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Expert
Level 5 · Offensive

Automotive Penetration Testing Expert

Run full-scope offensive engagements against vehicles and their backends.

Duration
10 weeks
Delivery format
Hybrid
Certification
AutoSec Offensive Expert
Enroll NowBook Consultation

Overview

What This Program Is For

Ten weeks of authorised offensive work against vehicle systems, ending in a report engineering can act on. The program deliberately front-loads defensive implementation, because testers who have built secure boot find the flaws in it considerably faster than those who have only read about it.

Offensive security for automotive systems. Attack surface mapping, bus and diagnostic exploitation, wireless entry points, telematics and reporting that engineering teams can act on.

Who should attend

  • Security engineers moving into offensive automotive work
  • Penetration testers entering the automotive sector
  • Validation engineers extending into adversarial testing
  • Consultants delivering vehicle security assessments

Prerequisites

  • Secure ECU Developer or equivalent
  • Practical security testing experience

Curriculum

4 Modules Across 10 weeks

Every module is assessed. Durations are indicative for open cohorts and are compressed or extended for corporate delivery.

  1. Attack surface mapping

    2 weeks

  2. Bus and diagnostic exploitation

    3 weeks

  3. Wireless and telematics attacks

    3 weeks

  4. Reporting and remediation

    2 weeks

Learning outcomes

What You Take Back to Your Programme

Capability you can demonstrate, not topics you have been exposed to.

What you will be able to do

  • Map and prioritise a vehicle attack surface
  • Exploit bus, diagnostic and wireless weaknesses
  • Chain findings into realistic attack scenarios
  • Deliver reports that drive remediation

  • Career outcomes

    • Automotive Penetration Tester
    • Red Team Engineer
    • Security Researcher

  • Capability levels

    • Offensive Security Expert

  • Tools and skills

    • CAN interface and bus tooling
    • Software-defined radio
    • Exploitation framework
    • Diagnostic and UDS tooling
    • Hardware analysis bench

Labs included

Hands-On Time on Real Hardware

Lab access is included with this program, and the exercises below are assessed rather than optional.

  • Included lab
    2 assessed exercises

    AutoSec Secure Development Lab

    Harden ECU software on real hardware

    Objectives

    • Implement secure boot on an automotive microcontroller
    • Integrate an HSM-backed key hierarchy
    • Apply SecOC to a CAN communication matrix

    Practical exercises

    • Secure boot chain of trust
      advanced
      5 hours

      Build and verify a signed bootloader with rollback protection.

    • SecOC on a CAN bus
      advanced
      4 hours

      Add authentication and freshness to safety-relevant CAN frames.

  • Included lab
    2 assessed exercises

    AutoSec Red Team Lab

    Attack the vehicle to defend it

    Objectives

    • Map the attack surface of a connected vehicle
    • Exploit diagnostic and bus-level weaknesses
    • Escalate from a wireless entry point to a safety-relevant domain

    Practical exercises

    • Diagnostic session takeover
      advanced
      4 hours

      Defeat weak seed-key authentication and reach a privileged UDS session.

    • Wireless entry to CAN pivot
      advanced
      5 hours

      Chain a wireless foothold into control of an in-vehicle network segment.

Certification mapping

Where This Sits in the Framework

How the program maps to the AutoSec Automotive Cybersecurity Capability Framework™ and the certification ladder.

Capability Framework

Offensive Security Expert

Develop automotive penetration testing, red team and exploit research capabilities.

  • Automotive penetration testing
  • CAN and Automotive Ethernet attack vectors
  • Red team operations
  • Hardware-based exploitation

Certification

AutoSec Certified Expert

Recognises independent offensive and validation capability: penetration testing against real ECU hardware, fuzzing campaigns and defensible findings.

Level 4 · Expert

Exam preparation

Format
hybrid
Duration
6 hours
Passing score
80%
Valid for
3 years
  • Hold the Professional certification
  • Complete Automotive Penetration Testing Expert or Automotive Fuzz Testing Expert
  • Deliver a full engagement report assessed by a practitioner panel
See the full certification ladder

Common questions

Automotive Penetration Testing Expert FAQ

What candidates and their managers ask before enrolling.

Is any of this work legal to perform on my own vehicle?
All lab work is performed on AutoSec hardware under a defined authorisation scope. Testing a vehicle you do not own, or one still under warranty and connected to a manufacturer backend, raises legal and contractual questions that vary by jurisdiction — the program covers how to establish authorisation properly before any engagement.
Why is Secure ECU Developer a prerequisite?
Because the fastest route to a finding is knowing how the control was built. Candidates who have implemented secure boot and SecOC themselves consistently identify implementation weaknesses that testers without that background miss entirely.
What does the final assessment involve?
A full engagement against a lab target: scoping, attack surface mapping, exploitation and a written report assessed by a practitioner panel on whether engineering could act on it. Findings alone do not pass — the report has to be usable.

Ready to Start AutoSec Offensive Expert?

Enrol as an individual, or talk to us about running this program for your engineering team.

Enroll NowBook Consultation