Best Ethical Hacking Courses in 2023

Ethical hackers, also known as white hat hackers, play a pivotal role in safeguarding our digital infrastructure by identifying vulnerabilities and securing systems. If you’re fascinated by the idea of ethical hacking and aspire to become a skilled cybersecurity professional, enrolling in an ethical hacking course is an excellent way to kickstart your journey.

An ethical hacking course equips you with the knowledge and skills required to think like a hacker and understand their methods, ultimately enabling you to defend against malicious attacks.

With a multitude of options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right course that fits your needs. That’s why, I created this small list of best ethical hacking courses, so you don’t have to scour the internet and you can get started with your ethical hacking journey right away.

All courses mentioned here are practical and you can perform them in your penetration testing lab to gain hands-on experience and sharpen your hacking skills. These courses cover a wide range of topics, including penetration testing, network security, web application security, cryptography, and much more.

Here’s the summary of the best ethical hacking courses:

Note: The courses mentioned in this list are updated on a timely basis. Therefore, new sections might be added that are not present when I am creating this list. Always check out the course details for updated information regarding these courses. 

Advantages of StationX

StationX offers a wide range of ethical hacking courses. There are also course bundles available at a discounted price. However, if you join the StationX accelerator program, you’ll gain access to the full library of hacking courses which includes most courses mentioned in this list along with many other great benefits.

You can check out all the details of the StationX accelerator program here.

Furthermore, new ethical hacking courses are added from time to time on StationX and if you are already enrolled in the program, then you can access them free of charge.

Best Ethical Hacking Course

1. Learn Ethical Hacking From Scratch

The first ethical hacking course on this list is “Learn Ethical Hacking from Scratch” by Zaid Al Quraishi. The course starts with setting up a pentesting lab where you can practice your hacking skills without getting into legal trouble, and then the course will move on to the basics of Linux and Network hacking.

In the network hacking section, you will learn about various wireless hacking techniques like pre-connection attacks, gaining access through WEP/WPA/WPA2 cracking, post-connection attacks like gathering information about connected devices, MITM attacks etc. You’ll also learn to secure your network from these types of wireless attacks.

Next, the course will move towards gaining access to devices using client and server-side attacks, social engineering and all the things you can do to a target system after gaining access.

Lastly, you will learn about exploiting and preventing various website vulnerabilities such as File Upload, Code Execution, File Inclusion, SQL Injection, cross-site scripting and using OWASP ZAP to automatically discover vulnerabilities.

The course will take you from a beginner level to a high-intermediate level. It covers a wide range of ethical hacking topics like WiFi hacking, website hacking, system hacking etc. not just in theory but also practically.

Check course details on StationX

2. The Complete Red Team Ethical Hacking Course

The Complete Red Team Ethical Hacking course has three volumes. The first volume of this ethical hacking course will start with an overview of the red, blue and purple teams and then move on to the penetration testing process and methodologies.

Then, you will find sections related to Windows, Linux, Operating system internals, active directory and Kerberos. This volume also contains a data manipulation section where you will learn about various types of encryptions, hashing, encoding and compression algorithms.

The second volume will start with a networking section and will focus on a variety of networking-related topics like the OSI model, TCP/UDP protocols, routers and gateways, DNS, DHCP, proxies and much more.

Also, you will learn about VPNs, firewalls, how to install pfsense firewall and configure it etc. Once you have gone through the networking part, you will get started with the programming section that includes program theory (compiler and linker), Python Programming language and Assembly.

This volume will end with scope and reconnaissance sections where you will learn about various tools for Active and Passive reconnaissance.

The third volume will cover topics related to exploitation, post-exploitation, password cracking, covering your tracks, attacking active directory and reporting.

While all three volumes are individual courses and can be taken independently, it is recommended to study all three volumes if you want to start a career as a red team hacker.

You can purchase all three volumes together as a course bundle. This way, you will get all three courses at a discounted price. By purchasing this course bundle from StationX, you’ll also get the following three bonus courses:

• How to get a well-paid Red Team Ethical hacking Job?
• Breaching the perimeter with enterprise phishing.
• Hacking the Windows API with Python.

Check course details on StationX

3. Complete Ethical Hacking Bootcamp: Zero to Mastery

The “Complete Ethical Hacking Bootcamp” course by Andrei Neagoie and Aleksa Tamburkovski starts by teaching you how to create your hacking lab using VirtualBox and Kali Linux. After that, it will move towards the basics of Linux such as navigating through the system, creating and managing directories, network commands etc.

Once you have gone through that, the actual hacking part will begin, starting with information gathering using different tools and using Nmap to scan for different services running on the target system.

Next, you will create a port scanner using Python. This is one of the three Python coding projects that you will build throughout this course. The other two programs are Backdoor and Bruteforcer.

Furthermore, you’ll learn about gaining access to targets, creating payloads and post-exploitation methods such as elevating privileges, extracting data, using keyloggers etc.

Apart from all this, you’ll also learn about Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) and Web Application Pentesting that covers topics like HTML Injection, SQL Injection, CSRF Vulnerability, command injection, XSS and much more.

Lastly, there are some extra lectures on wireless cracking, hacking Android, anonymity and hacking active directories. Not only that, there are also sections dedicated to Python programming language. This will be useful for students to write their hacking tools and exploits.

Check course details on Udemy

4. Learn Python & Ethical Hacking From Scratch

“Learn Python & Ethical Hacking From Scratch” is another course on this list by the instructor Zaid Al Quraishi. This course is ideal for those students who want to learn Python by creating their hacking tools.

To become a skilled ethical hacker, it is very important to know a programming language that you can use to create your exploits or automate tasks. In this case, Python will be the most suitable option as it is beginner-friendly and you can use it in various scenarios due to its versatility and extensive library support.

The beauty of this course is that it will teach you both Python and ethical hacking simultaneously. You will start by setting up your pentesting lab and then move on to create hacking tools that can be used in real-life scenarios. This way, you will not only be writing code but also learning the theory and methodologies behind different hacking tools.  

By the end of this course, you will have extensive knowledge of Python programming language and an arsenal of hacking tools like MAC address changer, Network scanner, Code injector, keylogger, crawler, vulnerability scanner and the list goes on.

Although previously mentioned ethical hacking courses on this list also teach Python, in this course, you will write code in almost every section, thereby creating 20+ hacking programs. So, if you are looking for an exciting way to learn Python and hacking together, then check out this ethical hacking course. 

Check course details on StationX

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

In this digital age, where cybersecurity threats loom large, there has never been a more crucial time to delve into the world of ethical hacking. Investing your time and effort in an ethical hacking course can be a game-changer for your career in cybersecurity. The courses mentioned here offer a wealth of knowledge and practical experience making them the best choices for aspiring ethical hackers.

As technology continues to advance, the demand for skilled ethical hackers is only going to increase. By keeping yourself updated with the latest hacking techniques, tools and countermeasures, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity.

I have also made a list of hacking courses which include:

• Network hacking courses
• Bug Bounty Courses
• Cybersecurity Courses (Course Bundles)

You can check them out if you’re interested.