Privilege Escalation Courses and Certifications

Security & Ethical Hacking: Attacking Unix and Windows

Execute privilege escalation, shared library hijacking, and stealthy SSH lateral movement on Unix, then exploit Windows memory corruption using x86 stack overflow primitives and shellcode.

• Coursera
• 5 weeks, 5 hours a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Ultimate Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing (UEH)

2064 ratings at Udemy

Learn and Practice the Techniques of Hacking and Penetration Testing

• Udemy
• 2 days 14 hours 2 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Hands-on Penetration Testing Labs 1.0

1511 ratings at Udemy

Comprehensive walkthroughs of penetration testing labs

• Udemy
• 4 hours 27 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Exploitation and Penetration Testing with Metasploit

38 ratings at Coursera

Exploit systems with the Metasploit Framework: handle payloads and sessions, modify exploits and fuzz for vulnerabilities, escalate privileges, and simulate web, phishing, and USB attacks.

• Coursera
• 5 weeks, 3 hours a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Ethical Hacking Capstone Project: Breach, Response, AI

20 ratings at Coursera

Attack and defend the same systems: exploit targets with Nmap and Metasploit, escalate privileges, then hunt IOCs with OpenVAS and MITRE ATT&CK and report findings.

• Coursera
• 6 weeks, 3 hours a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

EDUCBA

Ethical Hacking: Meterpreter, DNS & ICMP Attacks

16 ratings at Coursera

Study attacker techniques and defenses: build backdoors and escalate privileges with Meterpreter, run ARP, DNS, DHCP and ICMP spoofing and MITM, and mitigate DoS/DDoS.

• Coursera
• 3 weeks, 3 hours a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Packt

Advanced Penetration Techniques

Perform advanced penetration tests: exploit VLAN hopping, ARP/DNS poisoning, SQL injection, SSRF, IoT, cloud and ICS/SCADA weaknesses, then maintain persistence and evade detection with Mimikatz and Bloodhound.

• Coursera
• 12 hours 4 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Packt

Pentesting Fundamentals for Beginners

Build a virtual hacking lab and run basic penetration tests: scan with Nmap and OpenVAS, attack web apps with BurpSuite and SQLmap, escalate Windows privileges.

• Coursera
• 13 weeks, 1 hour a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Packt

Offensive Hacking Unfolded - Become a Pro Pentester

Build a VMware lab and run a full penetration test: reconnaissance, vulnerability analysis, Metasploit exploitation, SQL injection and XSS, privilege escalation, antivirus evasion, and professional reporting.

• Coursera
• 9 weeks, 1 hour a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Packt

Intermediate Ethical Hacking Hands-on Training

Practice intermediate hacking: Nmap reconnaissance, reverse shells and privilege escalation, PowerShell Empire post-exploitation, wireless deauth attacks, Wireshark capture, and SQL injection to shell.

• Coursera
• 12 weeks, 1 hour a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Packt

Hands-on Hacking

Practice full attack chains on vulnerable VMs like GoldenEye, Bob, and WinterMute: enumerate services, proxy HTTPS with Burp Suite, craft buffer overflow exploits, and escalate privileges.

• Coursera
• 8 weeks, 2 hours a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Packt

Ethical Hacking - Capture the Flag Walkthroughs - v2

Work through Toppo, Lampiao, DC-1, and SickOS 1.1 Capture the Flag challenges: build a Kali Linux lab, run recon and enumeration, exploit, and escalate to root.

• Coursera
• 6 weeks, 1 hour a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Application, Cloud, and Specialized Attacks

Attack web applications, databases, cloud platforms, and specialized systems using SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, Linux and Windows privilege escalation, cloud misconfigurations, phishing, and physical intrusion.

• Coursera
• 5 weeks, 1 hour a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course

Packt Career Certificate

Security+ 701 - Hands-On Cybersecurity Lab Series

Build Security+ SY0-701 readiness through hands-on labs using Kali, Nmap, Burp, Wireshark, Metasploit, and OWASP Top 10 techniques.

• Coursera
• 4 weeks, 10 hours a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course
• 3 courses

Packt Career Certificate

Linux Shell Scripting for Hackers

Progressively apply Bash scripting to cybersecurity, automating reconnaissance, attacks, password cracking, privilege escalation, wireless testing, system auditing, and hardening.

• Coursera
• 4 weeks, 10 hours a week
• Self-Paced
• Paid Course