srivathsannayak/ethical-hacking-notes

1. Repository purpose

- This is a personal cybersecurity knowledge base, not an application.

- The root README.md acts as the entry point and index to many learning tracks, labs, and writeups across offensive security, blue-team topics, networking, cloud, and certifications.

2. Top-level architecture

- The repo is organized by source/course/platform rather than by technical layer.

- Each top-level directory is a self-contained curriculum or platform: for example TryHackMe, HackTheBox, HTBAcademy, PracticalEthicalHacking_TCMSec, CloudSecurity, CompTIA_*, and others.

- This makes the repository a federation of note collections instead of one unified knowledge graph.

3. Primary content model

- Most content is Markdown-based documentation.

- Individual files typically represent one lesson, one lab, one room, or one box writeup.

- The architecture is therefore document-centric: directories are categories, and Markdown files are the atomic units of knowledge.

4. Large challenge/writeup subsystems

- TryHackMe/Rooms, HackTheBox/*.md, HTBAcademy/*, and picoCTF/* are the main challenge-oriented subsystems.

- These areas store solution writeups, flags, exploit notes, enumeration steps, and tactics for individual targets.

- They are meant for reference and replay, and the repo explicitly warns that these may contain spoilers.

5. Course and certification study tracks

- Directories like CompTIA_220-1001, CompTIA_220-1002, CompTIA_N10-007, CCNA, CloudSecurity, CybersecurityAnalyst, and the TCM Security tracks represent structured learning paths.

- These sections are more curriculum-like than exploit writeups: they break into topics such as networking, security, troubleshooting, cloud infrastructure, OS internals, and analyst workflows.

- Several of these are further subdivided into chapter-style subfolders with their own README.md files.

6. TCM Security tracks as modular subsystems

- The TCM-based directories are especially hierarchical: Intro, Recon, Enumeration, Privesc, Capstone, Automation, and similar submodules reflect staged learning.

- Examples include PracticalEthicalHacking_TCMSec, LinuxPrivilegeEscalation_TCMSec, WindowsPrivilegeEscalation_TCMSec, MPP_TCMSec, MalwareAnalysis_TCMSec, MobilePentest_TCMSec, and BugBounty_TCMSec.

- These are organized as progressive skill pipelines: fundamentals → enumeration → exploitation → post-exploitation → reporting or capstone.

7. Executable/scripted artifacts

- A small subset of the repo contains actual code, mainly Python, used as study artifacts or attack automation examples.

- Notable locations include Python101_TCMSec and Python201_TCMSec, plus HTBAcademy/BrokenAuthentication/*.py.

- These scripts act as supporting tools for demonstrations such as brute force, SQL injection, bind shells, keylogging, DLL injection, and other offensive-security concepts.

8. Shared reference assets

- The Assets folder and scattered images like CCNA/Images support the markdown notes visually.

- This suggests a documentation workflow where diagrams, screenshots, and proof-of-work images are stored alongside textual writeups rather than in a separate media system.

9. Cross-cutting cheat sheet

- CTFCheatsheet.md is a shared reference layer across the whole repository.

- It functions like a reusable toolkit or memory aid, linking techniques and common payload patterns back to the individual course and lab notes.

10. Information flow

- The practical flow is: learn from a course/platform → document techniques in Markdown → capture per-room/per-box solutions → distill reusable patterns into the cheat sheet.

- Scripts are used where documentation alone is not enough, especially for automation or proof-of-concept exploitation.

- The repo therefore mixes static knowledge, procedural walkthroughs, and small helper programs.

11. Boundaries and coupling

- Each top-level directory is largely independent and can be read on its own.

- Coupling is low: most cross-references are conceptual rather than code-level dependencies.

- The only obvious shared dependencies are the common Markdown format, the asset folder, and the cheat sheet.

12. Operational characteristics

- There is no build system, package manager, or deployment pipeline visible here.

- The effective runtime is just “Markdown viewer + occasional Python interpreter” for the example scripts.

- From an architecture-diagram perspective, this repo is best modeled as a documentation/learning knowledge base with a few embedded automation examples, not as a software service.