All challenges are simulated and for educational purposes only. Never attack real systems without permission.

Ethical Hacking Challenges

Practice what you learn. Each challenge has a clear objective and teaches a real skill used in cybersecurity.

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Challenge 1 — OSINT: Public Username Hunt

Objective: Find public profiles of a fictional username across multiple platforms.

Target Username: cheetah_demo_user

What you should do:

Go to the OSINT Tools page
Search the username
Note which platforms return “Found / Possible”
Visit the public links and observe what information is visible

Difficulty: Beginner | Category: OSINT

Challenge 2 — Web: View Source Secrets

Objective: Learn how information can be left in HTML source code.

Task:

Create a simple HTML file on your computer
Add a hidden HTML comment containing a fake flag: 
Open the file in a browser and view the page source
Practice finding the comment

Difficulty: Beginner | Category: Web

Challenge 3 — Crypto: Decode the Message

Objective: Practice classic encoding techniques.

Encoded message:

VGhpcyBpcyBhIHNpbXBsZSBCYXNlNjQgbWVzc2FnZS4=

Decode the Base64 string above. Then try encoding your own short message and decoding it back.

Difficulty: Beginner | Category: Cryptography

Challenge 4 — OSINT: Domain Intelligence

Objective: Gather public information about a domain.

Target: example.com

Tasks:

Perform a WHOIS lookup
Check DNS records (A, MX, NS, TXT)
Write down the registrar and name servers
Note any interesting public TXT records

Difficulty: Intermediate | Category: OSINT

Challenge 5 — Forensics: Simple Log Reading

Objective: Practice reading basic log entries.

Sample log line:

2026-08-20 14:22:01 192.168.1.50 GET /admin 403 Mozilla/5.0

Questions to answer:
• What IP made the request?
• What path was requested?
• What was the response code?
• What does 403 usually mean?

Difficulty: Beginner | Category: Forensics

Challenge 6 — Mindset: Scope & Permission

Objective: Understand the most important rule in ethical hacking.

Write down in your own words:
1. What “permission” means in cybersecurity
2. Why attacking systems without authorization is illegal
3. What you should do if you accidentally find a vulnerability on a real website

Difficulty: Beginner | Category: Ethics

How to Use These Challenges

Work through them in order. Use the Learn section for theory and the OSINT Tools for practical searches. Focus on understanding the concept behind each challenge.