Cyber Reference Manual

This site serves as a reference for various cybersecurity tools, websites, and offers some guides. This site is for educational purposes.

About and Contact

I love cats, maps, and chaos. If you too enjoy any of those things, we should talk. Add @catsmapschaos on Discord or send an email to: catsmapschaos@pm.me where you may request Signal.

Likewise if you want to discuss anything about this website or want to report a bug, reach out.

Disclaimer and Bugs

Everything on this website is provided as-is. I do my best to credit fellow researchers when showcasing their tools or their public methodologies. There still may be mistakes. As time progresses, content may become outdated. Any content on this website you may follow at your own risk. You take full responsibility for your actions. Ensure you have proper scope and authorization with everything you do.

If you notice a bug on this website, whether it's a typo, misconfiguration, dead link, formatting quirk, etc., reach out to me. I'll put you on a dedicated credits page.

Without further ado, feel free to explore the site! If you're new, here's some friendly unsolicited advice:

Gain a Solid Foundation

Having a strong understanding of how operating systems work, how networks operate, and how systems and applications interact will help significantly. Pace yourself, and it helps to be on the journey with others too.

Read Books and Blogs

There is nothing in this field you cannot learn for free online through publicly available resources. There are several excellent books and cyber blogs as well.

Practice Hands-on Skills

One free resource I routinely recommend is pwn.college which is hosted by Arizona State University. It is also worth starting your own personal project or research, as you will learn much more this way. If you have no clue where to start, look at spinning up virtual machines and create an internal lab to experiment with.

See What's Out There

There are so many various career pathways in cyber other than the typical blue and red team roles. CISA's Cyber Career Pathways Tool is an excellent resource for seeing what's out there.

Be Curious and Think Outside of the Box

Curiosity and creativity are crucial traits in this field. If you don't particularly enjoy one sector of cyber, don't torture yourself. There's a massive world out there to explore.