Skip to content
Home » Windows

Windows

Hack The Box: Inflitrator Machine Walkthrough – Insane Difficulity

Successfully completed a two-stage Active Directory exploitation scenario involving both user access and privilege escalation. The first stage focused on identifying accounts that did not require Kerberos pre-authentication (AS-REP Roasting), allowing extraction and cracking of a user password hash to gain remote access and retrieve the user flag. In the second stage, a misconfigured certificate template (ESC4 vulnerability) within Active Directory Certificate Services was exploited to request a certificate impersonating a privileged user. This enabled full administrative access and retrieval of the root flag.

#CyberSecurity #ActiveDirectory #RedTeam #Kerberos #PrivilegeEscalation #ASREP #ADCS #ESC4 #PenetrationTesting #Infosec #HackTheBox #WindowsSecurity #CTF
Successfully completed a two-stage Active Directory exploitation scenario involving both user access and privilege escalation. The first stage focused on identifying accounts that did not require Kerberos pre-authentication (AS-REP Roasting), allowing extraction and cracking of a user password hash to gain remote access and retrieve the user flag. In the second stage, a misconfigured certificate template (ESC4 vulnerability) within Active Directory Certificate Services was exploited to request a certificate impersonating a privileged user. This enabled full administrative access and retrieval of the root flag.

#CyberSecurity #ActiveDirectory #RedTeam #Kerberos #PrivilegeEscalation #ASREP #ADCS #ESC4 #PenetrationTesting #Infosec #HackTheBox #WindowsSecurity #CTF

Hack The Box: EscapeTwo Machine Walkthrough – Easy Difficulty

🔒 My Write-Up for the EscapeTwo Machine on Hack The Box 🔍

I’m excited to share my detailed write-up for solving the beginner-friendly “EscapeTwo” machine on Hack The Box, showcasing skills in network enumeration and privilege escalation. First, to capture the user flag, I scanned for open ports, accessed SMB shares, uncovered a password, and leveraged the Ryan account’s elevated permissions to retrieve the flag remotely. Next, for the root flag, I escalated privileges by exploiting an Active Directory misconfiguration. Then, using the Ryan account, I employed tools to identify and modify permissions, thereby gaining control over a privileged account. With this control, I acquired a certificate, subsequently authenticated as an administrator, and finally captured the root flag. This challenge strengthened my expertise in Active Directory security and penetration testing. Check out the full write-up for a deep dive!

#Cybersecurity #HackTheBox #EthicalHacking #PenetrationTesting #ActiveDirectory

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: 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