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Hauptverfasser: Nizon-Deladoeuille, Martin, Stefánsson, Brynjólfur, Neukirchen, Helmut, Welsh, Thomas
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.17539
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author Nizon-Deladoeuille, Martin
Stefánsson, Brynjólfur
Neukirchen, Helmut
Welsh, Thomas
author_facet Nizon-Deladoeuille, Martin
Stefánsson, Brynjólfur
Neukirchen, Helmut
Welsh, Thomas
contents Cybersecurity education is challenging and it is helpful for educators to understand Large Language Models' (LLMs') capabilities for supporting education. This study evaluates the effectiveness of LLMs in conducting a variety of penetration testing tasks. Fifteen representative tasks were selected to cover a comprehensive range of real-world scenarios. We evaluate the performance of 6 models (GPT-4o mini, GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5 Flash, Llama 3.1 405B, Mixtral 8x7B and WhiteRabbitNeo) upon the Metasploitable v3 Ubuntu image and OWASP WebGOAT. Our findings suggest that GPT-4o mini currently offers the most consistent support making it a valuable tool for educational purposes. However, its use in conjonction with WhiteRabbitNeo should be considered, because of its innovative approach to tool and command recommendations. This study underscores the need for continued research into optimising LLMs for complex, domain-specific tasks in cybersecurity education.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_17539
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Supporting Penetration Testing Education with Large Language Models: an Evaluation and Comparison
Nizon-Deladoeuille, Martin
Stefánsson, Brynjólfur
Neukirchen, Helmut
Welsh, Thomas
Cryptography and Security
Cybersecurity education is challenging and it is helpful for educators to understand Large Language Models' (LLMs') capabilities for supporting education. This study evaluates the effectiveness of LLMs in conducting a variety of penetration testing tasks. Fifteen representative tasks were selected to cover a comprehensive range of real-world scenarios. We evaluate the performance of 6 models (GPT-4o mini, GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5 Flash, Llama 3.1 405B, Mixtral 8x7B and WhiteRabbitNeo) upon the Metasploitable v3 Ubuntu image and OWASP WebGOAT. Our findings suggest that GPT-4o mini currently offers the most consistent support making it a valuable tool for educational purposes. However, its use in conjonction with WhiteRabbitNeo should be considered, because of its innovative approach to tool and command recommendations. This study underscores the need for continued research into optimising LLMs for complex, domain-specific tasks in cybersecurity education.
title Towards Supporting Penetration Testing Education with Large Language Models: an Evaluation and Comparison
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.17539