Hello hackers, hope all of you are happy and doing well. Today I’ll talk about my review of OSWE and how I approached it. This is my personal and honest review of one of the most demanded and reputable certificates.
What is OSWE?
The Offensive Security Web Expert (OSWE) is formerly known as AWAE (WEB-300). It’s part of OSCE3 by OffSec (OSEP + OSED + OSWE). This certificate is for web attacks and advanced exploitation — you’ll learn how to do source code review in white box, how to build your custom exploitation for critical vulnerabilities, how to analyze the code, and how to implement chained attacks using multiple vulnerabilities together.
Prerequisites
- If you’re a bug bounty hunter or an AppSec pentester who wants to sharpen your skills, I recommend taking PortSwigger Academy labs first — solve them to understand every vulnerability and how to exploit it as soon as you detect it. It’s even better if you dive into the Damn Vulnerable apps on GitHub in different languages (Java, PHP, NodeJS, Python).
- Get into Python libraries for web apps such as requests, BeautifulSoup, sessions, etc.
- Get familiar with regex.
- Practice code reviews on vulnerable apps such as DVWA (PHP), Mutillidae (Java), XVWA…
- Read about deserialization for different languages: ASP, Java, PHP.
Course Content
- Tools & Methodologies: web traffic inspection and interacting with web listeners using Python, recovering source code using JD-GUI (Java) or dnSpy (ASP), and the methodology for source code analysis.
- Debugging and remote debugging: a really awesome and helpful module, especially for the core of the course (white-box web app pentest). It focuses on different languages and helps when you’re stuck during analysis and need to figure out where a function is executed, or check logs / database statements for errors.
- Source code methodology: to be honest I didn’t like this module — it could be more helpful, especially for people who have no idea which functions to look at or where to look across many lines of code.
- Insecure Deserialization: if you have no idea about deserialization, you’ll like this module — it’s interesting, especially the DNN cookie RCE.
- Authentication Bypass and RCE (Java): you’ll get your hands dirty from remote debugging to analyzing the code to figure out how to get RCE. A good module.
- Server-Side Template Injection: I think it’s newly added, and it was fantastic — fits modern web apps in 2025.
- BlackBox Testing to RCE: one of the best modules. You’ll use every detail of web app pentesting to chain multiple vulnerabilities into RCE, and use some JavaScript to collect info about the app.
- SQL Injection and WAF Bypass: a good module with advanced techniques — turning SQLi into RCE depending on the DBMS (e.g. PostgreSQL), reading database logs for errors, and bypassing WAF filters to reach remote code execution and a reverse shell.
Labs Content
I really enjoyed the labs. There are archived labs that help for practicing white/black-box web pentesting and scripting vulnerability chains. The course labs were really good, and the videos teach you which functions to look for (e.g. SQL queries for SQLi, dangerous functions for RCE).
I recommend getting your hands dirty and building a fully automated exploit chain with Python. A big shout-out to my friend Mohamed Askar (@mhaskar) — his repo is full of exploits and chained vulnerabilities.
While working through the course and challenge labs, interact with web apps and read about important Python libraries and how to merge them to achieve what you want.
Resources I used to prepare
This exam wasn’t 100% easy — it was hard. I didn’t pass the first time; I only got 35 points and got trapped by rabbit holes and time sinks. You have to manage your time in the exam to avoid wasting it, and get rest when you can.
After the first attempt I realized it’s all about methodology — and just BRING IT! Pay attention to every single detail you’re given to analyze. I went back to complete the labs.
- Solve PortSwigger Web Security labs with automation, even the easy ones. Big shout-out to Ahmed Qal3awy — very helpful for automation with Python, and you can edit it your own way like I did.
- I recommend PentesterLab Pro — very useful for mastering code review, with badges in code review across languages (Java, PHP, Python) and solutions.
- Write your own scripts for multiple exploitations (SQLi, XXE, XSS, CSRF, SSTI) against DVWA, bWAPP, XVWA, WebGoat, Mutillidae…
- Get comfortable with Python for HTTP requests, handling sessions, parsing, and exfiltrating data.
- Keep documenting everything. I use Notion; some people like Obsidian — whatever works, but document what you learn because you’ll come back to it.
- If you get stuck in the labs, connect to the OffSec server and ask people, or use support — a big advantage with OffSec.
Final Thoughts
Overall I liked the course and the content, though it may get updated soon as some modules are a bit out of date. I chose OSWE because it’s tough and challenging — this course got me out of my comfort zone. It’s about a journey that teaches you a lot and helps you grow. It wasn’t easy to study every day as a full-time employee — a module a day, studying on the weekend — but stay positive and focus on what you want to achieve. After you get it, you forget everything and remember your effort.
The journey is yourself!
Happy hacking!
./bye