Group Purchasing
Group Purchasing

What Is the GAIPT Certification?

The GIAC AI Penetration Tester (GAIPT) certification validates a practitioner's hands-on AI penetration testing skills for assessing and exploiting vulnerabilities in enterprise AI systems. Certification holders demonstrate practical expertise testing large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, machine learning models, computer vision, and agentic AI using real-world offensive techniques validated through performance-based testing.

Exam Details

CyberLive

Hands-on, performance-based exam format

120 Days

To complete your attempt after it is activated in your GIAC account

Proctored

Remote (ProctorU) or onsite (PearsonVUE)

What GAIPT Covers

GIAC publishes seven exam objectives, which group into three practical domains.

Attack Foundations and Inputs

Covers Foundations of Attack Techniques, Reconnaissance and Evasion in AI Systems, Direct Input Attacks, and Indirect Input Attacks.

AI Infrastructure Attacks

Covers Infrastructure Attacks, including model fingerprinting and common process vulnerabilities.

Alignment and Agentic Systems

Covers Alignment Issues and AI Architectural Complexity, including agents, orchestration, MCP servers, and trust relationships.

Prepare With This Course

SEC536: Adversarial AI - Penetration Testing AI Systems

How SEC536 Prepares You for GAIPT

SEC536 is built around the exam objectives that make up the GAIPT certification: 

•  Section 1, Foundations of Attack Techniques builds skills tested under Foundations of Attack Techniques, Reconnaissance and Evasion in AI Systems, Direct Input Attacks, and Indirect Input Attacks. 

•  Section 2, Infrastructure, Integrations, and Advanced Attacks aligns with Infrastructure Attacks. 

•  Section 3, Alignment, Interfaces, Agents, and MCP aligns with Alignment Issues and AI Architectural Complexity. 

Across all 3 sections, 15 hands-on labs give you the chance to apply each technique against a realistic, production-shaped environment before you sit the exam. 

Read the full GAIPT certification overview 

SEC536 Course Authors

Who Should Pursue GAIPT

Penetration Testers and Red Teamers

Application Security Engineers and Architects

Data Scientists and AI and ML Platform Engineers

Security Practitioners and Cyber Defenders

Technical Leadership and Managers

Frequently Asked Questions

The GIAC AI Penetration Tester (GAIPT) certification validates a practitioner's hands-on AI penetration testing skills for assessing and exploiting vulnerabilities in enterprise AI systems, including large language models, RAG pipelines, machine learning models, computer vision, and agentic AI. 

GAIPT uses GIAC's CyberLive format, hands-on lab challenges rather than traditional multiple choice. Attempts are web-based and proctored, either remotely through ProctorU or onsite through PearsonVUE, and you have 120 days from activation to complete your attempt. See the GIAC GAIPT page for current exam details. 

GIAC certifications are renewed on a recurring cycle through continuing education credits and a maintenance fee. For the current renewal requirements, see GIAC’s renewal page. 

GAIPT fits penetration testers and red teamers, application security engineers and architects, data scientists and AI and ML platform engineers, security practitioners and cyber defenders who need to understand how AI systems work and can be exploited, and technical leaders who want more insight into the risks and mechanics of AI systems. 

Taking SANS SEC536 maps directly to the certification objectives in GAIPT. SEC536: Adversarial AI - Penetration Testing AI Systems includes 15 hands-on labs run against a realistic, production-shaped environment, and the full syllabus is on the SEC536 course page. 

SANS Institute is a training organization. GIAC LLC is an independent certification body accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) under ISO/IEC 17024:2012. Completion of SANS training is not required for GIAC certification, nor does it guarantee a passing exam result.

Ready to earn your GAIPT certification?

Add the GAIPT exam attempt when you register for SEC536.

GIAC AI Penetration Tester Certification (GAIPT) | SANS Institute