Ayaan's Level-1 Report
6 / 6 / 2026
CL - Cloud Computing
Task 2: Exploring Docker Fundamentals
This task helped me learn how virtual machines differ from containers. A VM emulates an entire OS, which is resource heavy. A container shares the host OS kernel and only packages the application and its dependencies, making it much lighter and faster to spin up.
I pulled a postgres image from Docker Hub using docker pull postgres, and I observed how it gets installed layer by layer rather than a single blob.
I also followed the tutorial resource to run the todo application using docker compose watch.
The todo app ran successfully in the browser.
I also made a small modification to the app title to verify changes reflect after rebuild.
I used Docker Desktop to inspect the running containers, their CPU usage, and container IDs.
For lifecycle management I practiced docker stop, docker start, docker restart, and docker rm to remove the container entirely.
Task 4: Launch and Manage an AWS EC2 Instance
This task was about launching a virtual machine on AWS and making it serve content over the internet, which is essentially what cloud computing is at its core.
I launched an EC2 instance on the free tier using Amazon Linux 2023 as the AMI and a t2.micro instance type, in the ap-southeast-2 region. Configuring the security group was interesting, I restricted SSH access to only my IP rather than leaving it open to the world but allowed HTTP(S) for web traffic.
Connecting to the instance over SSH using the .pem showed me that connecting to a home server and an instance running in Sydney are both the same.
Then I proceeded to install Nginx, started it, and opened the public IP it provided in a browser.
CY - Cybersecurity (TryHackMe: UVCE MARVEL Level 1)
Module A: Fundamentals of Computer Networking
Task 1: Introduction
This task introduced the fundamentals on which the network which we call as the internet today was built on. It took me through how a network exists in everything around us, not just computers. Bus systems, electricity grids, postal networks, social circles - they are all networks in some form. The bigger point I took away was that networks run almost everything in daily life, which is exactly why cybersecurity matters.
Task 2: Internet
This task dealt with the history of internet. How the US Defence department started ARPANET in the late 1960s as the first working network, and then how Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1989. I had already come across this history before so it was more of a refresher than something new. Its still interesting to note how something which starts as a defence project becomes so essential in daily life.
Task 3: IP Address
This task explained how devices identify each other on a network. The IP address is like a name (which can change) and a MAC address is like a fingerprint (permanent). This distinction matters a lot in security since a fingerprint can grant access to sensitive stuff, if one is able to replicate the MAC address of a system admin, its going to be catastrophic.
Task 4: Ports
This task covered ports such as Port 80 (for HTTP), 443 (for HTTPS), 22 (for SSH), 21 (for FTP). It was interesting to note that when a packet arrives, the port number tells the OS which application should handle it. Which also means open ports should be one of the first things to secure as they are potential entry points.
Task 5: Packets and Frames
This task covered how data is broken into smaller chunks before being sent across a network. Although this was much like a refresher, it introduced a deeper concept of network layers and how packets are named at each layer. At the network layer these are called packets, at the data-link layer they are called frames. Each packet carries header information like source and destination address along with the actual data payload. The reason for chunking is simple: if a large file transfer fails halfway, only the lost packets need to be resent rather than starting from scratch. This is what makes TCP reliable.
Task 6: Networking Devices
This task took me through the hardware that networks are actually built from. Routers connect different networks and direct traffic using IP addresses. Switches work within a local network and send data directly to the right device using MAC addresses rather than broadcasting to everyone like hubs. Firewalls filter traffic based on rules. What was interesting to note is that firewalls have come a long way, from basic filtering to using deep packet inspection to analyze what is actually inside packets and catch threats in real time.
Module B: Protocols
Task 7: DNS
This task covered the Domain Name System which is responsible for translating domain names into IP addresses. Its more like the internet's phonebook. The process which I understood is when I type a URL, my device first checks its local cache, then queries a resolver, which works its way up through root and authoritative name servers to find the answer. I can only imagine how the current digital world would exist if we were supposed to memorize every IP or quite literally keep a phonebook of IP addresses.
I completed the questionnaire for this task with nslookup experiments across multiple DNS servers. The answers with screenshots are documented here: DNS
Task 8: DHCP
This task explained how devices automatically get assigned IP addresses through DHCP. The process has four steps: Discover, Offer, Request, Acknowledge. It was interesting to note that before getting an IP assigned, how a device starts broadcasting from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255 in order to find a response, something like screaming in a void.
Task 9: ICMP
This task introduced ICMP which is used for network diagnostics. The most common use is ping, which checks if a host is reachable and measures round-trip time. I had used ping earlier to check if my home server is connected to the internet, and now I learn that the simple ping is part of ICMP. One thing worth noting from a security standpoint: ICMP is often blocked by firewalls specifically because it can be used for reconnaissance. And traceroute seems very interesting as I was always fascinated how someone finds a person's location by using their online activity and I finally found a probable answer i.e., traceroute.
