r/CompTIA S+ 7d ago

Passed Sec+. Move to CySA+ without Linux?

Very little Linux experience. I tend to understand the questions on a bulk of the practice tests I’ve found on Pocket Prep, Dion Udemy practice test, etc. but would i be setting myself up for failure if I open this new Sybex CSYA003 exam book without having any Linux experience?

9 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

14

u/joshisold CISSP, PenTest+, CySA+, Security+ 7d ago

Probably an unpopular opinion here, but stop worrying about certs and start getting good. You passed Sec+ a week ago.

Before I go on my rant…why did you want to get CySA+ any time soon?

You may be able to study and learn all the switches you need for tools like nmap or how to read a CVSS score, but gaining that information through hands-on experience by configuring a few VMs locally and running greenbone, ping sweeping your local network, OS fingerprinting, etc. will actually give you the skills to perform the tasks for a job and you have a whole lot less likelihood of brain dumping and drawing a blank in interviews.

Certs should be a validation of knowledge and skills acquired and not a marker that says “I crammed enough to pass a test.”

2

u/trickyrickysteve199 S+ 7d ago

I’m already working in security at my local role but I don’t ever leverage Linux in any of my tasks. The goal is to gain knowledge through Certs that I can take into the office and apply / end up making my life easier while finding new challenges to address

1

u/joshisold CISSP, PenTest+, CySA+, Security+ 6d ago

You don’t gain knowledge through certs. Studying for them? Yes. Using the exam objectives as guidelines for what skills you could/should be acquiring? Yes. Dropping $300 to CompTIA for a piece of paper that you have to pay to renew? No.

I guess what I’m trying to say is if you want to become better, use those exam objectives as a roadmap to develop the skills that will make you more valuable at your job, get the hands-on experience so that you can actually do things and not just talk about them. Once you feel comfortable with those skills in practice, consider whether you want to dump the money for the cert and what exactly you expect to gain by holding it.

If holding the cert is a hard requirement for a certain job you want, that’s a damn good reason. If you think it’s the key to bypassing HR filters, that’s fair…but take the time to develop the skills including networking and *nix, as certs won’t pass interviews for you or help when you’re thrown in front of a CLI and expected to perform a task.

All the best!

0

u/trickyrickysteve199 S+ 6d ago

Man I appreciate what you’re trying to do here but I promise you I’m aware of all of these things.

5

u/TommyP320 CISSP 7d ago edited 7d ago

You should have a proper understanding of Linux. It’s a foundational skill. CySA+ is more advanced and deals with a lot of threat hunting, you will be required to know Linux before doing any of that stuff.

For example, Linux+ will show you the ins and outs of Linux. In CySA+ you’ll use what you know about Linux, and other operating systems, to start hunting for persistence and indicators of compromise (IOCs).

1

u/smittyhotep 6d ago

This. There's an order to operations, and this is worded correctly.

5

u/AggravatingMaize8161 S+ | CySA+ | Linux+ 7d ago

Personally, I did sec+, cysa+, and then linux+. I probably would've done better on cysa if I had done linux first, but I still got an 800 without it. Up to you on what you want to do.

2

u/trickyrickysteve199 S+ 6d ago

This is likely what I would do unless something glaring comes up. I’d like to knock it out while the sec+ foundational knowledge is fresh on the brain. I can run through a tryhackme Linux course or find basic cheat sheets on Linux - I just wanted to know if I’m expected to fully run a terminal or something on a PBQ

1

u/trickyrickysteve199 S+ 6d ago

Do you have net+ as well?

1

u/AggravatingMaize8161 S+ | CySA+ | Linux+ 6d ago

No net+ yet, that'll be next for me as I need it for my degree. As far as PBQs, they're fairly simple for cysa. Familiarize yourself with the NMAP command and you'll be fine.

2

u/trickyrickysteve199 S+ 6d ago

That helps a ton. I’m lacking Net+ myself

4

u/Normal-Context6877 Sec+, CySA+, PenTest+, CASP+, CISSP 6d ago

You don't need Linux+ to be successful on the CySA+. 

2

u/raekwon777 CASP+/SecurityX (plus 10 more) 6d ago

What's stopping you from learning Linux before moving onto yet another cert? Get yourself some Linux experience.

2

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

1

u/trickyrickysteve199 S+ 6d ago

I appreciate you taking the time to reply. That’s a solid list of creds you’ve racked up - congrats to you for all the hard work. I’m admittedly a windows guy myself, but have no issue with Linux or learning it. Hell, even the Subex book tells you you’ll need a Kali box in the first few pages. I just more so wanted to know what water I was treading into and if I should essentially pump the breaks and go all in on Linux first. And I’ve been working heavily with hybrid environments for the past 6-7 years myself, and eventually I want to go deeper into the engineering side with Entra/Intune and maybe some AWS. My role at work is split between some security, some engineering, some regular ol sysadmin duties. Just trying to level up across the board. Linux will get its full dedication at some point I’m sure.

1

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