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Puppy is another amazing assumed breach active directory box.
Planning is an easy Linux machine where web enumeration and a CVE-2024-9264 vulnerability lead to initial access, lateral movement, and full system compromise.
Fluffy is an easy Windows machine where initial credentials and CVE-2025-24071 lead to further user access, Active Directory enumeration, and ultimately Administrator compromise.
The compromise starts with exposed credentials and gradually escalates through misconfigurations in delegation and authentication, ultimately leading to full domain compromise.
Phantom is a Medium AD box where SMB enumeration leads to a decrypted VeraCrypt container, recovered credentials enable a foothold via password spraying, and Resource-Based Constrained Delegation (RBCD) is exploited to gain Administrator access.
On Nocturnal, an IDOR exposed credentials that unlocked the admin panel and source code. A command injection led to a shell, cracked database hashes enabled SSH access, and exploiting ISPConfig CVE-2023-46818 provided root.
LustrousTwo is a hard HackTheBox Windows machine where I use FTP to gather usernames, then spray with kerbrute and elpscrk to access an IIS site with Kerberos (IIS_KERBEROS_AUTH). By decompiling DLLs and abusing S4U2Proxy constrained_delegations, I achieve RCE and escalate via a Velociraptor server key.
VulnEscape is an Easy Difficulty Windows machine where users exploit a Remote Desktop Server to connect as KioskUser0, bypass restrictions using Microsoft Edge, and uncover a password to gain admin access and capture the root flag.
Shibuya is a hard Windows machine that requires extensive enumeration across multiple services and accounts. The attack chain involves exploiting exposed protocols, credential discovery, and lateral movement. Privilege escalation is achieved through abusing Active Directory Certificate Services.
This blog post explains cross-session relay attacks, covering COM/DCOM basics and authentication flaws. It details how attackers exploit weak configurations to relay credentials.
Cat is a medium-difficulty Linux machine featuring a custom PHP web application vulnerable to XSS, which allows cookie hijacking and privilege escalation. A SQL injection in a SQLite database enables remote code execution and access to internal logs, which leak plaintext credentials. These are used to access a vulnerable Gitea instance (CVE-2024-6886), ultimately leading to the discovery of root credentials in a private repository.
Titanic is an easy Linux machine with a booking site and a Gitea instance. An arbitrary file read vulnerability allows access to Gitea's SQLite database, leading to cracked SSH credentials. A scheduled script using a vulnerable magick binary (CVE-2024-41817) is exploited for root access.
Cicada is an excellent beginner-friendly Windows box designed for those new to Windows pentesting, without requiring any knowledge of Active Directory or its attack vectors and strategies. It focuses on the early stages of enumeration, which are essential for tackling more advanced machines, as well as some basic manual checks you can perform once you obtain a user shell.
"Trickster" is a medium-difficulty Linux machine on HackTheBox that challenges you with technologies like Git, MySQL, Docker, and vulnerabilities such as SSTI and CSRF. This write-up covers the key steps and techniques I used to exploit the machine, highlighting the creative enumeration and exploitation required to capture the flags.
