Gifts for Pentesters, Hackers and Sysadmins (2026)
The Pentest Cheat Sheet Desk Mat from hackerstore.io, which is our store.
Security people are hard to shop for because they already own the gear they want and are suspicious of anything that needs an app. They do like a good default-password joke, though, and they will always use another YubiKey.
This guide is for anyone buying for someone in security or IT, including security folks shopping for each other. Amazon prices below were checked on November 10, 2026. Black Friday is November 27, so check the current price before you order.
Quick picks
- Under $25: the hunter2 Mug or a Default Creds Tee, both from our store.
- The useful one: a YubiKey 5C NFC. Nobody in security has too many.
- The fun one: a Flipper Zero, if they don't have one yet.
- For a reader: The Cuckoo's Egg, which also works for people who don't work in security.
Desk setup
Full disclosure: hackerstore.io is our store. We make the desk mat and the joke picks further down, and we earn money when you buy them.
Pentest Cheat Sheet Desk Mat
See the desk mat on hackerstore.ioWhy they'll use it: the commands they keep alt-tabbing to look up sit right under the keyboard.
The Pentest Cheat Sheet Desk Mat is $29. It's 15.5 by 31.5 inches, 3 mm neoprene with a stitched edge and an anti-slip back. It's printed with eight sections of commands: recon, enumeration, web, shells, privilege escalation, cracking, pivoting, and a report checklist that includes "no, really. write them." Students studying for OSCP-style exams get the most out of it, but it's a big, plain desk mat for anyone.
Keychron V1 Max
Check the Keychron V1 Max price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: they type all day, and a good keyboard makes that nicer.
The Keychron V1 Max was $99.99 on Amazon. It's a 75% wireless mechanical keyboard with a volume knob, and it runs QMK and VIA, so they can remap every key. That matters to the person who has opinions about where Escape goes. If they already own a keyboard they love, skip this one; keyboard people are particular.
BenQ ScreenBar
Check the BenQ ScreenBar price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: it lights the desk without putting glare on the screen during 2 a.m. incident calls.
The BenQ ScreenBar was $109 on Amazon. It clips onto the top of a monitor and lights the desk instead of the screen. A sensor dims it to match the room, and it takes up no desk space. The pricier ScreenBar Halo 2 adds a wireless dial and a backlight, but the original does the main job.
Hardware and hacking tools
YubiKey 5C NFC
Photo: Daniel Aleksandersen, CC BY 4.0.
Check the YubiKey 5C NFC price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: it's the second factor that phishing pages can't steal, and everyone needs a spare.
The YubiKey 5C NFC was $58 on Amazon, sold by Yubico. It plugs into USB-C or taps against a phone over NFC, and it supports FIDO2 passkeys as well as older two-factor standards. Security people tell everyone to keep a backup key, and most of them don't have one. This is the safest pick in the guide.
Flipper Zero
Photo: Turbospok, CC BY-SA 4.0.
See the Flipper Zero on flipper.netWhy they'll use it: it can capture and replay the radio, NFC, RFID and infrared signals around them, which makes for good demos.
The Flipper Zero was $169 from Flipper's own store. It isn't sold on Amazon, which banned it in 2023, so this link earns us nothing. It's a pocket tool for poking at access cards and garage remotes, and it has a large plugin community. If they already have one, Flipper sells add-ons like a Wi-Fi devboard on the same site.
CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 Essentials Starter Kit (4GB)
The bare Raspberry Pi 5 board that comes in the CanaKit kit. Photo: SimonWaldherr, CC BY 4.0.
Check the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 kit price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: every homelab needs a small always-on box, whether it runs Pi-hole or a deliberately vulnerable app to practice on.
The CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 Essentials Starter Kit with 4GB of RAM was $189.99 on Amazon. That's more than Pi kits used to cost. CanaKit's kits come with the parts a bare board leaves out, so they can set it up the day they open it.
