How to start learning to become a white hacker and sites for improving your hacking and cyber security skills

Information and Cyber Security has now become a huge field. It is much more complex than it was a few years ago. This has to do with all the advancements in software and technology.

From null to even intermediate  in Cyber Security and Penetration Testing will more than likely take anyone with no skills at least a few years if they spend 2-3 hours a day. This is because by merely using some "hacking" tools it’s not enough, we need to understand how everything works.

Anyone can start to learn "hacking" in the confinement of their homes. This can be done 100% legally as long as you do not attempt to attack anything outside of your private network. This means you can learn to "hack" in a 100% legal way.

There are multiple ways in doing this.. The following list is compiled from searching the internet and using similar lists, I hope it will be useful to anyone wanting to play around.

I recommend starting out with Overthewire.org. They have multiple wargames which you can play by just using SSH from Linux/Unix or Putty from Windows. The basics of security and security flaws are shown.

LiveOverflow youtube channel has computer cyber security and reverse engineering basics with cool explanations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyAyN3GFM7A&list=PLhixgUqwRTjxglIswKp9mpkfPNfHkzyeN

A great guide is Trail Of Bits it has links to many pdf’s and  guides as well as examples https://trailofbits.github.io/ctf/.

You will learn the most by installing VirtualBox or VMWare. Installing and configuring Kali Linux and then downloading  vulnerable machines and trying to root them. Start by downloading the oldest ones from VulnHub.

I will start publishing writeups with examples in the near future.

Yellow means very interesting site to learn from
Embedded Security CTF https://microcorruption.com
EnigmaGroup http://www.enigmagroup.org/ Cool, need to pay to go further

Hack This Site http://www.hackthissite.org/
HackThis http://www.hackthis.co.uk/
HackQuest http://www.hackquest.com/
Hack.me https://hack.me
Hacking-Lab https://www.hacking-lab.com
Hack The Box https://www.hackthebox.gr/en
Hacker Challenge http://www.dareyourmind.net/
Hacker Test http://www.hackertest.net/
hACME Game http://www.hacmegame.org/
Halls Of Valhalla http://halls-of-valhalla.org/beta/challenges
Hax.Tor http://hax.tor.hu/
PentestIT http://www.pentestit.ru/en/
CSC Play on Demand https://pod.cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/

RootContest http://rootcontest.com/
Root Me http://www.root-me.org/?lang=en
Security Treasure Hunt http://www.securitytreasurehunt.com/
Smash The Stack http://www.smashthestack.org/
SQLZoo http://sqlzoo.net/hack/
TheBlackSheep and Erik http://www.bright-shadows.net/
ThisIsLegal http://thisislegal.com/
Try2Hack http://www.try2hack.nl/
WabLab http://www.wablab.com/hackme
XSS: Can You XSS This? http://canyouxssthis.com/HTMLSanitizer/
XSS Game https://xss-game.appspot.com/
XSS: ProgPHP http://xss.progphp.com/

reverse engineering http://reversing.kr/
http://pwnable.kr/ pwnable
https://www.hellboundhackers.org/
https://net-force.nl/challenges/

Capture the flag repository which you can download and run on your own PC
http://captf.com/

catch the flag and learn https://ctflearn.com/index.php

All CTF events view pages and view sourcecode..
https://ctftime.org/ctfs

DefCon CTF
https://github.com/legitbs/
https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-ctf.html