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Hack The Box: Heal Machine Walkthrough – Medium Difficulty

Writeup Summary: Heal (Hack The Box)

This box involved thorough enumeration that uncovered multiple subdomains, including a Ruby on Rails API. Initial access was gained by chaining a Local File Inclusion vulnerability with password cracking and exploiting a LimeSurvey plugin upload vulnerability. Privilege escalation was achieved by identifying and exploiting an exposed Consul service accessible through SSH port forwarding.

This challenge showcased key red teaming skills: web application exploitation, misconfiguration abuse, credential harvesting, and lateral movement.

#HackTheBox #CyberSecurity #RedTeam #PrivilegeEscalation #BugBounty #WebSecurity #Infosec #CTF #HTB #OffensiveSecurity #LinuxExploitation

Hack The Box: Underpass Machine Walkthrough – Easy Difficulty

Successfully completed the “Underpass” machine on Hack The Box! For the user flag, I enumerated SNMP to discover a Daloradius instance, logged in with default credentials, cracked an MD5-hashed password for the svcMosh account, and used SSH to access the user flag in its home directory. To capture the root flag, I escalated privileges by exploiting sudo permissions on mosh-server, obtaining a session key and port to establish a root session and retrieve the flag from /root/root.txt.

#Cybersecurity #HackTheBox #CaptureTheFlag #PenetrationTesting #LinuxSecurity #PrivilegeEscalation #SNMP #Daloradius #EthicalHacking #InformationSecurity

HackTheBox – BigBang Machine Walkthrough (Hard Difficulty)

Chained exploitation through misconfigured web app and internal services. We started by exploiting a WordPress plugin vulnerability (CVE-2023-26326) to upload files, followed by a file read vulnerability (CVE-2024-2961) for remote code execution. From there, we cracked the database credentials, gained SSH access as the shawking user, and leveraged a vulnerable API endpoint to escalate to root. This highlights how overlooked configurations and service misconfigurations can lead to a full server compromise.

#CTF #PrivilegeEscalation #WebSecurity #CommandInjection #SSH #WordPress #LinuxPentesting #BugBounty #HackTheBox #RedTeam #CyberSecurity

Hack The Box: Vintage Machine Walkthrough – Hard Difficulty

Recently completed an Active Directory penetration test where I obtained both the user and root flags through a series of Kerberos and privilege escalation attacks. I first exploited a weak password on a legacy computer account (fs01$) to retrieve a Kerberos TGT and extract the gMSA password. After reactivating a disabled service account (svc_sql), making it ASREPRoastable, and cracking its hash, I gained credentials for another domain user and authenticated via Evil-WinRM to capture the user flag. For the root flag, I decrypted DPAPI-protected secrets to access a higher-privileged account (c.neri_adm), added a compromised service account to a privileged group, assigned an SPN, and performed a Kerberos delegation attack to impersonate a domain admin, ultimately achieving SYSTEM-level access and capturing the root flag. Great experience applying Kerberos exploitation techniques and privilege escalation strategies in a real-world scenario!

hashtag#ActiveDirectory hashtag#PenetrationTesting hashtag#Kerberos hashtag#OffensiveSecurity hashtag#RedTeam hashtag#CyberSecurity hashtag#ASREPRoasting hashtag#DPAPI hashtag#PrivilegeEscalation hashtag#HackTheBox hashtag#Infosec hashtag#HacktheBox

Hack The Box: Administrator Walkthrough Medium Difficulty

Chained privilege escalation on an AD environment via misconfigured permissions — no CVEs, just clever abuse of default rights. From Olivia to Emily to Ethan, we pivoted through user relationships using BloodHound, CrackMapExec, Kerberoasting, and WinRM access. Highlighting how overlooked configurations can lead to full domain compromise.

