OffSec’s OSWE certification is one of the most advanced offensive cyber security certifications on the market. It validates a candidate’s ability to perform white box exploits on web applications based on source code review and analysis.
Because it’s such a specialized and advanced hacking certification, OffSec Web Expert (OSWE) is highly valued by employers for many senior Penetration Tester, Ethical Hacker, Web App Security, and even defensive cyber security roles.
However, to become certified, you must sit a difficult exam that requires mental and physical stamina. The exam takes just under two days, and many candidates take that entire amount of time to complete the objectives (with some time in between for sleep).
Below, we've explained everything you need to know to learn more about the OSWE certification, course, and exam.
Read on to find out if it’s for you.
What Is OffSec Web Expert (OSWE Certification)?
OffSec offers the OSWE certification, an advanced and specialized cyber security certification focusing on white box web app hacking. Let’s examine what this means.
What Is OffSec?
OffSec—formerly Offensive Security—is best known for creating Kali Linux and administering the Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP). It is an information security and penetration testing company that offers training and certifications in hacking, penetration testing, exploit development, security operations (SecOps), and development security operations (DevSecOps).
OffSec’s certifications are some of the most in-demand certifications in the cyber security job market, largely because of their thoroughness and practicality. The OffSec Certified Professional (OSCP) is a perfect example.
Their exams are often considered to be “trials by fire,” demanding a lot of the test takers in a short amount of time. The OSCP exam, for instance, is a 24-hour hands-on sprint, and the OSWE exam is an almost 48-hour marathon.
Employers value OffSec certifications in their prospective employees because they demonstrate proven, hands-on hacking or pentesting experience.
Primary Focus of OSWE
The OSWE certification and exam and its corresponding WEB-300 Advanced Web Attacks and Exploitation (AWAE) course focus on exploiting front-facing web applications using white box hacking techniques.
Web apps are dynamic and interactive websites like digital stores or web-based office applications like Google Docs.
In the context of hacking and penetration testing, black box testing looks for vulnerabilities by considering web application behavior, and white box testing looks for vulnerabilities by examining their internal structure—i.e., their code.
OSWE focuses on analyzing the underlying code of web apps to discover vulnerabilities that can be exploited and how to do so successfully to achieve remote code execution (RCE).
In short, an OSWE certification validates a candidate’s ability to perform white box code analysis of web applications and exploit vulnerabilities in their internal structure.
Are you curious about some other penetration testing certifications? Check out our 10 Best Pentesting Certifications list.
Experience Level
OSWE is an advanced, specialized cyber security certification, so you should have significant foundational knowledge and experience in cyber security, hacking, and penetration testing before attempting it.
According to OffSec, before taking the OSWE course and sitting the exam, candidates should have the following:
- Familiarity with Linux
- Comfort reading and writing at least one coding language
- The ability to write simple Python/Perl/PHP/Bash scripts
- Experience with web proxies
- A general understanding of web app attack vectors, theory, and practice
Generally, to pass the OSWE, candidates should possess the knowledge expected of an OSCP Certification Holder and an understanding of programming.
In fact, much of the OSWE exam focuses on analyzing code and writing scripts, so the more programming experience, the better.
At the very least, candidates should understand basic programming concepts like object orientation.
Primary Audience
The OSWE certification is primarily for cyber security professionals with some programming experience who want to specialize in web application security or penetration testing.
The WEB-300 course and OSWE certification could also be of interest to the following people:
- Defensive web application security specialists looking to get the inside scoop on how their adversaries work to shore up their web app defenses
- Penetration testers and red team operatives looking to expand their toolkit with white box techniques
- Developers looking to specialize in application security
- Black box web application testers looking to broaden their domain to include white box testing
In short, OSWE should interest anyone with significant programming and penetration testing skills and experience who wants to specialize in—or expand—their toolkit to include white box web app testing.
What Does the OffSec Web Expert (OSWE) Exam Cover?
The OffSec Web Expert (OSWE) exam is an almost two-day practical test where you can implement all you’ve learned about white box web app analysis, penetration, and exploitation.
Here’s what you need to know.
OSWE Exam Domains
Because the OSWE exam is practical rather than multiple-choice, there aren’t any specific domains for it. However, the WEB-300 course covers everything you need to know to pass the exam and some core skill areas.
