Oscp

Machine #72 on the Lain Kusanagi list. Every step in this box is intentional - no guesswork, just clean AD attack chaining from zero creds to domain admin. One of the better Hard-rated machines for learning the full lifecycle. Machine Info Name Blackfield Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Hard IP 10.129.229.17 Domain BLACKFIELD.local TL;DR RID brute via null session gets a user list. ASREPRoast support, crack the hash, collect BloodHound data as support. BloodHound shows support can ForceChangePassword on audit2020. Change the password, enumerate SMB - forensic share has an lsass.zip in memory_analysis. pypykatz extracts svc_backup’s NT hash. PTH as svc_backup into WinRM - SeBackupPrivilege is enabled. Try SAM dump first (admin hash is stale). Use wbadmin to back up and restore ntds.dit, dump it with secretsdump, get the real admin hash, PTH to root. ...

Sauna is an Easy Windows box from HackTheBox built around a classic Active Directory attack chain. From open-source name enumeration to ASREPRoasting, autologon credential exposure, and a DCSync to finish it off - this one hits all the fundamentals. Machine Info Name Sauna Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Easy IP 10.129.95.180 TL;DR Scraped employee names off the bank’s “About” page, ran them through username-anarchy to generate AD-style usernames, and ASREPRoasted fsmith whose account had Kerberos pre-auth disabled. Cracked the hash with rockyou.txt and logged in via WinRM. Found autologon credentials for svc_loanmanager stored in plaintext in the registry. BloodHound showed that account has DCSync rights over the domain - used secretsdump to pull the Administrator hash and psexec to get SYSTEM. ...

Machine Info Field Value Name Escape Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Medium IP 10.129.228.253 TL;DR An unauthenticated SMB Public share exposes a PDF that contains SQL Server credentials. Connecting to MSSQL with those creds, we abuse xp_dirtree to capture the NTLMv2 hash of sql_svc via Responder and crack it with John. From there, SQL Server error logs left cleartext credentials for Ryan.Cooper lying around. As Ryan, certipy reveals an ESC1-vulnerable certificate template that allows anyone in Domain Users to request a cert on behalf of Administrator. One certificate later, we get the Administrator NT hash and land a SYSTEM shell via psexec. ...

Old school. Access is a machine that takes you through a chain of credential pivoting across legacy protocols and file formats you do not see every day - no exploits, no CVEs, just enumeration and following the breadcrumbs wherever they lead. Machine info Name Access Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Easy TL;DR Anonymous FTP exposes backup.mdb (Microsoft Access database) and Access Control.zip (AES-encrypted) backup.mdb contains an auth_user table with credentials - including the password to decrypt the ZIP The ZIP holds a PST file; reading the extracted email reveals the security account password in plaintext Telnet login as security -> user shell cmdkey /list shows saved credentials for ACCESS\Administrator; runas /savecred gives Administrator access Enumeration Port 21 was open and I went straight for it - anonymous FTP is one of those findings you want to verify immediately. ...

GPP credentials. Still out there in the wild. Active is one of those machines that aged into a legend - the technique it teaches was patched in 2014, but the lesson sticks forever. Classic AD box, clean attack path, zero fluff. Machine info Name Active Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Easy TL;DR Anonymous SMB access exposes the Replication share, which contains a Groups.xml file with a GPP-encrypted password for SVC_TGS gpp-decrypt recovers the plaintext: GPPstillStandingStrong2k18 Authenticated as SVC_TGS, the Users share is readable - user flag sitting in SVC_TGS\Desktop Kerberoasting as SVC_TGS returns an Administrator TGS ticket; John cracks it to Ticketmaster1968 impacket-psexec with Administrator creds gives a SYSTEM shell Recon Port scan The scan reveals a textbook Domain Controller fingerprint - DNS on 53, RPC on 135 and 593, SMB on 445, LDAP Global Catalog on 3269, Active Directory Web Services on 9389, and a pile of dynamic RPC ports in the high range. ...

This one plays out like a relay race - each user passes the baton to the next. No exploitation, no CVEs. Just ACL abuse all the way down until you’re dumping the domain. Machine info Name Administrator Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Medium Starting credentials olivia / ichliebedich TL;DR Starting with pre-provided credentials for Olivia, we RID-brute SMB to enumerate domain users, then log in via WinRM and run SharpHound to feed BloodHound. The graph reveals a chain of ACL abuse: Olivia holds GenericAll over Michael, Michael holds ForceChangePassword over Benjamin. We reset their passwords in sequence. Benjamin’s only access is FTP - where he has a Backup.psafe3 file. We crack the master password with john and pull credentials for three more users from the vault. Emily’s credentials are the key - she has GenericWrite over Ethan, which enables targeted Kerberoasting. After syncing the clock with the DC, we roast Ethan’s TGS and crack it to limpbizkit. Ethan has DCSync rights on the domain, so we dump all NTLM hashes with secretsdump, then psexec in as Administrator. ...

Old software on an old OS - a combination that keeps on giving. ColdFusion 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, and a privilege that lets you impersonate basically anyone. Arctic is a nice reminder of why patch management matters. Machine info Name Arctic Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Easy TL;DR Port scan reveals a ColdFusion 8 server on port 8500. Browsing to it exposes a directory listing and an admin login page. Searchsploit surfaces CVE-2009-2265, a file upload RCE for ColdFusion 8. We mirror the exploit, set our LHOST/RHOST, and catch a shell as arctic\tolis. The service account has SeImpersonatePrivilege - classic potato territory. The OS is Windows Server 2008 R2 (Build 7600), which JuicyPotato handles well. We transfer JuicyPotato via SMB, use it to create a local admin account, then either catch a SYSTEM reverse shell or enable RDP and connect via xfreerdp3. ...

Two vulnerabilities, zero authentication required for either one. Buff is a good reminder that public exploits sometimes just work - and that internal services running on non-standard ports are always worth the extra look. Machine info Name Buff Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Easy TL;DR Web app running Gym Management System 1.0 is vulnerable to unauthenticated RCE (EDB-48506) - drops a webshell and a shell as buff\shaun Internal port 8888 is running CloudMe 1.1.12, accessible only from localhost Uploaded Chisel for port forwarding, then fired a buffer overflow exploit (EDB-48389) against CloudMe to get a SYSTEM shell Recon Nmap 1 nmap -sV -sC -Pn 10.129.2.18 ...

Cicada is a textbook Active Directory enumeration chain. Each step surfaces something that unlocks the next user - a default password in an HR notice, a credential in a PowerShell script description field, a privilege that lets you dump the SAM. Good practice for the AD portion of OSCP. Machine info Name Cicada Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Easy TL;DR Anonymous SMB access exposes an HR onboarding notice with a default password Password spraying with nxc identifies michael.wrightson as the matching user Listing users without RID brute reveals david.orelious has his password in his description field David can access the DEV share, which contains a PowerShell script with emily.oscars credentials Emily has SeBackupPrivilege via WinRM - used to dump SAM/SYSTEM and pass-the-hash as Administrator Recon RustScan 1 rustscan -a 10.129.231.149 ...

Default credentials. WAR file upload. SYSTEM. Jerry is short, but it covers a technique that shows up on real engagements more often than you would expect. Machine info Name Jerry Platform HackTheBox OS Windows Difficulty Easy TL;DR Apache Tomcat 7.0.88 on port 8080 with default credentials (tomcat:s3cret) Uploaded a malicious WAR reverse shell via the Tomcat Manager Shell landed directly as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM - both flags in a single session Recon Nmap 1 nmap -sV -sC -Pn 10.129.34.208 ...