// Comparison

Hacking et Forensic vs Penetration Testing: Which Should You Read?

Two cybersecurity books on Offensive, compared honestly: who each is for, what each does best, and which to read first.

Intermediate

4/52015

Développez vos propres outils en Python

Franck Ebel, Jérôme Hennecart

A hands-on French guide to building your own offensive and forensic tools in Python — networking, packet crafting, web and forensic scripting — for people who'd rather write the tool than buy it.

Beginner

4/52014

Penetration Testing

A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking

Georgia Weidman

Georgia Weidman's lab-driven introduction to pentesting, walking the reader from setting up a target environment through scanning, exploitation, post-exploitation, and reporting.

Read this if

French-speaking pentesters and analysts who know some Python and want to build custom tooling: sockets, scapy-style packet work, web clients and forensic scripts. Practical and project-driven.

Beginners who want a single hands-on intro that walks them through a complete pentest workflow: lab setup, recon, exploitation, post-exploitation, reporting. Still the friendliest entry point in print.

Skip this if

Complete programming beginners, or readers who want ready-made tools rather than to build them. You need basic Python comfort to get value.

Readers who already work in offensive security or want current-decade tooling specifics. The edition is dated against modern Active Directory tradecraft and EDR realities; the workflow is timeless, the tools are not.

Key takeaways

One of the few French books that teaches security by having you build the tools, not just run them.
Python-centric and practical: networking, packet manipulation, web and forensic scripting from scratch.
Best for the reader who already codes a little and wants to turn that into custom offensive/forensic capability.

A complete pentest is a small number of repeated motions (recon, find foothold, escalate, pivot, document); Weidman teaches the rhythm before the tooling.
Lab setup is half the learning; running through the book's Metasploitable-and-Windows-VM lab is what builds the muscle memory the OSCP later assumes.
Reporting matters as much as exploitation; the book is one of the few intro texts that takes the deliverable seriously.

How they compare

Hacking et Forensic and Penetration Testing are both rated 4/5 in our catalog. Pick by topic preference and reading style rather than by rating.

Hacking et Forensic is pitched at intermediate level. Penetration Testing is pitched at beginner level. Read the easier one first if you're not yet comfortable with the topic.

Hacking et Forensic and Penetration Testing both cover Offensive, Tooling, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.

Keep reading

Hacking et Forensic

→ Alternatives to Hacking et Forensic → What to read after Hacking et Forensic