Unit 01 · 1 h 37 min
Requests and responses
Send requests with curl and the browser, and read the status line, headers and body that come back.
How the Web Works
Read HTTP, cookies, certificates, APIs and AI widgets with curl and devtools, and review a web app the way a defender does.
- Time
- 16 h 1 min
- Lessons
- 50
- Machine
- Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
What you earn
RootCertificateHow the Web Works, certificate of completion CompTIANetwork+CompTIA Network+ CompTIASecurity+CompTIA Security+
Prepares you for CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+. Root is not affiliated with these issuers.
You will be able to
- Send requests with curl and read status codes, redirects and headers
- Use the browser's developer tools to see the same traffic
- Check a site's security headers, cookies and TLS against a baseline
- Review how an app stores passwords and runs sign-in, MFA and OAuth
- Test an API for token, access-control and rate-limit flaws
Units and lessons
Unit 02 · 1 h 32 min
URLs, methods and redirects
Take a URL apart, use the right method and follow every redirect to where it really leads.
Unit 03 · 1 h 38 min
Headers
Read response headers, check the security ones against a baseline and keep private pages out of caches.
Unit 04 · 1 h 56 min
Cookies and sessions
Sign in, read the cookies the app sets and check how its sessions start, travel and end.
Unit 05 · 1 h 34 min
HTTPS and certificates
Inspect the shop's TLS, the authority behind its certificate and every certificate the company runs.
Unit 06 · 1 h 28 min
The browser security model
Use same origin, CORS, CSP and framing rules to judge which sites a browser lets near the shop.
Unit 07 · 2 h 18 min
Logins, MFA and tokens
Review how the shop checks and stores passwords, then read passkeys, OAuth and JWTs like a reviewer.
Unit 08 · 1 h 34 min
APIs and how modern apps talk
Query a JSON API, authenticate with tokens, check its limits and read its access log like a defender.
Unit 09 · 1 h 2 min
AI features on websites
Review a site's AI help widget: what it sends where, what can leak and how guardrails change things.
Unit 10 · 1 h 22 min
Capstone: review the shop
Pull every unit together into one web security review you could hand to the shop's developers.
Review a live shop app layer by layer, from one request to its API and AI assistant, with a real incident case file in every unit. Every unit ends with findings you could hand to its developers.