Tag port forwarding

Hack The Box:MakeSense Machine Walkthrough Medium Difficulity

Completed MakeSense (Medium) from Hack The Box, achieving both user and root access.

The initial foothold involved investigating a custom WordPress theme and its voice transcription functionality. Source code analysis revealed a hard-coded encryption key and weaknesses in the application's AJAX implementation. Further investigation led to the recovery of administrator credentials, providing access to the WordPress dashboard. A malicious plugin then enabled remote code execution under the web server account. Additional enumeration uncovered credential reuse in the application configuration, allowing access to the local `walter` account and retrieval of the user flag.

The privilege escalation phase focused on an internally accessible OCR application running on port 8001. Process inspection revealed a root-owned service and script responsible for handling OCR operations. SSH port forwarding provided access to the internal application, where further investigation uncovered a weakness in its processing logic that allowed privileged command execution. The investigation also revealed a SUID-enabled Bash binary, providing an additional path to root access.

MakeSense provided valuable experience in WordPress security, JavaScript source code analysis, application-level vulnerabilities, Linux enumeration, and privilege escalation. It also highlighted how weaknesses in custom application functionality and internal services can lead to complete system compromise.

\#HackTheBox #HTB #MakeSense #WordPress #WebSecurity #LinuxPrivilegeEscalation #PenetrationTesting #OffensiveSecurity #RedTeam #CyberSecurity #EthicalHacking #LearningJourney

Hack The Box: Reactor Machine Walkthrough – Easy Difficulty

Completed another Hack The Box machine: Reactor, an Easy-difficulty Linux challenge.

The initial foothold came from enumerating the Next.js application running on port 3000. Version fingerprinting identified a vulnerable React canary release associated with CVE-2025-55182 (React2Shell). Further testing confirmed remote code execution through the React Server Components functionality, providing access as the node user.

From the application environment, the SQLite database exposed credentials for the engineer account. After recovering the password from the stored MD5 hash, SSH access provided the user-level foothold.

For privilege escalation, process enumeration revealed a root-owned Node.js service with the inspector exposed on localhost. The Node inspector provided a path to execute code within the root process and modify /bin/bash permissions, ultimately leading to a root shell.

I also explored an alternative approach using SSH local port forwarding and Chrome DevTools to access the remote Node inspector.

Another useful HTB machine for practicing web enumeration, version fingerprinting, application-layer exploitation, Linux enumeration, and Node.js debugging interfaces.

#HackTheBox #HTB #CyberSecurity #PenetrationTesting #RedTeam #OffensiveSecurity #WebSecurity #Linux #NextJS #React #NodeJS #CVE #PrivilegeEscalation #CTF #CyberSecurityLearning

Hack The Box: Silentium Machine Walkthrough – Easy Difficulity

Completed another Hack The Box machine, Silentium.

Initial access was achieved by exploiting a password-reset vulnerability in the staging Flowise application, followed by abusing a custom MCP endpoint to obtain a root shell inside the Flowise container. Credentials exposed through the container environment were then used to SSH into the underlying host as ben and retrieve the flag.

For privilege escalation, an internal Gogs instance was discovered through local port forwarding. A malicious symlink was pushed and manipulated through the Gogs API to target /etc/sudoers.d/ben, allowing a passwordless sudo rule to be written and ultimately providing full root access.

#HackTheBox #HTB #CyberSecurity #PenetrationTesting #OffensiveSecurity #Linux #PrivilegeEscalation #WebSecurity #CTF

HackTheBox: CobbleStone Machine Walkthrough – Insane Difficulty

Completed the Hack The Box “CobbleStone” Insane machine, chaining multiple vulnerabilities to achieve full system compromise.

Initial access was achieved through SSRF in the skin suggestion feature, followed by SQL injection and stored XSS to compromise the administrator’s session. The stolen session cookie provided admin access, leading to Twig SSTI and RCE as www-data. Database credentials recovered through SSTI enabled a database dump and password cracking, resulting in SSH access as cobble and the user flag.

Local enumeration revealed Cobbler’s XML-RPC service on port 25151. After identifying Cobbler 3.3.6 as vulnerable to CVE-2024-47533, a malicious Cheetah template was used to execute commands with root privileges. This provided a root shell and access to /root/root.txt.

#HackTheBox #HTB #CobbleStone #CyberSecurity #PenetrationTesting #OffensiveSecurity #WebSecurity #SSRF #SQLInjection #XSS #SSTI #PrivilegeEscalation #CVE-2024-47533

Hack The Box: Fries Machine Walkthrough – Hard Difficulty

Just wrapped up another Hack The Box machine: Fries (Hard).

TThis machine provided a realistic attack path that started with source code review in Gitea, where leaked credentials in a Git commit led to authenticated PostgreSQL RCE through pgAdmin. From there, I pivoted through the internal Docker network using Ligolo-ng, abused an exposed NFS share and debugfs to gain host access, then exploited PWM configuration weaknesses to capture LDAP credentials. The final stage involved Active Directory enumeration and AD CS (ESC6/ESC7) abuse to obtain an administrator certificate and compromise the domain. A great lab for practising web exploitation, Docker security, Linux privilege escalation, internal pivoting, and Active Directory attacks.

