What Is CompTIA PenTest+?

Overview

CompTIA PenTest+ is a CompTIA credential. Build hands-on penetration testing and vulnerability assessment skills for ethical hacking roles. This PathKey™ guide summarizes the domains, format, cost signals, eligibility, and renewal pattern so you can decide before you book. Accumentum is a CompTIA Authorized Training Partner and an Army CA and Air Force COOL Approved Vendor. CompTIA sets exam content, fees, and policies.

Accumentum is a CompTIA Authorized Training Partner and an Army CA and Air Force COOL Approved Vendor. CompTIA sets exam content, fees, and policies.

Who it is for

• Aspiring and current penetration testers seeking structured PenTest+ PT0-003 certification preparation through expert-led PenTest+.
• Security consultants, vulnerability analysts, cybersecurity analysts, red team support professionals, security engineers, and technical staff who need to validate offensive security capability.
• Professionals responsible for vulnerability assessment, ethical hacking support, attack simulation, web application testing, cloud security testing, security reporting, and remediation planning.

Exam domains

Weights follow the official outline.

1. 01

   Engagement Management: Planning, Scoping, Testing Windows, and Target Selection

   Plan and scope penetration testing engagements by defining objectives, boundaries, target selection, testing windows, stakeholder contacts, and engagement deliverables, Develop rules of engagement that establish authorized activities, permitted tools, excluded systems, communication expectations, escalation paths, and evidence handling requirements, and Review how planning decisions affect legal authorization, operational risk, test validity, customer expectations, and final reporting quality.

2. 02

   Legal and Ethical Compliance, Stakeholder Communication, and Penetration Test Reports

   Apply legal and ethical requirements involving authorization letters, mandatory reporting, regulatory constraints, data handling expectations, and authorized testing boundaries, Use collaboration and communication practices such as peer reviews, stakeholder alignment, risk articulation, escalation paths, and status reporting, and Create penetration test reports that include executive summaries, findings, evidence, severity context, attack narratives, remediation recommendations, and technical detail appropriate for multiple audiences.

3. 03

   Reconnaissance and Enumeration: OSINT, Scanning, Service Discovery, and Scripts

   Perform active and passive reconnaissance using open-source intelligence, protocol scanning, network sniffing, and structured information gathering methods, Apply enumeration techniques such as DNS enumeration, service discovery, directory enumeration, account discovery, and target environment mapping, and Review reconnaissance tools and tool categories such as Nmap, Wireshark, Shodan, DNS utilities, packet analysis tools, and enumeration frameworks.

4. 04

   Vulnerability Discovery and Analysis: Scanning, Validation, and Result Review

   Conduct vulnerability scans using authenticated, unauthenticated, static application security testing, and dynamic application security testing approaches, Analyze scan results, validate findings, troubleshoot tool configuration issues, identify false positives, and prioritize exploitable security weaknesses, and Use vulnerability discovery tools and concepts associated with Nessus, Nikto, OpenVAS, web application scanners, configuration review, and manual validation.

5. 05

   Attacks and Exploits: Network Attacks and Authentication Attacks

   Review network attack concepts including VLAN hopping, on-path attacks, service exploitation, protocol abuse, exposed services, and misconfiguration exploitation, Analyze authentication attacks including brute force, password spraying, credential stuffing, pass-the-hash, token abuse, and weak authentication workflows, and Understand how attack selection depends on reconnaissance findings, vulnerability validation, scope, authorization, risk level, and target environment constraints.

6. 06

   Host-Based Attacks, Web Application Attacks, and Exploitation Workflows

   Review host-based attack concepts including privilege escalation, process injection, credential dumping, local misconfiguration, weak permissions, and post-access exploitation considerations, Analyze web application attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, directory traversal, input validation failures, insecure session handling, and application-layer misconfiguration, and Connect exploit selection to vulnerability evidence, proof-of-concept validation, safe testing boundaries, business impact, and remediation reporting.

7. 07

   Cloud, API, IoT, Container, IAM, and AI Attack Concepts

   Review cloud-based attack concepts such as container escapes, metadata service attacks, excessive permissions, exposed storage, and identity and access management misconfiguration, Understand how APIs, IoT systems, containers, and cloud services expand the attack surface and require careful scope definition, enumeration, validation, and reporting, and Explain AI-related attack concepts such as prompt injection and model manipulation against artificial intelligence systems.

8. 08

   Post-Exploitation: Persistence, Cleanup, Impact Analysis, and Remediation Support

   Review post-exploitation activities including establishing persistence, validating access, assessing impact, identifying sensitive systems, and protecting evidence integrity, Understand cleanup responsibilities such as removing artifacts, documenting changes, returning systems to expected state, and communicating residual risk, and Connect post-exploitation activity to remediation planning by showing how attackers could use access and what controls can reduce risk.

9. 09

   Lateral Movement, Attack Narratives, Findings, and Remediation Documentation

   Explain lateral movement concepts, pivoting considerations, access expansion, credential reuse, network pathing, and movement between systems within authorized scope, Document attack narratives that clearly connect reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, exploitation, post-exploitation, lateral movement, and evidence, and Translate technical findings into remediation recommendations that address root causes, control gaps, validation steps, and risk reduction priorities.

10. 10

    CompTIA PenTest+ PT0-003 Exam Readiness and Domain Review

    Review all five PenTest+ V3 exam domains: Engagement Management, Reconnaissance and Enumeration, Vulnerability Discovery and Analysis, Attacks and Exploits, and Post-Exploitation and Lateral Movement, Prepare for the PT0-003 exam format, including multiple-choice and performance-based questions that assess practical penetration testing capability, and Reinforce the official skills learned: planning and scoping engagements, conducting reconnaissance and enumeration, discovering and validating vulnerabilities, executing controlled attacks, maintaining persistence, performing lateral movement, and documenting findings.

Exam format and cost

Questions

Confirm on the vendor site

Duration

Confirm on the vendor site

Format

Multiple choice and related item types (confirm on the vendor outline)

Passing score

750

Cost

Confirm the current U.S. voucher price on CompTIA's store before you buy (often listed in the mid-$300s to low-$400s USD in 2026)

Delivery

Confirm delivery options on the vendor site

Languages

Confirm available languages on the vendor site

Experience and eligibility

CompTIA publishes recommended experience on the official exam page. Confirm before you register.

Renewal

Renewal rules for CompTIA PenTest+ are set by CompTIA. Many credentials use a multi-year cycle with continuing education, a renewal fee, or a newer exam. Confirm the current cycle on the vendor site.

Roles this credential fits

• Planning and scoping, reconnaissance and enumeration, vulnerability discovery and analysis, attacks and exploits, post-exploitation, lateral movement, documentation, and remediation aligned with the current CompTIA PenTest+ V3 PT0-003 exam objectives.
• Offensive Security
• Teams standardizing on this credential for hiring or compliance

Official sources

• CompTIA certifications

Always confirm fees, dates, and eligibility on the vendor site before you register. Vendors change outlines and prices without notice.