Task 10: HTTP/HTTPS
This task covered the protocol that runs the web. HTTP defines how a browser and a web server communicate: the client sends a request, the server responds with the resource. HTTPS adds TLS encryption on top, which secures the data in transit. The security implication is straightforward: HTTP traffic can be intercepted and read in plaintext. HTTPS prevents that.
Task 11: Other Important Models
This task covered the OSI model and TCP/IP model. OSI has 7 layers (Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application) and is more of a theoretical framework for understanding network communication. TCP/IP has 4 layers and is what the internet actually runs on in practice. In cybersecurity, knowing which layer an attack operates at helps identify the right kind of defense to apply.
Module C: Windows
Task 12: Introduction
This task introduced the Windows operating system from a security perspective. Since Windows is the most widely used desktop OS, it becomes the most targeted platform, so understanding how it works under the hood is important before thinking about attacking or defending it.
Task 13: PowerShell
This task covered PowerShell, which is a command shell and scripting language built on .NET, designed for system administration. It uses cmdlets like Get-Help and Get-Process and can access the registry, file system, and WMI remotely. The reason this matters in security is that PowerShell is a trusted Windows tool, and attackers frequently abuse it to run malicious operations without triggering antivirus alerts. The reason it has survived these many years patching bugs and exploits can be credited to it being open source.
Task 14: PowerShell vs CMD
This task compared PowerShell with the older CMD. CMD handles basic commands and batch scripts but its output is plain text. PowerShell outputs objects, which means the output can be processed and piped programmatically. For security purposes, PowerShell is the more significant one because it is the tool of choice for living-off-the-land attacks where malicious operations are run entirely through trusted Windows components.
Task 15: System32
This task went through System32, which is the directory at C:\Windows\System32 that holds the critical files Windows needs to function. Such as DLLs, executables, and system tools like cmd.exe and powershell.exe. It is a high-value target in security because malware often places files here to appear legitimate, and many privilege escalation techniques involve processes running out of this folder.
Task 16: User Accounts and UAC
This task covered the two main account types in Windows: Administrator and Standard User. It also introduced User Account Control, which prompts for confirmation even from admin accounts when an action needs elevated privileges. This limits the damage from both accidental and malicious changes. It was also useful to understand the difference between local accounts and Microsoft accounts in this context.
Task 17: Security
This task covered the built-in security tools Windows ships with: Windows Defender for antivirus, Windows Firewall for traffic filtering, BitLocker for disk encryption, and Windows Update for keeping vulnerabilities patched. It also introduced Event Viewer, which logs system activity and is one of the first places to look when investigating suspicious behavior. The key point was that none of these tools is sufficient on its own - Windows security is the combination of all of them working together.
Module D: Linux
Task 18: Introduction
Linux is not one OS but a family of distributions built on UNIX. Because it is open-source, developers can customize it freely, which is how you get distros like Ubuntu and Debian. Ubuntu can function as both a desktop and server OS and is efficient enough to run on just 512 MB of RAM. Its also worth noting that web servers, car entertainment systems, retail POS machines, traffic lights, industrial sensors and even metros use Linux.
Task 19: File Systems
This task got into practical file management in Linux. The commands covered were touch (creates an empty file), mkdir (creates a directory), cp (copies a file, needs source and destination as arguments), mv (moves or renames a file), and rm (permanently deletes, no recycle bin). The -R flag on rm is worth paying attention to because it deletes a directory and everything inside it recursively, with no way to undo it.
Module E: Cryptography
Task 20: Cryptography Part 1
This task introduced cryptography starting from the basics. The idea of converting readable data into an unreadable format so only authorized parties can access it. It covered the classical ciphers: Caesar Cipher (fixed letter shift, easily broken by brute force), Vigenère Cipher (uses a keyword to vary the shift, stronger than Caesar), and Substitution Ciphers (each letter replaced based on a fixed mapping). These are not used in practice anymore but understanding them helps build intuition for how modern encryption works.
Task 21: Cryptography Part 2
This task moved into modern encryption. Symmetric encryption uses a single shared key for both encryption and decryption. Common algorithms here are AES, DES, and 3DES. It was interesting to note that even though 3DES applies DES three times with a 168-bit key, its effective strength is only 112 bits because of meet-in-the-middle attacks. Asymmetric encryption uses a key pair: a public key encrypts, a private key decrypts (RSA, ECC). Asymmetric encryption is safer because it cannot be reversed without the private key and brute forcing it would require years of compute.
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