10 Best Ethical Hacking Books in 2026

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Collegedunia Team

Content Curator | Updated 3+ months ago

The best ethical hacking books as per Amazon ratings are “CEH v11 Certified Ethical Hacker Study Guide” by Ric Messier, “The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing” by Patrick Engebretson, and “Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Guide” by Rafay Baloch.

Apart from the basics of ethical hacking; ethical hacking books also cover topics like network security, penetration testing, web security, etc. Check out the article to know more about the best ethical hacking books for both beginners and intermediate learners.

Best Ethical Hacking Books

Book Author Rating
CEH v11 Certified Ethical Hacker Study Guide Ric Messier Amazon: 4.2/5
Google Play: 3.7/5
AbeBooks: 4.6/5
The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing Patrick Engebretson Amazon: 4.5/5
Flipkart: 4.6/5
Goodreads: 3.9/5
Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Guide Rafay Baloch Amazon: 4.4/5
Flipkart: 4.1/5
Google Play: 4.4/5
The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking Ankit Fadia Amazon: 3.8/5
Flipkart: 4.3/5
Goodreads: 3.9/5
Web Security, Privacy and Commerce Gene Spafford, and Simson Garfinkel Amazon: 3.5/5
Goodreads: 3.5/5
Hacking: The Art of Exploitation Jon Erickson Amazon: 4.6/5
Goodreads: 4.2/5
Gray Hat Hacking The Ethical Hackers Handbook Allen Harper, Daniel Regalado, Ryan Linn, Stephen Sims, Branko Spasojevic, Linda Martinez, Michael Baucom, Chris Eagle, Shon Harris Amazon: 4.2/5
AbeBooks: 4.1/5
ITbook.store: 4/5
Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide Devon Kearns, Jim O'Gorman, David Kennedy, Mati Aharoni Amazon: 4.7/5
Google Play: 4.1/5
Goodreads: 4/5
Advanced Penetration Testing: Hacking the World's Most Secure Networks Wil Allsopp Amazon: 4.7/5
Goodreads: 4.2/5
AbeBooks: 4.2/5
The Hacker Playbook 3: Practical Guide to Penetration Testing Peter Kim Amazon: 4.7/5
Flipkart: 3.5/5
Goodreads: 4.3/5

Ethical Hacking Books by Ankit Fadia

Ankit Fadia books on ethical hacking are rated 3 stars and above out of 5. They deal with topics like network security, ethical hacking, penetration testing, etc.

Book Amazon Rating
Network Intrusion Alert 5/5
The Ethical Hacking Guide to Corporate Security 4.3/5
Network Security: A Hacker's Perspective 4.1/5
The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking 3.8/5
An Ethical Guide to Hacking Mobile Phones 3.2/5

Ethical Hacking Books for Beginners

Book Author Rating
Hands-on Ethical Hacking and Network Defense James Corley, Kent Backman, and Michael T. Simpson Amazon: 4.4/5
The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy Patrick Engebretson Amazon: 4.5/5
Flipkart: 4.6/5
Goodreads: 3.9/5
The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws Dafydd Stuttard and Marcus Pinto Amazon: 4.4/5
Flipkart: 4.4/5
Google Play: 4.2/5
Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters Justin Seitz Amazon: 4.6/5
Goodreads: 4.1/5
AbeBooks: 4.1/5
Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker's Handbook, Fifth Edition 5th Edition Allen Harper, Daniel Regalado, Ryan Linn, Branko Spasojevic, Chris Eagle, Shon Harris, Stephen Sims Amazon: 4.6/5
Flipkart: 4.6/5
Goodreads: 4.1/5

Ethical Hacking Books: FAQs

Ques. Which is the best book for ethical hacking?

Ans. “Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide” is the best ethical book as per Amazon ratings. It is rated 4.7/5 on Amazon, 4.1/5 on Google Play, and 4/5 on Goodreads.

Ques. Which are the best ethical hacking books for beginners?

Ans. The best ethical hacking books for beginners are

  • Hands-on Ethical Hacking and Network Defense
  • The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy
  • The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws
  • Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters
  • Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker's Handbook, Fifth Edition 5th Edition

Ques. Who is No 1. Ethical hacker in the world?

Ans. The No1. ethical hacker is Kevin Mitnik

Ques. What do hackers study?

Ans. There are a variety of programs that are available that can be studied such as PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and several other programming languages.

Ques. Can a hacker be traced?

Ans. Most hackers will understand that they can be tracked down by authorities by identifying their IP address, so advanced hackers will attempt to make it as difficult as possible for you to find out their identity.

Ques. Who hacked the first iPhone?

Ans. George Hotz was the first person to hack iPhone.

Ques. Is learning to hack illegal?

Ans. Hacking anything is usually illegal, but however, it depends on the intention. If someone hacks with a good intention then it is not considered illegal.

Ques. Who was the youngest hacker?

Ans. Kristoffer von Hassel was the youngest hacker in history.

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