These are some of the main practical skills you’ll learn in OSWE’s WEB-300 course:
- Authentication bypass
- Code analysis
- SQL injection
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)
- Deserialization
- Server-side request forgery (SSRF)
- Server-side template injection (SSTI)
Much of what the exam covers overlaps with the vulnerabilities and exploits outlined in the OWASP top 10 list, OWASP’s (Open Web Application Security Project) list of web applications' most critical security risks.
OSWE largely focuses on analyzing code to identify vulnerabilities that enable these risks to be exploited.
Broadly, exploiting these security risks is bypassing a web app’s authentication, escalating your privileges, and executing code remotely.
In addition, you must be able to write all of your steps into a single script that can be run to recreate and perform the exploit.
Tools and Techniques
The WEB-300 course covers many tools and techniques that might be required to exploit the target machines in the OSWE exam. While it’s important to learn and perfect them all, here are some of the most important ones:
- Source code analysis
- SQL injection
- Command injection
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)
- Server-side template injection (SSTI)
- Server-side request forgery (SSRF)
- Deserialization
- Prototype pollution
- Type juggling
- Mass assignment
- Authentication bypass
There are, however, some restrictions. OffSec says you’re not allowed to use the following during the exam:
- Source code analyzers
- Automatic exploitation tools (e.g., db_autopwn, browser_autopwn, SQLmap, SQLninja, etc.)
- Mass vulnerability scanners (e.g., Nessus, NeXpose, OpenVAS, Canvas, Core Impact, SAINT, etc.)
- AI Chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT, YouChat, etc.)
- Features in other tools that use either forbidden or restricted exam limitations
- Remote mounting of application source code is not allowed (e.g., using sshfs, sftp, etc.)
You are, however, allowed to use “tools such as Nmap (and its scripting engine), Nikto, Burp Suite Community Edition, DirBuster, etc., and payload generator tools such as msfvenom and ysoserial against any of your target systems.”
How Do I Become OffSec Web Expert Certified?
To become OSWE certified, you must purchase the course and exam, sit it, and pass it. Let’s examine what this involves.
OSWE Certification Purchase Options
There are three purchase options for the OSWE certification. All options contain OffSec’s Advanced Web Attacks and Exploitation (WEB-300) training course and at least one attempt at passing the OSWE exam. Still, the two more expensive options come with additional features.
It’s not mandatory to do the WEB-300 course, but it’s highly recommended you do so.
The course will cover all the different tools and techniques that might be required to tackle the exam. There’s no way of knowing which methods will be required before you sit it, but you can be sure they’ll be picked from the course’s content.
| Course & Certification Exam Bundle | Learn One | Learn Unlimited | |
| Cost | $1,749 (one payment) | $2,749 per year | $6,099 per year |
| Courses | WEB-300 | WEB-300 | Unlimited |
| OSWE exam attempts | 1 | 2 | Unlimited |
| Lab access | 90 days | One year | One year |
| Fundamentals content | X | ✓ | ✓ |
| Proving Grounds access | X | ✓ | ✓ |
| PEN-103 course and 1x KLCP exam | X | ✓ | ✓ |
| PEN-210 course and 1x OSWP exam | X | ✓ | ✓ |
If you’re just looking to sit OSWE, the Course and Certification Bundle will probably be the best option unless you want more than 90 days of lab access. If you need to retake the OSWE exam, you can do so for an additional fee of $249.
OSWE Exam Layout
The OSWE certification exam has you connect to a network via a VPN, and you’re tasked with breaking into two web applications on two target machines in the network and receiving the proof files from them.
You must do this within 47 hours and 45 minutes, after which you’ll have 24 hours to upload everything you’ve documented.
After connecting and getting set up on the development machine located in the lab environment’s network, you’ll examine the decompiled source code for the target web apps on the production machines, figure out how to exploit them, write your exploit chain for each machine into a script for each, and attain the proof files.
During the process, you should document what you do every step of the way, including steps taken, commands issued, console outputs, and source codes. You should get screenshots, too. All this will form your penetration test exam report that you’ll submit as a .7z file for assessment following the initial 48 hours of testing.
If awarded 85 points or higher (up to 100 maximum), you passed the exam and will hold an OSWE certification.
You should receive the results within ten business days after submitting your report. Points are awarded for completing exam objectives, which you’ll find in your exam control panel, and the ability to revert target machines and submit proof files.
