The CEH cert has been the one of the most controversial certs to real world pentesters. A few years ago, it was the only cert of its kind, and having it was an asset. Fast forward to today and many think it is just a glorified tool review taught by people with no real world pentest experience.
My opinion has teetered back and forth on this. For an entry level job in infosec I think the CEH does the same thing as the A+/N+/S+, presumably lets an employer know that you have the equivalent of 6 months of on the job experience as a security engineer.
Regardless, that is not what this post is about:
Recently at a EC-Counsel Summit the instructor slides leaked for the much revamped version 6 of the CEH. I don’t condone downloading pirated stuff but looking at the topics makes me a little more confident in the course.
In doing research for the CBT awards, I talked to a quickcert.com rep named Wade, who said only a handful of trainers are teaching the new version. Quickcert being one of them. I was also directed to an interview on ethicalhacker.net with Haja Mohideen who thought the first class on v6:
http://www.ethicalhacker.net/content/view/190/24/
The slides were first posted on www.arabhardware.net (http://tinyurl.com/4n4pzf) and ended up at http://tinyurl.com/45q5yg
v6 offers a substantial re-haul of the curriculum. Impressive in my opinion.
A good anti-CEH argument is made with retorts from someone who knows the program and layout well here, its a good read i recommend it.
#1 by Vince McDonald - October 6th, 2008 at 15:09
I’m actually rather enamored with the CEH certification. I don’t have one currently and I’m not even sure if it will end up being my career direction, but I really like the thought of it. The nicest thing is that most of the talent and skills required to do such a job are either there or not, which should quickly make it apparent when preparing for this cert whether one is cut out for it or not.
#2 by Jason - October 6th, 2008 at 19:12
thanks for the comment Vince!
I actually agree, i am also enamored with it. Having the knowledge of the tools assumes knowledge of pre requisite security, and both these combined give a basis for a pentester. It’s being on our side of the fence though, as most of the pentesters/infosec folks have a HUGE gripe with the CEH. I’m hoping that this revamped curriculum will change some minds.