June 24, 2026
Building Phantom Academy: 7 Hands-On Security Labs Powered by PhantomRed 🔴
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By THM{0x416469747961204D6163686972616A75}
2 min read
Most cybersecurity learning follows the same pattern:
Read a vulnerability explanation.
Look at a payload.
Maybe solve a challenge.
But real security testing does not work like that.
Real assessments involve:
- discovering assets
- running reconnaissance
- identifying vulnerabilities
- understanding impact
- prioritizing risk
- communicating findings
When I started building PhantomRed, I wanted the learning environment to follow the same workflow.
So I built Phantom Academy.
A collection of real, pre-authorized vulnerable environments where users learn security concepts by running actual scans, reviewing findings, and understanding remediation.
What is Phantom Academy?
Phantom Academy is the hands-on learning environment inside PhantomRed.
The idea is simple:
Learn a vulnerability.
Attack a safe target.
Run PhantomRed.
Analyze the results.
Understand the fix.
Not simulated screenshots.
Not theoretical examples.
Real intentionally vulnerable applications.
Room 1: Recon Fundamentals
Every security assessment starts with understanding the target.
Recon teaches:
- service discovery
- open ports
- technology identification
- attack surface mapping
Before finding vulnerabilities, you need visibility.
Room 2: SQL Injection
SQL Injection remains one of the most important web vulnerabilities.
This room demonstrates how insecure database queries expose applications.
Users learn:
- injection points
- database exposure risks
- detection workflows
- remediation approaches
Room 3: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
Modern applications rely heavily on user-generated content.
This room explores:
- reflected XSS
- unsafe input handling
- client-side risks
- secure output encoding
Room 4: Advanced Web Testing
Security testing is rarely about a single vulnerability.
This room introduces deeper analysis workflows:
- enumeration
- validation
- evidence collection
- reporting
Room 5: Broken Access Control (IDOR)
Access control issues are some of the most damaging application vulnerabilities.
The room demonstrates how authorization mistakes can expose data.
Users explore:
- object references
- privilege boundaries
- authorization failures
Room 6: Security Reporting
Finding vulnerabilities is only half the work.
Security teams need to communicate risk.
This room focuses on:
- severity understanding
- remediation
- executive summaries
- security reporting
Room 7: Misconfiguration & Exposures
The latest room focuses on one of the most common real-world problems:
deployment mistakes.
The vulnerable SaaS environment contains:
- exposed source files
- leaked configuration data
- forgotten debug endpoints
- insecure defaults
A PhantomRed scan detected:
🔴 8 security findings 🔴 5 HIGH severity exposures 🔴 Risk score: 100/100
The output includes AI-assisted remediation guidance explaining the issue, impact, and possible fixes.
Why connect learning with automation?
Security tools should not replace security engineers.
They should remove repetitive work.
The goal of PhantomRed is not:
"click one button and replace pentesters."
The goal is:
automate repetitive reconnaissance, connect proven security tools, and help humans focus on analysis.
Building PhantomRed
PhantomRed combines:
Nmap
↓
Nuclei
↓
FFUF
↓
AI-assisted analysis
↓
Security reporting
into repeatable security workflows.
Phantom Academy is where these workflows are tested against realistic environments.
What's next?
This is still early.
The current milestone:
7 security rooms.
Multiple vulnerable targets.
Automated scanning.
AI-assisted reporting.
More vulnerability classes and workflows are coming.
If you want to try Phantom Academy:
Follow the build: