CEH v13 in 2026: Who It’s Really For, and What It Costs

Last updated September 2026

CEH is the ethical hacking cert that shows up in government contracts and HR filters. It’s also the one people argue about most, because the core exam is multiple choice. Both things are true: CEH is broad, well known and written into a lot of requirements, and on its own it doesn’t prove you can run a penetration test.

EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker is on version 13, which EC-Council now markets as “CEH AI.” The knowledge exam is 312-50. EC-Council says it releases a new CEH version every 12 to 18 months, so check which version a course or practice test covers before you pay for it.

What it tests is breadth: reconnaissance, scanning, enumeration, system hacking, malware, social engineering, web and wireless attacks, cloud, IoT and OT, and cryptography, plus how to detect and stop each one. An optional six-hour practical adds hands-on proof, and passing both exams earns the CEH Master title.

Who should take CEH, and who shouldn’t

• Government and defense contractor staff. CEH is recognized under DoD 8140 for several cyber defense work roles, and that alone decides it for many people.
• SOC analysts, vulnerability assessment analysts and incident responders who need to recognize attacker techniques
• Auditors and administrators who want a broad offensive vocabulary
• Aspiring testers whose target employers ask for CEH by name

If your goal is proving you can break into systems, CEH is the long way round. Look at OSCP, or at PenTest+ as a cheaper structured step. EC-Council recommends at least two years of IT security experience and says the course won’t teach you basics such as what a port is (EC-Council). If that’s you today, start with our Network+ guide and Security+.

Two ways in: official training or the $100 application

• Official training route: Train through EC-Council (iClass), an Authorized Training Center or an academic partner. You don’t submit a separate eligibility application.
• Self-study route: Apply for exam eligibility with proof of at least two years of information security work experience and pay the $100 non-refundable application fee. EC-Council says processing usually takes 5 to 10 working days once your verifiers respond, and an approved application is valid for three months.
• Then book the exam: Buy a voucher and schedule the remote-proctored exam or a Pearson VUE seat.

CEH v13 exam facts

Sources: EC-Council’s CEH page, CEH exam information and exam voucher listing, the CEH candidate handbook and EC-Council’s continuing education fee article.

What CEH really costs

• Self-study: $100 application fee plus the $950 remote-proctored voucher from the EC-Council store, so $1,050 before study materials.
• Official training: EC-Council lists single on-demand courses starting at $1,699 and live online courses starting at $2,499. Pricing varies by package and region, and some packages include free retakes.
• CEH Practical: Optional. Take it if you want hands-on proof alongside the knowledge exam; check EC-Council for current pricing.
• Renewal: $80 a year in continuing education fees, plus 120 ECE credits every three years.

That’s noticeably more than CompTIA’s PenTest+ ($439 US retail). If an employer requires CEH, ask whether they’ll pay for it before you do.

Twenty modules, no published weights

CEH v13 is organized into 20 modules. EC-Council says the program covers more than 550 attack techniques and includes 221 hands-on labs.

EC-Council doesn’t publish a weight per module the way CompTIA does per domain. So plan for breadth. Any module can show up, and many questions come down to knowing which tool or technique belongs to which phase of an attack.

What trips people up

• Studying the wrong version. With a new release every 12 to 18 months, secondhand books and old question banks drift out of date fast.
• Depth over breadth. Candidates with a pentest background go deep on web and privilege escalation, then lose points on IoT, OT, mobile and crypto terms.
• Tool-to-phase confusion. Many questions describe a situation and ask which tool fits. If you can’t place a tool in recon, scanning, gaining access or covering tracks, you’re guessing.
• Assuming a fixed pass mark. Cut scores range from 60% to 85% depending on the exam form. Aim well above the low end in practice.
• Forgetting the paperwork. Self-study candidates wait on an eligibility review (EC-Council says 5 to 10 working days once verifiers respond). Apply before you book time off for the exam.

