Top Cybersecurity Books by Topic
Looking for the best cybersecurity books? This list covers ethical hacking, OSINT, red teaming, malware analysis, and more—organized by topic for easy access.
Penetration Testing Books
Metasploit, 2nd Edition 2nd Edition by David Kennedy (Author), Mati Aharoni (Author), Devon Kearns (Author), Jim O'Gorman (Author), 2025
Black Hat Python, 2nd Edition: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters, 2021
Ethical Hacking: A Hands-on Introduction to Breaking In, 2021
Bug Bounty Bootcamp, 2021
Real-World Bug Hunting: A Field Guide to Web Hacking, 2021
Red Team Development and Operations: A Practical Guide (2021)
Red Team Field Manual V2 (2022)
Tribe of Hackers Red Team: Tribal Knowledge from the Best in Offensive Cybersecurity (2020)
Operator Handbook: Red Team + OSINT + Blue Team Reference (2020)
The Pentester Blueprint: Starting a Career as an Ethical Hacker, 2020
Hands-on Hacking: Become an Expert at Next-Gen Penetration Testing and Purple Teaming, 2020
The Hacker Playbook 3 by Peter Kim, 2018
Advanced Penetration Testing by Wil Allsopp, 2017
Advanced Penetration Testing for Highly-Secured Environments by Lee Allen, 2016
Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking by Georgia Weidman, 2014
Rtfm: Red Team Field Manual by Ben Clark, 2014
Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters by Justin Seitz, 2014
Advanced Persistent Threat Hacking: The Art and Science of Hacking Any Organization by Tyler Wrightson, 2014
The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing by Patrick Engebretson, 2013
Professional Penetration Testing by Thomas Wilhelm, 2013
Violent Python by TJ O’Connor, 2012
Metasploit: The Penetration Tester’s Guide by David Kennedy et al., 2011
Bug Hunter’s Diary by Tobias Klein, 2011
Unauthorized Access: Physical Penetration Testing For IT Security Teams by Wil Allsopp, 2010
The Art of Exploitation by Jon Erickson, 2008
Fuzzing: Brute Force Vulnerability Discovery by Michael Sutton et al., 2007
Hackers Handbook Series
Car Hacker’s Handbook by Craig Smith, 2016
The Mobile Application Hackers Handbook by Dominic Chell et al., 2015
The Browser Hackers Handbook by Wade Alcorn et al., 2014
Android Hackers Handbook by Joshua J. Drake et al., 2014
iOS Hackers Handbook by Charlie Miller et al., 2012
The Web Application Hackers Handbook 2 by D. Stuttard, M. Pinto, 2011
The Mac Hacker’s Handbook by Charlie Miller & Dino Dai Zovi, 2009
The Shellcoders Handbook by Chris Anley et al., 2007
The Database Hacker’s Handbook, David Litchfield et al., 2005
Defensive Development
Holistic Info-Sec for Web Developers (Fascicle 0)
Holistic Info-Sec for Web Developers (Fascicle 1)
Linux & Network Analysis Books
Network Basics for Hackers: How Networks Work and How They Break (2023)
Linux Basics for Hackers: Getting Started with Networking, Scripting, and Security in Kali (2018)
Practical Packet Analysis 3 by Chris Sanders, 2017
Wireshark 101: Essential Skills for Network Analysis , 2017
Network Forensics: Tracking Hackers through Cyberspace by Sherri Davidoff & Jonathan Ham, 2012
Practical Packet Analysis 2 by Chris Sanders, 2011
Nmap Network Scanning by Gordon Fyodor Lyon, 2009
Practical Packet Analysis by Chris Sanders, 2007
Reverse Engineering Books
Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker's Handbook, Sixth Edition 6th Edition by HARPER, 2022
Practical Reverse Engineering by Bruce Dang et al., 2014
The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition: The Unofficial Guide to the World's Most Popular Disassembler Second Edition by Chris Eagle, 2011
The IDA Pro Book by Chris Eagle, 2011
Hacking the Xbox by Andrew Huang, 2003
Malware Analysis Books
The Art of Memory Forensics by Michael Hale Ligh et al., 2014
Practical Malware Analysis by Michael Sikorski & Andrew Honig, 2012
Malware Analyst’s Cookbook and DVD by Michael Hale Ligh et al., 2010
Windows Books
Windows Security Internals with PowerShell (2022)
Windows Internals, Part 2 (Developer Reference) 7th Edition by Andrea Allievi, Mark Russinovich, Alex Ionescu, David Solomon, 2021
Windows Internals by Mark Russinovich et al., 2017
Troubleshooting with the Windows Sysinternals Tools by Mark Russinovich & Aaron Margosis, 2016
Social Engineering Books
The Social Engineer’s Playbook: A Practical Guide to Pretexting (2015)
Social Engineering in IT Security: Tools, Tactics, and Techniques by Sharon Conheady, 2014
Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security by Christopher Hadnagy, 2014
Ghost in the Wires by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon, 2011
Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking by Christopher Hadnagy, 2010
No Tech Hacking by Johnny Long & Jack Wiles, 2008
The Art of Intrusion by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon, 2005
The Art of Deception by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon, 2002
OSINT & Privacy Books
Open Source Intelligence Techniques: Resources for Searching and Analyzing Online Information (2023)
OSINT Techniques: Resources for Uncovering Online Information (2023)
Hack The World with OSINT (Hackers Gonna Hack) (2023)
Extreme Privacy: What It Takes to Disappear (2021)
Web & API Hacking Books
Black Hat GraphQL: Attacking Next Generation APIs (2023)
Hacking APIs: Breaking Web Application Programming Interfaces (2022)
The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook 2 (2011)
Scripting & Programming Books
Black Hat Bash: Creative Scripting for Hackers and Pentesters (2023)
Windows Security Internals with PowerShell (2022)
Black Hat Python, 2nd Edition: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters, 2021
Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters by Justin Seitz, 2014
Violent Python by TJ O’Connor, 2012
Learn & practice For the OSCP.
Last updated
Was this helpful?