#ActiveDirectory #PrivilegeEscalation #BloodHound #Kerberoasting #HackTheBox #RedTeam #CyberSecurity #WindowsPentest

Hack The Box: LinkVortex Machine Walkthrough Easy Difficulty

Successfully demonstrated advanced cybersecurity skills by exploiting a Ghost CMS vulnerability (CVE-2023-40028) to access sensitive credentials and secure the user flag. Identified and leveraged a sudo misconfiguration with the CHECK_CONTENT variable to escalate privileges and retrieve the root flag from /root/root.txt. Thrived in this hands-on challenge, sharpening penetration testing expertise! #HackTheBox #Cybersecurity #EthicalHacking #PenetrationTesting #CTF

Hack The Box: Ghost Machine Walkthrough – Insane Difficulty

The initial foothold was gained by exploiting command injection on intranet.ghost.htb:8008/api-dev/scan/, which provided a reverse shell inside a Docker container. From there, I enumerated the environment and discovered credentials that allowed SSH access as Florence Ramirez. By extracting and converting a Kerberos ticket, I authenticated as a legitimate user, escalating access within the system. With access to the Windows environment, I retrieved NTLM hashes for the adfs_gmsa account and leveraged evil-winrm for lateral movement. A reverse shell was established using JokerShell, and privileges were escalated by enabling xp_cmdshell through a debug interface. After uploading EfsPotato.cs and disabling antivirus, I used Mimikatz and Rubeus.exe to dump credentials, ultimately achieving SYSTEM access. This led to the extraction of domain admin credentials and the retrieval of the root flag. Another Insane box down! 💀💻

#HackTheBox #RedTeam #CyberSecurity #PenTesting #PrivilegeEscalation #EthicalHacking

Hack The Box: BlockBlock Machine Walkthrough – Hard Difficulty

This walkthrough examines the BlockBlock machine from Hack The Box, classified as a medium-difficulty challenge. The assessment began with the exploitation of an XSS vulnerability, which facilitated credential theft through the Ethereum JSON-RPC API, granting SSH access. Privilege escalation was achieved by leveraging the forge binary to obtain higher privileges, followed by exploiting a misconfigured pacman package manager to gain root access. This engagement underscores the critical importance of securing APIs, implementing robust input validation, and enforcing strict privilege escalation controls to mitigate security risks.

#HackTheBox #CyberSecurity #PenetrationTesting #CTF #EthicalHacking #XSS #PrivilegeEscalation #BlockchainSecurity

Hack The Box: Alert Machine Walkthrough – Easy Difficulty

We discovered an XSS vulnerability in .md file uploads and the Contacts tab. By embedding an XSS payload and sharing the link, we extracted data from messages.php, revealing a file parameter vulnerable to LFI. This led us to /var/www/statistics.alert.htb/.htpasswd, which contained a hashed password. Using hashid, we identified it as MD5 (APR1-MD5) and cracked it with Hashcat, retrieving the password ManchesterUnited. With these credentials, we accessed the system and captured the user flag.

After logging into statistics.alert.htb, we found port 8080 open. Using SSH port forwarding, we accessed a monitoring site but needed to locate its directory. Checking ps aux, we found it in /opt/website-monitor. We confirmed file access by testing a basic PHP file, which worked. We then uploaded a PentestMonkey reverse shell, but it didn’t execute. To ensure success, we crafted a reliable PHP shell, triggered it, and gained root access.

🔍 #CyberSecurity #BugBounty #EthicalHacking #PenTesting #CTF #HTB #WebSecurity #XSS #LFI #PrivilegeEscalation #Hacking

Hack The Box: Certified Machine Walkthrough – Medium Difficulty

Access is gained using Judith Mader’s credentials, allowing enumeration of network resources. CrackMapExec identifies key accounts like management_svc and ca_operator. Privilege escalation is performed using a Shadow Credentials attack with Certipy, taking control of management_svc. With valid credentials, Evil-WinRM establishes a remote session, leading to the user flag.

For root access, the attack exploits Active Directory Certificate Services by modifying ca_operator’s User Principal Name (UPN) to Administrator, enabling a privileged certificate request. A vulnerable ESC9 certificate is issued without linking back to ca_operator, effectively granting Administrator access. The UPN is restored to avoid detection, and authentication via Kerberos retrieves the NT hash of the Administrator account. Full system control is confirmed by obtaining the root flag.

#HackTheBox #Pentesting #ActiveDirectory #PrivilegeEscalation #CyberSecurity #EthicalHacking