An 8-week plan built around a tool sheet

• Week 1: set up. Get the official blueprint for your version and build a lab you’re allowed to attack (EC-Council’s labs if you bought training, or your own VMs). Make a tool sheet: tool name, what it does, which phase it belongs to.
• Weeks 2 to 3: recon, scanning and enumeration (modules 1 to 5). Nmap options and output, DNS and SNMP enumeration, vulnerability scoring. These show up constantly.
• Weeks 4 to 5: system and network attacks (modules 6 to 12). Password attacks, privilege escalation, malware types, sniffing, social engineering, DoS and evasion. Run each attack in the lab once so it sticks.
• Week 6: web, wireless and mobile (modules 13 to 17). OWASP-style web attacks, SQL injection types, WPA2 attacks and mobile platform risks.
• Week 7: IoT, OT, cloud and crypto (modules 18 to 20). Know the terms, the protocols and the classic attacks.
• Week 8: practice exams. Timed 125-question sets. Review every miss and update your tool sheet. Aim for comfortable margins, since the cut score depends on your exam form.

CEH in government and contractor hiring

EC-Council maps CEH to dozens of job titles, from SOC analyst and vulnerability assessment analyst to penetration tester. Under DoD 8140, CEH is recognized for these work roles: 111 All-Source Analyst, 141 Warning Analyst, 511 Cyber Defense Analyst, 531 Cyber Defense Incident Responder, 541 Vulnerability Assessment Analyst and 661 Research and Development Specialist (EC-Council).

• Ethical hacker pay (self-reported): EC-Council, citing Glassdoor as of July 2026, says ethical hackers in the U.S. earn about $174,000 a year, with reported salaries from about $132,000 to $233,000 (EC-Council). These are self-reported figures quoted by the certification body, so treat them as a rough guide.
• Government data: BLS doesn’t publish a separate ethical hacker category. Information security analysts had median pay of $129,180 in May 2025, and BLS projects 21% growth from 2025 to 2035 (BLS).

That’s CEH’s real strength: it gets you through HR filters and satisfies contract requirements. It won’t convince a technical interviewer that you can run a test. Lab work, the CEH Practical or a hands-on cert like OSCP does that.

From Donald: Many jobs, including SOC jobs, require CEH.

CEH next to PenTest+, OSCP and Security+

• CEH vs PenTest+: PenTest+ is $439 (US retail), has no eligibility process, and mixes up to 90 multiple-choice and performance-based questions into 165 minutes (CompTIA). CEH is 125 multiple-choice questions in four hours, with a broader tool-and-technique scope and an optional practical. Choose CEH if your target employers ask for it by name; otherwise PenTest+ is the cheaper structured option. See our PenTest+ guide.
• CEH vs OSCP: OffSec’s OSCP+ exam is 24 hours of hands-on hacking: three standalone machines (60% of the points) and an Active Directory set (40%) (OffSec). It’s the stronger proof of practical skill. CEH is the stronger proof of broad knowledge and often the one written into government requirements. Many testers end up with both. For all three together, read how CEH, PenTest+ and OSCP compare.
• CEH vs Security+: Security+ is the broad defensive baseline and a common first cert. CEH assumes that baseline and goes deep on offensive techniques. Do Security+ first unless you already have the experience CEH expects.
• Beyond: For SOC work, look at CySA+. For leadership later on, CISSP. Changing careers? Read How to Transition to a Cybersecurity Career at Any Age.

Mapping out the offensive track? See the certification roadmap for where CEH fits by career goal.

Attack techniques change faster than CEH versions. The CyberExperts Daily Brief covers what attackers are actually doing this week, in about five minutes, every weekday morning. Get tomorrow’s brief.

CEH questions, answered

Sources

• EC-Council, Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) v13: exam details, eligibility, DoD 8140 roles: eccouncil.org
• EC-Council Certification, CEH exam information (312-50, cut scores, eligibility): cert.eccouncil.org
• EC-Council Store, CEH exam voucher (remote proctored): store.eccouncil.org
• EC-Council, CEH candidate handbook (ECE renewal): cert.eccouncil.org
• EC-Council Support, Continuing education fees: eccouncil.zendesk.com
• CompTIA, PenTest+ exam details: comptia.org
• OffSec, PEN-200 and the OSCP+ exam: offsec.com
• BLS, Information security analysts: bls.gov

Donald Korinchak, MBA, PMP, CISSP, SecurityX, ITILv3

Donald Korinchak is a Cybersecurity Professional in the Washington DC area. Donald holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business. Donald is considered a thought leader in business, leadership, and cybersecurity issues.