Offensive Security
More info
- Creator
- Mati Aharoni
- Type
- Security training
The company behind Kali Linux and the OSCP, a certification you can't pass by memorising multiple-choice answers.
Started in the mid-2000s by Mati Aharoni, it grew out of the community around BackTrack, the penetration testing distro of the day. In 2013 BackTrack was replaced by Kali Linux, which became the default toolbox for pentesters and a recurring prop in films where someone "hacks in".
The actual business is training. The OSCP exam is 24 hours against live machines followed by a written report, and the motto Try Harder has become both a badge of honour and a meme. The company also runs the Exploit Database, a public archive of published exploits. Since 2022 it has gone by OffSec.