed and maintained by the National Security Agency (NSA). It is used by security professionals and researchers to analyze malicious code, identify vulnerabilities, and develop countermeasures.

  Dharma

  Dharma is a fuzzing library that can be used to fuzz web browsers. It can be used to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in web browsers. Dharma is written in Python and is based on the AddressSanitizer and Shadow DOM libraries.

  BinDiff

  Bindiff is a tool used to compare binary files. It can be used to find vulnerabilities in software. Bindiff can compare two files and show the differences between them thereby allowing vulnerability researchers to identify where and how a security patch was applied.

  DynamoRio

  DynamoRio is a security scanner that uses symbolic execution to identify vulnerabilities in software. It is able to identify vulnerabilities in software by exploring the possible paths that a program could take, and then checking to see if any of these paths could result in a security breach. This makes DynamoRio an extremely effective tool for finding security bugs.

  WinAFL

  WinAFL is a fuzzing tool used to find vulnerabilities in software. It can be used to fuzz executables, shared libraries, DLLs, and drivers. WinAFL is based on the AFL fuzzing engine.

  WinDBG

  WinDBG is a Microsoft Windows debugger. It is used to find vulnerabilities in software by locating memory leaks and incorrect code functionality. It can also be used to manually investigate software crashes.

  Qiling

  Qiling is an advanced binary emulation framework. It can be used to emulate a range of architectures, including x86 and arm.

  ProcMon

  Procmon is a Windows utility that helps identify and fix software vulnerabilities. It does this by monitoring system activity and providing a detailed report of all processes and tasks running on the system. This information can be used to find and fix vulnerabilities, as well as to troubleshoot issues with software.

  RPCView

  RPCView is used to identify remote procedure calls (RPCs) in software and determine what functions are called and what data is sent. This information can be used to find vulnerabilities in software.

  Process Hacker

  Process Hacker provides a user-friendly graphical interface for displaying information about running processes, their threads, modules, privileges, handles, and more. This information can be used to identify potential security vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in software applications.

  WinObjEx

  WinObjEx is a Windows utility that allows users to explore the internals of the Windows operating system. It can be used to find vulnerabilities in software by allowing users to view and modify system objects.

  OleViewDotNet

  OleViewDotNet is a free tool that enables researchers to view and analyze OLE 2.0 and COM objects. By using OleViewDotNet, researchers can quickly identify potential security issues in applications. The tool provides an intuitive user interface that makes it easy to explore the inner workings of OLE objects.

  NtObjectManager

  NtObjectManager allows you to manipulate objects and their properties in the Windows operating system. This can be used to find vulnerabilities in software that may not be otherwise detectable.

• How to bypass exploit mitigations

  Exploit mitigations are software measures that are taken to protect a program from exploitation. They work by preventing or limiting the ability of an attacker to exploit a vulnerability. There are a variety of different mitigations that can be used, and they can be used independently or in combination.

  Stack Cookies

  Stack cookies are a security feature used by some software development frameworks to protect software from stack-based buffer overflow attacks. A stack cookie is a small amount of data that is included in every packet of data sent from the server to the client. The client compares the stack cookie to the data in the packet to ensure that the data has not been manipulated by an attacker.

  DEP

  DEP, or Data Execution Prevention, is a security feature that is built into modern processors. It works by preventing code from being executed from memory regions that are not intended for execution, such as the stack or the heap.

  ASLR

  ASLR is a technique used by operating systems to randomize the memory addresses used by programs, making it more difficult for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in those programs. This helps protect software from exploitation, since attackers can't predict where they will find program code or data in memory.

  CFG

  CFG is a security feature that was introduced in the C programming language. It is a mechanism that helps to protect software against exploitation by protecting the memory locations that are used by the program. CFG makes it more difficult for an attacker to execute arbitrary code or access sensitive data.

  KASLR

  KASLR, or kernel address space layout randomization, is a security feature that randomizes the location of the kernel in memory. This makes it difficult for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the kernel, as they must guess the location of the kernel in order to exploit it. KASLR is available on most modern operating systems, including iOS and Android.

  SMEP

  SMEP is a security feature that was added to processors. SMEP protects software from exploitation by preventing code from running in user space from executing in supervisor mode. In supervisor mode, code has unrestricted access to all memory resources, including those belonging to other processes.

• How to triage software crashes to identify the bugs that are related to security

  Triage is the process of sorting and prioritizing issues found in software. Security bugs are a high priority, so triaging is an essential part of finding and fixing them. This course teaches you the top tools to triage bugs.

  Doctor Memory

  Doctor Memory is a tool used to triage security bugs. It helps to identify and prioritize the severity of a security vulnerability. This tool is beneficial in helping to focus on the most critical security bugs.

  ASAN

  ASAN, or AddressSanitizer, is a tool used to help triage security bugs. ASAN is a memory error detector that can help identify out-of-bounds accesses and use-after-free errors.

