Skip to content

Best Platforms to Learn and Practice Cybersecurity

A curated, honest guide to the strongest third-party platforms for learning and practising cybersecurity, grouped by purpose and mapped to this repo's learning roadmap. It is aimed at a systems administrator moving into security who wants to know where to actually build skill — not just read about it. Free options are highlighted throughout, and offensive practice is deliberately balanced with defensive (blue-team) practice.

These are independent third-party platforms, not WALLIX or this repo. Details change. Anything volatile — pricing, exact subscription tiers, free-vs-paid boundaries — is stated only in general terms; always check current pricing on each platform's own site before committing. This page is the broader master list; the CEH hands-on subset lives in ceh/labs/practice-ranges.md.

Authorised use only. The hands-on offensive platforms below are legal to attack only inside the platform's own provided environment (its hosted labs, its downloadable vulnerable VMs run in your isolated lab, or your own cloud account for cloud-security tools). Pointing these techniques at any system you do not own or are not explicitly authorised to test is illegal in most jurisdictions. See ceh/00-overview/legal-and-ethics.md.

Learning objectives

  • Identify reputable platforms for each stage and purpose of a security learning path.
  • Distinguish course/training platforms from hands-on practice ranges.
  • Prefer free, hands-on resources first, and balance offensive practice with defensive.
  • Map a platform (or two) to each step of the roadmap.

Foundations and exam-prep courses

Structured courses and certification preparation — the "read and watch" layer. Pair every one of these with hands-on practice from the sections below; passive study alone does not build skill.

Platform What it is Free / paid Best for Link
Professor Messer Free instructional video courses for CompTIA certs (A+, Network+, Security+), with quizzes Both — videos free; optional paid notes/practice-exam bundles Self-studying CompTIA Security+ on a budget https://www.professormesser.com
Microsoft Learn Microsoft's official training: modules and paths for Azure, Microsoft Security, and the SC-/AZ- certifications, with hands-on sandboxes Both — training content free; exams paid Microsoft/Azure identity and cloud-security paths https://learn.microsoft.com
AWS Skill Builder Amazon's official cloud-skills centre: on-demand courses, learning plans, labs, and AWS exam prep Both — large free catalogue; paid subscription adds labs/practice exams AWS cloud and AWS security foundations https://skillbuilder.aws
TCM Security Academy Affordable hands-on courses and cert pathways (Practical Ethical Hacking, PNPT) from TCM Security Both — some free fundamentals; paid courses / all-access membership Budget-friendly offensive learning and the PNPT https://tcm-sec.com/academy/
Cybrary Online security education: cert-prep courses, virtual labs, and career/skill paths Both — free intro content; paid subscription and business plans Broad self-paced cert prep and skill paths https://www.cybrary.it
INE (formerly eLearnSecurity) Scenario-based networking and security training; INE Security now offers the eJPT / eCPPT certs Primarily paid — subscription plans; limited free demos Lab-driven offensive learning and INE certs https://ine.com
Pluralsight Broad tech-skills platform with expert-led courses and hands-on labs across cloud, security, and IT Both — free trial; paid individual/enterprise plans Filling specific topic gaps across a wide catalogue https://www.pluralsight.com
Coursera / edX University- and company-backed MOOC platforms with courses, professional certificates, and degrees Both — audit/preview free; certificates and programs paid Structured, accredited intro courses and specialisations https://www.coursera.org · https://www.edx.org
SANS Institute Premium instructor-led training across offence, defence, DFIR, cloud, and ICS; exam-prep partner for GIAC certs Both — paid courses are the core; free webinars, whitepapers, posters, and tools Employer-funded, deep, practitioner-grade training https://www.sans.org

Hands-on hacking ranges (offensive)

Hosted vulnerable machines and challenges where you practise the attacker's perspective. Authorised use applies — attack only the platform's provided targets. Start guided (TryHackMe), then move to open-ended boxes.

