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Cyber Security / Penetration Testing
Web Application Penetration Testing and Security Vulnerability Assessment Portfolio
This postgraduate cyber security portfolio requires students to conduct a structured penetration test of a controlled web application and document the technical findings in a professional security-testing format. The assessment develops practical competence in identifying, validating and communicating security vulnerabilities while maintaining appropriate legal, ethical and professional boundaries. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … Students begin by performing network and service enumeration, identifying open ports and the services running on the target host. They are expected to interpret the security implications of the findings and provide appropriate recommendations to a hypothetical client. The assessment then progresses into web-application vulnerability testing using tools such as a web browser, Burp Suite Community, Nmap and student-developed scripts. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … A major part of the portfolio examines common web-security weaknesses including SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting. Students must demonstrate how they tested the application, capture relevant requests and responses, and explain the evidence supporting their conclusions. Additional tasks involve application and server reconnaissance, including identification of technologies, server versions, publicly exposed files and other information that may create security risks. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … The higher-level reporting component requires students to document significant vulnerabilities using the conventions of a professional penetration-test report. This includes assigning CVSS scores, relating identified weaknesses to the OWASP Top 10 and NIST classifications, and supporting findings with appropriate technical evidence. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … Students must also produce an executive summary for a non-technical audience, considering security, privacy, regulatory exposure and budget implications. A vulnerability table linking technical weaknesses with relevant regulatory concerns is also required. Overall, the assessment integrates technical penetration testing with risk communication, vulnerability classification, evidence collection and professional security reporting. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … Overview word count: approximately 320 words. AI-use note: AI can be used in this assessment, but any use must be acknowledged and AI-generated outputs must be appropriately cited. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) …
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Cyber Security / Ethical Hacking / Penetration Testing
4,000 words
Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing: Vulnerability Exploitation, Privilege Escalation and Mitigation
This Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing coursework requires students to conduct a practical CTF-style penetration test against a set of authorised target machines and produce a professional technical report documenting the compromise of one selected target. The assessment evaluates practical exploitation skills alongside the ability to analyse risk, explain attack vectors and recommend effective security controls. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… The practical element requires students to identify vulnerabilities in multiple target systems, exploit those weaknesses to gain low-privileged access and then perform privilege escalation to obtain root-level access. Successful completion of each stage produces flags, with separate user and root flags contributing directly to the practical marks. Brief descriptions of the attack vectors and payloads used must also be recorded. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… The written report focuses in detail on one compromised machine. Students must explain the reconnaissance and vulnerability-identification process, including the techniques used to discover services, web content and potential attack surfaces. The marking criteria specifically recognise appropriate reconnaissance tools such as Nmap and FFUF and reward clear justification of methods and links between reconnaissance results and identified threats. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… A further component requires a formal risk rating for the discovered vulnerabilities. Students should use a recognised risk-classification approach, such as OWASP or SANS, justify the assigned severity and discuss relevant social, legal and ethical considerations. Higher-performing work is expected to connect those considerations directly to the specific vulnerabilities identified. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… The exploit section should explain the technical cause of the vulnerability, describe the exploitation process and present relevant example payloads. Mitigation recommendations must then be linked directly to the vulnerabilities discovered, with clear explanations of where the weakness occurs and how it can be remediated. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… Overall, the coursework integrates reconnaissance, vulnerability analysis, exploitation, privilege escalation, risk assessment, ethical and legal considerations, technical reporting and defensive mitigation within an authorised penetration-testing environment. Important: this brief states that it is for Coventry University Group students' own use and must not be passed to third parties or posted publicly. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… So for your public Reference Library, use an original summary like the one above rather than uploading the assessment brief itself.