  Driver Verifier

  Driver Verifier monitors Windows kernel-mode drivers and graphics drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that might corrupt the system. Driver Verifier can subject Windows drivers to a variety of stresses and tests to find improper behavior. You can configure which tests to run, which allows you to put a driver through heavy stress loads or through more streamlined testing. You can also run Driver Verifier on multiple drivers simultaneously, or on one driver at a time.

  Root Cause Analysis

  Root cause analysis is a problem solving technique that is used to identify the underlying cause of a problem. The technique involves identifying potential causes of the problem and then systematically eliminating them until the root cause is identified.

• How to augment your vulnerability skills with OSINT research

  OSINT research can complement vulnerability research in a few ways. OSINT can help identify potential targets for vulnerability research, as well as providing information on the systems and applications in use. Additionally, OSINT can help identify publicly disclosed vulnerabilities that may be applicable to the targets identified.

  Identifying high-value targets

  OSINT is a process of gathering intelligence from publicly available sources. It can be used to identify software targets for vulnerability research by gathering information about the software's public interfaces, how they are used, and by whom. This information can help identify potential vulnerabilities in the software that may not be obvious from the source code alone.

  Profiling developers

  By analyzing data available online, OSINT can provide insights into a developer's cybersecurity skills and experience. For vulnerability research, this may be helpful for identifying potential vulnerabilities they have a tendency to create.

  Discovering vulnerability patterns

  As a researcher, you can employ Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) to find patterns in vulnerabilities that may affect a particular software. Doing so will help you focus on specific bugs that are more likely to exist in your target software.

• Advanced exploitation and weaponization techniques

  If you're looking to advance your training knowledge and skills, this course is perfect for you. We'll be covering a lot of advanced exercises that will help you take your training to the next level.

  Integrating exploits into Metasploit

  There are many exploits available for Metasploit. Some are publicly available, and others are kept hidden by the bad guys. But How do you get exploits into Metasploit? In this course, you will learn how to add exploits to Metasploit so you can use them in your penetration tests or sell them in an exploit pack.

  Developing target validation capabilities

  There are many different techniques that can be used to improve a malware framework. One way is to develop target validation capabilities to ensure that the wrong computer doesn't get targeted with a cyber-attack. This can be done by identifying specific characteristics of the intended target and verifying that the system matches them.

  Identifying vulnerabilities using patch diffing

  A patch diff is a security tool that helps you identify the vulnerabilities in a program by comparing the patched files with the original files. It helps you see the differences in the code that might have been introduced by the patch and allows you to discover code changes that may have introduced new vulnerabilities.

  Writing N-Day exploits

  An n-day exploit is an exploit that takes advantage of a known vulnerability but for which they are no publicly available exploits. N-day exploits are very useful to attackers because they can be used to target systems that have not been updated with the latest security patches.

  Writing N-Day exploits

  Taint analysis is the process of identifying and tracking the origin of data in a program as it flows through the system. This information can be used to identify potential security vulnerabilities and to find ways to exploit them.

• Find vulnerability and write exploit in multiple software targets

  Network services

  Network services are a key target in vulnerability research because they are a fundamental part of most organizations and can provide a gateway to critical systems. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in network services to gain access to data and systems, steal information, or disrupt business operations.

  Desktop applications

  Desktop applications are a key target in vulnerability research because they are typically installed on users' computers and in some cases have access to more sensitive data than web applications.

  Browsers

  Browser security is always a hot topic, and for good reason. Browsers have a huge attack surface that makes them the perfect avenue to compromise personal devices, whether it's to steal information or install malware.

  Anti-virus software

  Just as we rely on anti-virus software to protect our devices and data, attackers rely on vulnerabilities in anti-virus software to achieve their goals. Anti-virus software is a key target for vulnerability research, as they are complex and often contain security vulnerabilities.

• Write vulnerability research notes

  It is critical to take notes while conducting vulnerability study for several reasons. To begin with, taking notes might assist you in keeping track of what you have already researched as well as what you still need to research. Second, while drafting a report on your results, your notes might be a great resource. Finally, taking notes might assist you in remembering critical data about a vulnerability that you may need to refer to later. Some things to note while performing vulnerability analysis could include:

  Vulnerability overview

  Technical Details

  Tools used

  Commands

  Important code snippets

  Reproduction steps

  Expoit/Payload

  Impact assessment

  Test cases

• Write vulnerability reports

  A vulnerability report is a document that identifies, tracks, and manages deficiencies in an information system. They are produced by security analysts during penetration tests, and can also be created internally by auditors or system administrators. Vulnerability reports are an essential part of an organization's security posture, and should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. A good vulnerability report will contain a detailed description of such things as:

  Software information

  This will include such items as vendor name, target product, or affected versions.

  Contextual information

  Purpose of the product and supported architecture are reported on here.

  Vulnerability information

  Vulnerability information will often contain a detailed description of the vulnerability and steps on how to reproduce the vulnerability.

  Exploitation information

  A core fundamental to the report is to explain the exploitation primitives, steps to exploit the vulnerability, any mitigation's bypassed and the reliability of the exploit.

  Remediation advice

  Finally, recommendations are made to remediate current and future vulnerabilities.