#HackTheBox #HTB #CyberSecurity #PenetrationTesting #RedTeam #ActiveDirectory #ADCS #Docker #Ligolo #PostgreSQL #Gitea #EthicalHacking #Writeup #CTF

Hack The Box: CCTV machine walkthrough – Easy Difficulty

Just completed the CCTV machine from Hack The Box!

After enumerating the target, I discovered a ZoneMinder instance exposed on the web interface. Using the default administrative credentials, I gained access to the application and identified a SQL injection vulnerability in the removetag endpoint. By leveraging SQLMap, I extracted the database contents and recovered valid credentials through bcrypt hash cracking with Hashcat, allowing SSH access as the mark user and securing the User flag.

For privilege escalation, I discovered a locally running MotionEye service and extracted authentication details from its configuration files. After accessing the internal web interface through SSH port forwarding, I exploited a command injection vulnerability in the image filename configuration to obtain a root shell and capture the Root flag.

Really enjoyed this Easy-difficulty box — a great combination of web application exploitation, SQL injection, credential recovery, and Linux privilege escalation techniques!

#HackTheBox #HTB #PenetrationTesting #CyberSecurity #PrivilegeEscalation #SQLInjection #EthicalHacking #Linux #OffensiveSecurity

Hack The Box: Overwatch Machine Walkthrough- Medium Difficulity

Just completed "Overwatch" — Medium difficulty machine on Hack The Box! ✅

This Windows AD environment provided an excellent learning experience combining reconnaissance, service enumeration, and creative privilege escalation techniques.

After gaining initial access via a low-privileged service account and securing a stable WinRM shell, post-exploitation enumeration quickly led to the first flag on the user’s desktop.

For privilege escalation, I focused on an internally exposed service that contained a dangerous command injection vulnerability. By exploiting this flaw, I was able to create a new administrator account, elevate my privileges, and eventually compromise the Administrator user — granting full system control and allowing retrieval of the final flag.

Really enjoyed the logical flow and the clever abuse of internal services in this box!

#HackTheBox #HTB #PenetrationTesting #CyberSecurity #EthicalHacking #ActiveDirectory #PrivilegeEscalation #RedTeam #Infosec

Hack The Box: Airtouch Mahcine Walkthrough – Medium Diffiiculty

Recently, I completed the “Airtouch” machine on Hack The Box (Medium difficulty), which provided a great hands-on experience in combining system exploitation with wireless attack techniques.

The challenge started with basic reconnaissance and service enumeration, leading to initial access via SSH as a low-privileged user. From there, misconfigured sudo permissions allowed quick privilege escalation on the host. What made this machine particularly interesting was its setup as a wireless attack platform, requiring interaction with a simulated corporate Wi-Fi environment.

By cracking a WPA2-PSK handshake and connecting to the internal network, I was able to pivot further, access an internal access point, and exploit an unrestricted file upload vulnerability to gain remote shell access. Additional enumeration revealed credentials that enabled lateral movement to a management server, ultimately leading to full root compromise.

Overall, this machine was a great reminder of how misconfigurations, weak credentials, and insecure file handling can chain together into a full system compromise—especially in complex environments involving internal networks and wireless infrastructure.

#HackTheBox #CyberSecurity #PenetrationTesting #RedTeam #EthicalHacking #CTF #Infosec #PrivilegeEscalation #NetworkSecurity

Hack The Box: Nocturnal Machine Walkthrough – Easy Difficulty

Captured the user flag by exploiting a file upload feature, unpacking .odt files to reveal a hidden password with xmllint, and injecting a reverse shell via the backup feature to get a www-data shell. Retrieved hashes from the nocturnal_database, cracked Tobias’s password (slowmotionapocalypse), and obtained the user flag. For the root flag, enumerated open ports, found port 8080 running ISPConfig, accessed it with admin credentials, identified the version, executed a public exploit, and gained root shell to capture the root flag.

#HTB #HackTheBox #CyberSecurity #RedTeam #CTF #PenTesting #Nocturnal #LinuxExploitation #WebExploitation #PrivilegeEscalation

Hack The Box: Cat Machine Walkthrough – Medium Diffculity

Hack The Box Success: Cat Machine Write-Up Published!

I’ve just published my personal write-up for the Cat machine on Hack The Box. In this challenge, I gained the user flag by exploiting a Stored XSS vulnerability to capture the admin session cookie, followed by an SQL Injection to extract credentials and gain SSH access. For the root flag, I took advantage of a vulnerable image processing script owned by root, crafting a payload to gain a root shell and retrieve the flag. The full write-up dives into each step, the logic behind the attacks, and key takeaways.

#CyberSecurity #HackTheBox #PenetrationTesting #EthicalHacking #CTF #WriteUp #XSS #SQLi #PrivilegeEscalation #InfoSec #CTFWriteup