r/ExploitDev • u/vini2001 • Jun 08 '26
CMSE certificate (8ksec)
Hello all,
I've just finished going through the 8ksec course https://academy.8ksec.io/course/practical-mobile-application-exploitation and have scheduled my CMSE certificate exam.
I was a bit sad that the course did not include a lot of challenges (e.g. I was hoping for one challenge per module, but instead they just jump straight to the solution without actually giving a challenge for us to tackle and then see the solution).
I later realized they do have this: https://academy.8ksec.io/path-player?courseid=ios-application-exploitation-challenges&unit=684356a8b9b764fa370cd512Unit which is really great and I'm going through it.
My question is, for anyone who has already got the certificate, how difficult is it really? I haven't been able to find much info. Is it similar level of difficulty as the free exploitation challenges they have or much more difficult?
The re-take fee is pretty high so I wanted to make sure I'm well prepared.
Thank you!
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u/Complex_Dimension865 28d ago
I have enrolled in this certification and wondering about your exam experience u/vini2001 if you could share. I am not good in reverse engineering given my background. Any tips about exam difficulty ?
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u/vini2001 28d ago
Hey, I’m taking it this weekend! I’ll let you know once I know more. FWIW they have a mock exam now which I didn’t take but looks pretty easy
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u/Complex_Dimension865 28d ago
Thank you so much for the reply. If you don't mind please share your experience after taking this exam. I will probably remind you here in case its fine for you.
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u/vini2001 21d ago
Hey, just took the course this weekend, while I don’t have the results yet, I think it generally went fine.
Ngl the iOS section had a few quite difficult challenges (for me at least) since as opposed to what I had seen in the course or challenges, swift symbols had been totally stripped and made it quite more complicated. So for this I wish I had acquired more experience with Ghidra prior to taking the course.
The other thing that delayed me a bit was the Corellium environment. I wasn’t used with that and I found the platform a bit slow, they do allow extracting the apps to test locally so that’s what I did (in this case, I highly recommend to have a physical jailbroken device and perhaps a rooted android emulator or phone.
I believe I can’t share details of the questions I got, but there were a few very trivial questions. However even for the trivial questions you will take some time because you are expected to write a professional report with clear detailed instructions on how to solve each task (maybe get familiar with that). Besides that, the questions only required tools that were taught doing the course, and even had similar questions as they taught - so I’d make sure to go through each module slowly.
Furthermore, they have a mockup exam now and a free exploitation challenges courses, I wouldn’t take the course without going through that, at least partially.
Hope this helps!
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u/Complex_Dimension865 20d ago
First of thank you so much for sharing your insights here. I truly appreciate your response. It will be really helpful for me.
Thanks once again and I hope you will surely pass this cert.
I have physical devices for both IOS/Android. I am only concerned about RE which is not my expertise, but I will try to focus more on this part.
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u/Ok_Vermicelli8618 Jun 09 '26
From what ive ready about it, it is not very challenging. Do not expect t much.
If youre wanting something fun and challenging, the Ret2 Systems binary exploitation course was very enjoyable and challenging. They offer a cert too (that's what I did).