I am currently trying to learn cyber security, specifically pentesting. I also do blue team things now and then, but not too often. I’ve started about 2 years ago with programming in python, later golang. I feel like I am decent in both. However when it comes to pentesting and security in general. It doesn’t feel like I’m doing progress whatsoever. I know about theoretical Linux, networking, programming and that stuff, but when it comes to the hands on tasks, I fail miserably. I know know how HTTP works, but can’t do easy Hack the Box CTFs without a complete writeup (not just little hints). I solved a few CTFs on different platforms with the help of writeups because I thought I just lacked the creative thinking part, but I don’t see any progress. And when I feel like doing CTFs, I quickly loose motivation because I don’t get anything done. Can anyone relate? How can I overcome this?
Hacking my local ISP, electricity provider, university and a bunch of companies. Back in the late 90’s, quite a few of those took little more than dissecting cgi scripts in public folders to gain ftp credentials, uploading a script to some autostart/cronjob folder and waiting for the next reboot, that inevitably came within 72h.