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Networking and Security Practice
Networking and Security Practice – Recorded Demonstration
This assessment for the MSc Cyber Security module Networking and Security Practice is a practical recorded-demonstration coursework designed to assess students' ability to configure, secure, troubleshoot and monitor a virtualised sandbox network. The assessment contributes 60% of the module mark and consists of four recorded demonstration videos, with each video limited to a maximum of five minutes. The completed videos are submitted through a Moodle quiz as video files or accessible links. The practical environment uses virtual machines running Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop on VirtualBox or UTM. Students deploy a four-machine architecture consisting of a Gateway, Webserver, Workstation and Zabbix-Server. The Gateway acts as the router, firewall and NAT gateway; the Webserver hosts an Nginx web server; the Workstation is used for administration and testing; and the Zabbix-Server provides network monitoring. The architecture requires appropriate network interfaces, IP addresses, routing and communication between the different internal networks. The coursework develops practical networking and system administration skills through several phases. Students install and configure operating systems, allocate virtual machine resources, configure static IP addresses, enable IP forwarding and NAT masquerading, and implement firewall rules using iptables. They also develop command-line proficiency using networking, DNS, security, remote-access and web tools including ping, traceroute, ss, nslookup, dig, nmap, Wireshark, netcat, SSH, SCP, rsync, curl and wget. Students must also configure secure remote access and deploy an Nginx web server. SSH must be hardened by disabling password authentication and root login, while key-based authentication is used for secure access. The Webserver must contain a customised landing page showing the student's name and student ID, which is accessed from the Workstation. The monitoring component requires installation and configuration of Zabbix, deployment of agents across the virtual machines, host monitoring, a customised dashboard containing at least five live-data widgets and configured alerts or triggers. Students must explain what their selected monitoring elements measure and why they are operationally useful. The traffic-analysis component uses Wireshark to capture and examine HTTP, ICMP and DNS traffic. Students apply appropriate filters, identify protocols using the Protocol Hierarchy and discuss the security implications of unencrypted HTTP traffic, including secure alternatives such as HTTPS and DNS over TLS. The security-evaluation component uses Nmap within the isolated virtualised sandbox to identify open ports and services, assess vulnerabilities and recommend mitigations. Students must also demonstrate iptables forwarding and NAT masquerading rules. The four videos cover Network Infrastructure, Network Monitoring, Traffic Analysis and Security Evaluation. The assessment is marked out of 100, with 35 marks allocated to Network Infrastructure, 25 to Network Monitoring, 20 to Traffic Analysis and 20 to Security Evaluation. Students are expected to provide clear voice narration, explain commands and outputs, demonstrate technical understanding and critically relate their work to network security. The assessment develops employability skills in Linux administration, remote system management, network troubleshooting, security hardening, packet analysis, port and service scanning, virtualisation and network monitoring. It also requires students to conduct security testing ethically within their own isolated virtualised environment and prohibits unauthorised scanning of university networks, public websites or other systems.
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Cyber Security / Penetration Testing
2,400 words
Grey-Box Penetration Testing: Vulnerability Assessment, Exploitation and Mitigation
This technical cyber-security project presents an authorised grey-box penetration test conducted within a controlled virtual laboratory environment. The objective is to assess the security posture of a deliberately vulnerable target system, identify weaknesses in exposed network services, demonstrate how those weaknesses could be exploited, evaluate their security and organisational impact, and recommend appropriate mitigation measures. The assessment follows a practical penetration-testing workflow supported by technical evidence, screenshots, activity records and academic research. The project begins with laboratory configuration, network discovery, service enumeration and vulnerability analysis. Tools including Kali Linux, Metasploitable, VMware, Nmap, Netcat and Metasploit are used across the testing lifecycle. Identified services are mapped to known vulnerabilities before controlled exploitation is undertaken and the resulting access is documented. The activity log records the progression from environment setup and network scanning through vulnerability identification, exploitation, evidence collection and final reporting. Five principal attack vectors are examined. These include the vsftpd 2.3.4 FTP backdoor, Samba username-map-script exploitation, an UnrealIRCd backdoor, insecure Java Remote Method Invocation and a misconfigured DistCC service. The practical demonstrations show how vulnerable or incorrectly configured services can permit unauthorised command execution and, in several cases, privileged shell access. For each vulnerability, the report explains the weakness, exploitation process, observed result, security impact and proposed mitigation. Recommended controls include patching or upgrading obsolete services, disabling unnecessary services, implementing firewall restrictions, strengthening authentication and input validation, restricting access to authorised systems, applying least privilege and monitoring suspicious activity. The project also incorporates group management and reflective practice. Team members perform specialised roles covering laboratory configuration, reconnaissance, vulnerability analysis, exploitation and documentation. Individual reflection considers technical performance, teamwork, evidence management and future skills development, demonstrating how structured collaboration contributes to an effective penetration-testing engagement. Important: unlike the earlier assignment briefs, these uploads appear to be completed student/project materials rather than the official 7COM1068 assessment brief. Therefore I would not invent the university, academic level or academic year. If you upload the actual 7COM1068 assignment guideline, I can fill those fields exactly.
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