The exam is proctored and is often described as a marathon. In addition to being prepared for the technical tasks ahead of you, it’s important to get enough sleep and eat well to maintain stamina throughout the exam.
Many candidates report performing well because they got enough sleep during the exam, especially after the first day of working on exploits.
Why Would I Pursue the OffSec Web Expert (OSWE Certification)?
Whether you want to improve your ethical hacking or penetration testing skill set, land an expert-level cyber security job, or anything in between, there are plenty of reasons to pursue OSWE.
Let’s look at why it’s such a valued certification.
OSWE Job Opportunities
OSWE is an advanced, specialized, offensive cyber security certification. As such, there aren’t many jobs that explicitly require it. Indeed lists over 50 jobs that mention OSWE in the US.
ZipRecruiter’s salary data shows that OSWE certification holders can expect an average salary of $137,131 in the US, with a steady distribution of salaries up to $186,500.
Because OSWE is an advanced certification, many junior roles or roles that aren’t web app-specific and don’t list the certification as a requirement should still be open to the OSWE holder.
While a hiring manager might not list it, they should recognize the advanced skills the certification demonstrates.
Most jobs requiring the less advanced and less specialized OSCP certification, for example, should be open to OSWE holders, and Indeed shows over 400 job advertisements that mention OSCP in the US.
Looking beyond named certifications, plenty of offensive and defensive cyber security roles require skills demonstrated by an OSWE certification.
Any offensive or defensive job requiring knowledge of web application security and static application security testing (SAST) skills should be a good fit for an OSWE holder.
Indeed shows over 16,000 jobs mentioning web application security on Indeed, with roles such as Web Application Security Engineer listing requirements or preferred skills that an OSWE certification should demonstrate.
Also, remember that more junior roles, such as general Blue Team or Red Team operative roles, Penetration Tester roles, and Ethical Hacker roles, might be open to you if you hold the certification.
OSWE Value
An OSWE certification is incredibly valuable. While few jobs explicitly mention the certification, it’s nevertheless an advanced certification that opens doors to the most advanced offensive cyber security roles.
Holding an OSWE certification proves to employers that you have battle-hardened, real-world, advanced penetration testing skills.
Remember that OSWE focuses primarily on hacking white box web apps. In other words, while it assumes decent prior penetration testing and hacking knowledge, it isn’t a general hacking certification.
So, you should be interested in web app hacking and white box testing rather than black box testing.
OSWE is an invaluable certification if you’re keen on finding exploits for vulnerable web applications that you can examine the source code of.
Many who have taken the OSWE exam say that it’s one of the only courses and exams that covers white box hacking techniques in such detail. For example, most other courses don’t cover type juggling.
These are more than theoretical skills: they can be applied in real-life penetration testing or web app security roles.
Employers also value this certification highly because it demonstrates mastery, or at least comfortable familiarity, with the foundational hacking skills that are a precursor to OSWE, such as the skills developed for the OSCP exam.
Conclusion: Is the OffSec Web Expert (OSWE) Worth It?
OffSec’s OSWE certification is worth pursuing if you know your penetration testing fundamentals and want to specialize in web app white box hacking to advance your hacking skills.
Because it’s such an advanced certification, employers also highly value it. While few mention it directly, many high-salary cyber security roles would benefit from the advanced skills an OSWE certification validates.
If you’re seeking a path toward gaining your OSWE certification, consider joining the StationX Master's Program. Not only will it give you access to over 30,000 hacking and hacking-adjacent courses and labs, but it will also give you access to mentorship, community discussions, career advice, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Guarantee Your Cyber Security Career with the StationX Master’s Program!
Get real work experience and a job guarantee in the StationX Master’s Program. Dive into tailored training, mentorship, and community support that accelerates your career.
- Job Guarantee & Real Work Experience: Launch your cybersecurity career with guaranteed placement and hands-on experience within our Master’s Program.
- 30,000+ Courses and Labs: Hands-on, comprehensive training covering all the skills you need to excel in any role in the field.
- Pass Certification Exams: Resources and exam simulations that help you succeed with confidence.
- Mentorship and Career Coaching: Personalized advice, resume help, and interview coaching to boost your career.
- Community Access: Engage with a thriving community of peers and professionals for ongoing support.
- Advanced Training for Real-World Skills: Courses and simulations designed for real job scenarios.
- Exclusive Events and Networking: Join events and exclusive networking opportunities to expand your connections.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR CAREER TODAY!
