Try Harder

So, I've been working about two years in the same company, in security. Done some fun stuff, like a pentest on our server that let me own maybe 80% of the machines (could maybe have pushed for more with more knowledge/experience). Also done some boring soykaf there, and right now, there are not a lot of interesting things to do. In two years, I don't feel like I improved at all regarding computer security, red teaming, etc. I'm supposed to pass OSCP with that company in a few weeks (but it keep getting postponed); and I am really starting to get bored there. I have trouble focusing on my work, and don't feel intellectually stimulated at all. Let's say you could do your work, but take a lot more time than necessary to do it (let's say you can do some stuff in one day, but you can pretend it take two or four). What would you do, to really improve yourself in the mean time ? I read writeups about unknown CPU architectures; owning hardcore systems, reversing really cool stuff, using literally a dozen of 0days to get somewhere. I'm sick of being barely above skidz level. There's so many interesting stuff in itsec, and I want to do really cool stuff. Another thing is that I have several other hobbies, so my time outside of work is limited. WWYD ? I want to root cool stuff and go past the buffer overflow meme

I know that feel, the best I can recommend is find a community that will help you grow, I would find a IRC channel or discord group that will help you and try to mentor you into becoming a better hacker. You can try forums too as well, but they tend to be lack luster, I see this all the time where people just do a bunch of ctf's but don't really grow, what you need is a mentor.

>>15233 If you have free time at work then what's stopping you from working on things? Figure out what you want to learn and focus on that. If you want to do red team then get your OSCP and start applying for jobs I'm sure you will grow a lot from that alone. If you spread your time amongst many different things then of course your progress will overall be slow. Focus on one thing at a time.

>>15234 Well, maybe some kind of mentoring would help, I'm not sure, but more probably some kind of community would encourage me to go further, I guess... >>15264 There's no good reason that's stopping me from working on things. Distraction, the depressive effect of one year of being mostly in solitary confinement... I tend to get interested in a ton of stuff. But I've managed to channel that energy over the year and actually keep working on a few projects, no necessarily hacking related. Right now, I've decided to finish the RE4B book, even if it's not entirely relevant for OSCP. Heck I don't even use proprietary software in general, but for some reason software cracking always fascinated me. I'm thinking about quitting my job, passing OSCP, and then finding something remote if my current employer doesn't move his ass. I'm still too inexperienced to set up my own company, and I'm unsure how much experience I'd need; I'd also need to be able to have periods of free time for other big projects...

>>15290 >Well, maybe some kind of mentoring would help, I'm not sure, but more probably some kind of community would encourage me to go further, I guess... They're a lot of security communities, I'm hoping lainchan can build a decent security community.

Let's say you have 3 months to work on OSCP, without a job next to it to distract you. Of course, you maintain a healthy lifestyle (sports, some social events, going outside, eating well, one or two hobbies). Other than that, it's full on OSCP prep. How would you proceed, when you have some good experience already ? Some people seem to focus only on the PWK Lab, others rush for HTB and other virtual machine labs. Others go for Linux/Windows privesc courses on Udemy. There even was some dude who took the 30 days PWK, and spent most of his time on other virtual environment. He got it on first try, although he did those labs before the 30 days of PWK.This could save some money (of course not if the other labs cost more, or if you have to retry several times. What would YOU do, if you had three whole month to pass it ?