Certified AppSec Pentesting eXpert (CAPenX) is an expert-level exam to test a candidate’s knowledge of the core concepts involving application security. Candidates must be able to demonstrate practical knowledge to conduct an application pentest to pass this exam.
CAPenX is intended to be taken by pentesters, application security architects, red and blue team members, and any AppSec enthusiast, who wants to evaluate and advance their knowledge.
CAPenX is an intense 7 hours long practical exam. It requires candidates to solve a number of challenges, identify and exploit various vulnerabilities, and obtain flags. The exam can be taken online, anytime (on-demand), and from anywhere. Candidates will need to connect to the exam VPN server to access the vulnerable applications.
The pass criteria are as follows:
This is an expert-level exam. Candidates should have prior knowledge and experience in application pentesting. They should understand common application security-related topics such as the OWASP Top 10, commonly identified security misconfigurations, and best security practices. They should be able to demonstrate their practical knowledge of AppSec topics by completing a series of tasks on identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities that have been created in the exam environment to mimic real-world scenarios.
Note: As this is an expert-level exam, a minimum of five years of professional pentesting/bug-bounty experience is recommended.
On completing the exam, each candidate will receive:
Candidates, who fail the exam, are allowed 1 free exam retake within the exam fees.
The exam will allow candidates to demonstrate their skills in application pentesting. This will help them to advance in their career.
The certificate does not have an expiration date. However, the passing certificate will mention the details of the exam such as the exam version and the date. As the exam is updated over time, candidates should retake the newer version as per their convenience.
Being an independent certifying authority, we (The SecOps Group) do not provide any training for the exam. Candidates should carefully go over each topic listed in the syllabus and make sure they have adequate understanding, required experience, and practical knowledge of these topics. Further, the following independent resources can be utilised to prepare for the exams.