Alfa AWUS036ACM
Check the Alfa AWUS036ACM price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: most laptop Wi-Fi chips can't do monitor mode or packet injection, and this USB adapter can.
The Alfa AWUS036ACM was $59.50 on Amazon. It's a dual-band AC1200 USB 3.0 adapter with two external antennas, and its MediaTek chipset works with Kali's built-in drivers. Wireless testers have used it for years. Only get it for someone who does wireless work; to anyone else it's just a Wi-Fi dongle with antennas.
Books and learning
Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition
Check the Art of Exploitation price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: it explains how memory corruption works from the ground up, and that hasn't changed.
Jon Erickson's Hacking: The Art of Exploitation was $29.76 on Amazon. The second edition came out in 2008, so the tooling is old, but the low-level programming and exploitation chapters are why people still recommend it. It suits someone early in their career more than a senior pentester, who probably owns it already.
The Cuckoo's Egg
Check The Cuckoo's Egg price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: it's a real spy story that also explains why logs matter.
Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg was $16.82 in paperback. Stoll tracked a 75-cent accounting error at Lawrence Berkeley Lab to a hacker selling information to the KGB. It reads like a thriller, and it's the one book here a non-technical relative could also enjoy.
Black Hat Python, 2nd Edition
Check the Black Hat Python price on AmazonWhy they'll use it: it teaches them to write their own network tools instead of only running other people's.
Black Hat Python by Justin Seitz and Tim Arnold was $33.73 on Amazon. The second edition moved the code to Python 3. It's for someone who already knows some Python and wants to use it for security work.
Apparel and mugs
hackerstore.io is our store, and these are the joke picks. Everything is printed or embroidered to order, so one practical warning first: the store doesn't take returns or size exchanges, only replacements for print or quality defects. Check the size guide before you buy a tee as a surprise.
Default Creds Tee
Why they'll use it: admin/admin still gets them in more often than they'd like to admit.
The Default Creds Tee is $24, printed on a unisex Bella+Canvas 3001 in sizes XS through 5XL. It says "login: admin. password: admin." Anyone who has run a scan knows the joke, and the people who haven't will ask about it.
hunter2 Mug
Why they'll use it: they drink coffee, and they remember the oldest password joke online.
The hunter2 Mug is $18 for a black ceramic mug in 11 oz or 15 oz, and it's dishwasher and microwave safe. If you don't know the joke, it's from an old IRC chat log where someone's password supposedly showed up as stars. The person you're buying for will.
uid=0 Beanie
Why they'll use it: it's winter, and uid=0 means root.
The uid=0 Beanie is $28, an embroidered black cuffed beanie in one size that fits head sizes 17¼ to 18½ inches around. It's the subtlest thing in the store, because only Linux people will get it.
More tees and the beer glasses are in the Gifts for Pentesters collection.
Stocking stuffers under $10
- 127.0.0.1 Sticker, $6 (our store). "There's no place like 127.0.0.1," in vinyl for a laptop lid, in 3, 4 or 5.5 inches.
- PortaPow USB Data Blocker, 2-pack, $9.99. It lets a phone charge from a public USB port without passing data. It's the most security-person stocking stuffer there is.
- CloudValley webcam cover, 2-pack, $6.99. Thin metal sliders for laptop cameras. They probably use tape now; this looks nicer.
Order early for the holidays
Everything from hackerstore.io is made to order, so it takes longer to arrive than something already sitting in an Amazon warehouse. Order early for the holidays, especially the tee and the beanie. If you're cutting it close, most of the other picks in this guide ship from Amazon.
About the links in this guide
Some links in this guide are affiliate links. When you buy through an Amazon link, techreport.io earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. hackerstore.io is our own store, so we also make money on anything you buy there. The Flipper Zero link goes to Flipper's own shop and earns us nothing. Prices change often, especially around Black Friday, so check the current price before you buy.