# Finding and Evaluating Public Exploits

> Find, evaluate, and adapt public exploit code from SearchSploit, Exploit-DB, and GitHub. Understand what an exploit does before running it.

- **URL:** https://hackindex.io/learn/oscp-pen-200-study-path/locating-public-exploits
- **Certification:** [OSCP (PEN-200) Study Path](https://hackindex.io/learn/oscp-pen-200-study-path.md)
- **Estimated study hours:** 1
- **Published:** 2026-09-24
- **Updated:** 2026-09-27

Once you identify a service version or application, the next step is finding existing exploits for it. SearchSploit, Exploit-DB, GitHub, and Google are the primary sources. PEN-200 teaches you to evaluate exploit code before running it, understand what it does, and adapt it to your target environment. Blindly running exploit scripts without reading them is a fast way to crash a target or miss the actual vulnerability.

## Finding and Evaluating Exploits

SearchSploit queries the local Exploit-DB mirror offline. Google and GitHub surface proof-of-concept code, advisory write-ups, and Metasploit modules. Evaluating reliability means reading the code, understanding the vulnerability class, and checking whether the target version and configuration match.

## Understanding Exploit Code

Source code review skills help you understand what an exploit does before you run it. Trace the payload, identify hardcoded values that need changing, and verify the exploit targets the correct vulnerability. This is also how you spot backdoors in public exploit code.

> [!WARNING]
> HackIndex does not currently have a dedicated SearchSploit or Exploit-DB guide. For SearchSploit usage, run `searchsploit <service> <version> on Kali and use -m` to mirror exploits locally. Refer to the PEN-200 course material for detailed exploit evaluation methodology.

## Study material

- [Source Code Review for Web Vulnerabilities](https://hackindex.io/services/web/exploitation/source-code-review-methodology.md) (read, core)
- [Web Assessment Methodology](https://hackindex.io/services/web/exploitation/web-assessment-methodology.md) (read, core)