Platform What it is Free / paid Best for Link
TryHackMe Browser-based, beginner-friendly guided "rooms" and learning paths covering networking, Linux, and ethical hacking Both — free rooms; paid premium subscription Your first hands-on steps; gentle, structured practice https://tryhackme.com
Hack The Box Subscription platform of hosted vulnerable machines and challenges for open-ended practice Both — free community labs; paid subscriptions Realistic, less-guided boxes once fundamentals click https://www.hackthebox.com
Hack The Box Academy HTB's structured, curriculum-driven training with modules, skill paths, and certifications Both — free tier; paid skill paths and certs Guided theory + practice alongside the HTB labs https://academy.hackthebox.com
OffSec Proving Grounds Pentest lab platform — PG Play (free, community machines) and PG Practice (paid, OffSec-designed, Windows/Linux/macOS) Both — PG Play free; PG Practice paid OSCP-style practice and exam warm-up https://www.offsec.com/products/proving-grounds/
pwn.college Free hands-on education (belt/dojo progression) maintained by a team at Arizona State University Free Binary exploitation and low-level fundamentals https://pwn.college
VulnHub Library of downloadable, intentionally vulnerable VMs you run in your own isolated lab Free Fully offline practice in your home lab https://www.vulnhub.com

Web security

The single best place to learn web-application security, and it is free.

Platform What it is Free / paid Best for Link
PortSwigger Web Security Academy Free, best-in-class interactive web-security training with browser-based vulnerable labs, from the makers of Burp Suite Free (pairs with free Burp Suite Community Edition) Learning web vulnerabilities hands-on, start to finish https://portswigger.net/web-security

Blue team / defensive / SOC / DFIR

Most beginners over-index on offence. These platforms build the defensive, SOC (Security Operations Centre), and DFIR (Digital Forensics and Incident Response) skills that most security jobs — including a PAM/identity engineer's — actually use day to day.

Platform What it is Free / paid Best for Link
LetsDefend Hands-on blue-team training in a simulated SOC environment (courses, labs, alert triage); now part of Hack The Box Both — free intro courses; paid subscription tiers Practising the day-to-day SOC analyst workflow https://letsdefend.io
CyberDefenders Blue-team and DFIR platform with labs and real-world incident/CTF scenarios Both — free labs/challenges; paid certs and enterprise plans Forensics, threat hunting, and incident analysis https://cyberdefenders.org
Blue Team Labs Online (BTLO) Gamified defensive challenges and investigations (IR, DFIR, threat hunting), by Security Blue Team Both — free challenges; paid PRO unlocks investigations Defensive practice for those with some experience https://blueteamlabs.online
RangeForce Cloud-based defensive cyber range using real security tools, aimed at teams and enterprises Both — a free edition exists; core offering is enterprise Team/employer-led SOC and IR exercises https://www.rangeforce.com

Wargames and CTF (Capture The Flag)

Free, gamified fundamentals and competitions — great for sharpening specific skills cheaply.

Platform What it is Free / paid Best for Link
OverTheWire Free SSH-based "wargames" teaching security from Linux basics to binary exploitation (start with "Bandit") Free (donation-supported) Command-line and fundamentals warm-up https://overthewire.org/wargames/
picoCTF Free CTF education from Carnegie Mellon University, with the year-round picoGym and an annual competition Free Beginner-to-intermediate CTF practice https://picoctf.org
CTFtime Aggregator/tracker for CTF competitions worldwide — calendar, team rankings, and writeups Free Finding live competitions and learning from writeups https://ctftime.org

Cloud security practice

Practise attacking and defending cloud misconfigurations. Authorised use: these run in your own cloud account or a sandbox the project provides — never against someone else's account. Deploying the AWS tools may incur charges in your own account.

