Reddit reviews CEH Certified Ethical Hacker All-in-One Exam Guide, Fourth Edition

This is probably your best bet All In One Book.

It's called out pretty clearly in the description, but it should be version 4. The Boson questions are definitely closer to the exam, and the practice questions at the end of each chapter of the AIO are good as well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/126045455X/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_nsJTDb0J7S9G1

This is exactly why the professionals in IT very rarely talk security with people who arent in the industry. TV and movies have really made people think things will happen that never will, or are near impossible.

The type of effort you are talking would be like if some terrorist encrypted their manifesto on a thumb drive and the government had to crack it right away to avoid another attack. Dont you remember how complicated it was just to get into the San Bernadino people's iphones? The resources and time required once you pass a certain level are insane.

I hope no one here is that type of person. If you want to find out how complicated it really is, this is where you start down the rabbit hole.

https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Ethical-Hacker-Guide-Fourth/dp/126045455X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=ethical+hacking&qid=1570333559&sr=8-3

and this

https://www.kali.org/

I suggest using Virtual Machines on a separate drive to boot your system with the network NIC drivers removed if you install and start messing with how that all works.

Also, here is a tool to tell you the amount of possible passwords. Even with ONLY letters uppercase and lower, the amount you get at 20 characters is like the amount of stars in the galaxy or something insane you could compare it to. Grains of sand in the outer banks maybe? Just at 26 letters you have 52 characters to make combinations from when you consider upper and lowercase. Think of how many possible combinations there are when you shuffle a deck of cards. You shuffle a deck, I shuffle a deck, what are the odds I shuffle them and the cards end up in the same order as yours? Even using a computer to try and match your pile, its gonna take a really really really long time. Then mix in numbers and characters. Each single possibility added to make is 53, 54, 55 etc, turns it into a HUGE unfathomable number when you are at 20 characters. You cant brute force it, and without a REALLY educated guess, thats your only option. Unless you are the gubment and have a key for the algorithm.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/optionspossiblecalc.html

It's certainly worth a go. I'd read through a guide, such as this:

https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Ethical-Hacker-Guide-Fourth/dp/126045455X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Then email EC-Council and explain that you have been working in IT security for 3 years (ok, so you might need to exaggerate a bit here), and that you'd simply like to take the exam, as you feel you already know the information contained in their syllabus.

You might get a few back and forths, but if they are playing hardball, say that your manager has only given you enough in the training budget for one cert this year, and you've chosen the CEH exam, but can't get the funds for the whole course. I expect they'd rather you pend the money on taking their exam, than went elsewhere.

To be honest though, you're probably better off buying the book to study anyway, then taking the OSCP cert from OffSec