Platform What it is Free / paid Best for Link
CloudGoat Open-source "vulnerable by design" tool (Rhino Security Labs) that deploys intentionally vulnerable AWS/Azure environments for CTF-style practice Free (open source; your own cloud usage costs apply) Hands-on cloud-attack scenarios in your own account https://github.com/RhinoSecurityLabs/cloudgoat
flAWS / flAWS2 Free interactive challenges (Scott Piper / Summit Route) teaching AWS-specific misconfigurations; flAWS2 adds attacker and defender paths Free Guided, no-setup intro to AWS security mistakes http://flaws.cloud · http://flaws2.cloud
Microsoft Learn sandboxes Free, time-boxed Azure sandboxes inside Microsoft Learn modules for hands-on practice without your own subscription Free (within Microsoft Learn) Practising Azure/identity tasks safely https://learn.microsoft.com

Vendor / certification-specific

Official environments tied to a specific certification. See each cert's overview under adjacent-certs/.

Platform What it is Free / paid Best for Link
EC-Council iLabs · CEH Engage · CEH Compete Official CEH practical components — a virtualised lab range (iLabs), a four-phase mock engagement (Engage), and monthly CTF challenges (Compete) Paid (part of the CEH program) Practice aligned to the CEH curriculum https://www.eccouncil.org/train-certify/certified-ethical-hacker-ceh/
OffSec PEN-200 (OSCP) OffSec's hands-on penetration-testing course and lab that prepares you for the OSCP/OSCP+ exam Paid (course + labs + exam bundles) The OSCP journey https://www.offsec.com/courses/pen-200/
TCM Security Academy (PNPT) The Practical Ethical Hacking path and PNPT exam from TCM Security Both — free fundamentals; paid courses/exam The PNPT, an affordable practical cert https://tcm-sec.com/academy/
WALLIX Academy WALLIX's official training and certification for its products (PAM/Bastion, plus IAG/IDaaS/OT), across the WCA-P → WCP-P → WCE-P levels Paid instructor-led training; some free partner e-learning The WALLIX/PAM certs — see the WALLIX hub https://www.wallix.com/support-services/wallix-academy/

WALLIX Academy labs are gated to enrolled trainees. This repo's labs/README.md and home-lab build explain what you can practise on a self-built AD + Windows + Linux substrate where the official labs are not available to you.

Reference / knowledge bases

Free references you will return to constantly. GTFOBins and LOLBAS catalogue "living-off-the-land" techniques — for use only on systems you are explicitly authorised to test.

Resource What it is Free / paid Best for Link
MITRE ATT&CK Free knowledge base of real-world adversary tactics and techniques Free Modelling attacks and mapping them to defences https://attack.mitre.org
OWASP Nonprofit application-security resources: the OWASP Top 10, cheat sheets, ASVS, and tools Free Web/app security fundamentals and standards https://owasp.org
NIST CSRC The US standards body's cybersecurity guidance — the Cybersecurity Framework and SP 800-series Free Frameworks, controls, and authoritative definitions https://csrc.nist.gov
HackTricks Community pentest/red-team methodology wiki (web, cloud, privilege escalation, and more) Free A practical "how do I attack this?" reference https://book.hacktricks.xyz
PayloadsAllTheThings Community GitHub repo of payloads and bypass techniques across many vulnerability classes Free A payload/technique cheat-sheet during practice https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings
GTFOBins Reference of Unix binaries abusable to bypass local restrictions (living-off-the-land) Free Unix privilege-escalation lookups (authorised use only) https://gtfobins.org
LOLBAS The Windows equivalent of GTFOBins — abusable Windows binaries/scripts, mapped to ATT&CK Free Windows living-off-the-land lookups (authorised use only) https://lolbas-project.github.io

Which platform at which stage

Aligned to the learning roadmap. Pick one or two per stage rather than spreading thin.

flowchart TD
    FND["Foundations<br/>Professor Messer · Microsoft Learn<br/>OverTheWire · TryHackMe"] --> SEC["Security+<br/>Professor Messer · Cybrary<br/>(+ hands-on rooms on TryHackMe)"]
    SEC --> CEHS["CEH (knowledge)<br/>EC-Council iLabs · CEH Engage<br/>HTB Academy · PortSwigger Academy"]
    SEC --> BLUE["Blue team / SOC / DFIR<br/>LetsDefend · CyberDefenders<br/>Blue Team Labs Online · RangeForce"]
    CEHS --> HANDS["OSCP / PNPT (hands-on)<br/>OffSec PEN-200 + Proving Grounds<br/>TCM Academy · Hack The Box · VulnHub"]
    SEC --> CLOUD["Cloud security<br/>AWS Skill Builder · Microsoft Learn<br/>CloudGoat · flAWS / flAWS2"]
    BLUE --> WPAM["WALLIX / PAM<br/>WALLIX Academy (gated to trainees)<br/>+ self-built home lab"]
    HANDS --> SNR["CISSP (senior)<br/>SANS · Pluralsight<br/>Coursera / edX"]
    WPAM --> SNR
    CLOUD --> SNR
    REF["Reference (use throughout)<br/>MITRE ATT&CK · OWASP · NIST<br/>HackTricks · PayloadsAllTheThings ·<br/>GTFOBins / LOLBAS"]

How to choose

  • Free first. You can get a long way before paying: Professor Messer, PortSwigger Web Security Academy, the free tiers of TryHackMe and Hack The Box, pwn.college, OverTheWire, picoCTF, LetsDefend's intro content, and every reference above are free.
  • Hands-on beats passive. Watching a course is not learning a skill. Treat courses as scaffolding and spend most of your time on labs, ranges, and CTFs.
  • Balance offence with defence. It is easy to chase only hacking platforms. For most roles — including a PAM/identity engineer — defensive practice (LetsDefend, CyberDefenders, Blue Team Labs Online) is at least as valuable.
  • Match the platform to the cert. Use the vendor-specific environments (EC-Council for CEH, OffSec for OSCP, TCM for PNPT, WALLIX Academy for the PAM certs) when you are preparing for that specific exam.
  • As a sysadmin, you start ahead. Your OS, networking, and Active Directory experience transfers directly — move quickly through the beginner material and dwell on the attacker's-perspective and detection parts that are new to you.

Where to go next

Sources

  • Professor Messer — https://www.professormesser.com
  • Microsoft Learn — https://learn.microsoft.com
  • AWS Skill Builder — https://skillbuilder.aws
  • TCM Security Academy — https://tcm-sec.com/academy/
  • Cybrary — https://www.cybrary.it
  • INE — https://ine.com
  • Pluralsight — https://www.pluralsight.com
  • Coursera — https://www.coursera.org
  • edX — https://www.edx.org
  • SANS Institute — https://www.sans.org
  • TryHackMe — https://tryhackme.com
  • Hack The Box — https://www.hackthebox.com
  • Hack The Box Academy — https://academy.hackthebox.com
  • OffSec Proving Grounds — https://www.offsec.com/products/proving-grounds/
  • OffSec PEN-200 — https://www.offsec.com/courses/pen-200/
  • pwn.college — https://pwn.college
  • VulnHub — https://www.vulnhub.com
  • PortSwigger Web Security Academy — https://portswigger.net/web-security
  • LetsDefend — https://letsdefend.io
  • CyberDefenders — https://cyberdefenders.org
  • Blue Team Labs Online — https://blueteamlabs.online
  • RangeForce — https://www.rangeforce.com
  • OverTheWire wargames — https://overthewire.org/wargames/
  • picoCTF — https://picoctf.org
  • CTFtime — https://ctftime.org
  • CloudGoat (Rhino Security Labs) — https://github.com/RhinoSecurityLabs/cloudgoat
  • flAWS — http://flaws.cloud · flAWS2 — http://flaws2.cloud
  • EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) — https://www.eccouncil.org/train-certify/certified-ethical-hacker-ceh/
  • WALLIX Academy — https://www.wallix.com/support-services/wallix-academy/
  • MITRE ATT&CK — https://attack.mitre.org
  • OWASP — https://owasp.org
  • NIST Computer Security Resource Center — https://csrc.nist.gov
  • HackTricks — https://book.hacktricks.xyz
  • PayloadsAllTheThings — https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings
  • GTFOBins — https://gtfobins.org
  • LOLBAS — https://lolbas-project.github.io