CTF solutions, malware analysis, home lab development
Cobblestone hosts a cluster of Minecraft-themed PHP sites across a few subdomains. I’ll find a second-order SQL injection, use it to read the application source, and abuse stored cross-site scripting to hijack an admin session. That admin access opens up a Twig template injection for code execution as the web user, which is locked down hard by AppArmor. I’ll pull credentials from the database and…
Helix builds an industrial control theme around a chemical reactor that operators monitor and adjust through a control server. I’ll get a foothold on an anonymously-accessible Apache NiFi instance running an old, vulnerable version, abusing the H2 database driver’s ability to run a script on connection to register and call arbitrary Java for execution. From there I’ll find an SSH key on the box…
Kobold hosts several services behind an Nginx reverse proxy, including an MCPJam inspector instance, a PrivateBin paste site, and an Arcane Docker management panel. I’ll exploit an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in MCPJam that stems from it binding to all interfaces and installing an attacker-controlled MCP server, getting a shell. From there I’ll abuse a local file inclusion…
Fries is an assume breach Windows box that hides a sprawl of Linux services behind the domain controller. I’ll start with a set of credentials that don’t work anywhere obvious and use them to log into a Gitea instance, recovering database and pgAdmin access along the way. An outdated pgAdmin is vulnerable to a Python eval remote code execution bug that lands a shell in a container. From…
Logging is a Windows domain controller offered as an assume breach box, starting with credentials for a low privileged domain user. I’ll find an application log on an open SMB share that leaks an old password for a service account, then guess the current password by incrementing the year. That account can only authenticate over Kerberos, and it has GenericWrite over a health monitoring machine…
Orion is a Linux box running a Craft CMS website. I’ll exploit an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Craft’s image transform endpoint, abusing an object injection flaw in the underlying Yii framework to poison a PHP session file and execute my payload, landing a shell as the web user. Reading the Craft configuration, I’ll find database credentials, dump the users table, and…
CCTV hosts a ZoneMinder surveillance install. I’ll exploit a blind SQL injection in ZoneMinder’s event handling to dump the user database, and crack a bcrypt hash to get a foothold over SSH. I’ll use tcpdump configured to let non-privileged users capture traffic to sniff and recover another user’s password leaking in the clear. That password unlocks a motionEye instance on localhost, where I’ll…
Abducted is a Linux box running Samba. I’ll exploit a command injection in Samba’s printing subsystem, where a client-controlled print job name is passed to a shell without escaping, to get a foothold. From there, I’ll find an rclone backup config with an obfuscated password, decode it with rclone, and use it to access the next user. That user owns a Samba share configured to follow wide links and…
DevArea hosts a freelance developer marketplace backed by several web applications on different stacks. I’ll find a JAR file on an open FTP server that matches one of the web services that uses a vulnerable version of Apache CXF. I’ll abuse its attachment handling to read arbitrary files off the host. Those files leak credentials for a Hoverfly API simulation instance, where a command injection in…
WingData runs a Wing FTP Server instance with anonymous access enabled. I’ll abuse a null-byte injection flaw in the web interface that smuggles Lua code into the session file, giving remote code execution and a shell. From there, I’ll find Wing FTP’s account files holding salted password hashes, crack one, and reuse it to move to the next user. That user can run a Python backup-restore script as…
NanoCorp is a Windows Active Directory machine built around a careers portal that accepts uploaded application archives. I’ll craft a malicious archive that leaks a service account’s authentication to my host when an automated job extracts it, and crack the result to get a foothold. With BloodHound, I’ll map a permissions chain that lets me add my user to a support group and then reset a second…
VariaType hosts a pair of websites for a font foundry, a Flask-based font generator and a PHP validation portal. I’ll recover the portal’s source from an exposed Git repository to get credentials, and then abuse a single-pass filter bypass in its download feature to read files off the host. With the Flask application’s source in hand, I’ll exploit an arbitrary file write in fontTools’ variable…
Facts is a Linux box hosting a trivia website built on the Camaleon CMS, a Ruby on Rails application. I’ll abuse a mass assignment vulnerability in Camaleon to promote my account to administrator, then use credentials from the admin panel to authenticate to a local MinIO S3 service. From the bucket I’ll grab an encrypted SSH private key, crack its passphrase with john, and SSH in as the next user.…
AI as a technology is moving fast. From the time ChatGPT went mainstream in 2023, it’s grown from a cute way to generate funny poems to a defining technology that is likely to change everything. With its amazingly quick rise, it’s tricky to get the terms and language correct. Even the tech media doesn’t understand it, comparing Mythos to MDASH to Daybreak, when those comparisons make no sense!…
Interpreter is a Linux box hosting Mirth Connect, a Java-based healthcare integration engine. I’ll exploit an unauthenticated XStream deserialization vulnerability in the Mirth API to get remote code execution and a foothold as the mirth service account. From the Mirth config I’ll grab database credentials, dump a user password hash from MariaDB, and crack it to pivot to the next user. For root,…
MonitorsFour continues the Monitors series, this time on a Windows host. A company website exposes an authenticated API endpoint that returns every employee’s record. I’ll bypass auth with a PHP type juggling flaw to dump a collection of crackable password hashes. Those credentials open a Cacti instance, where I’ll exploit CVE-2025-24367 to inject commands into rrdtool and drop a webshell, landing…
Pterodactyl hosts a Minecraft community site alongside an instance of the Pterodactyl game-server management panel. I’ll exploit an unauthenticated directory traversal in the panel’s locale endpoint that gets PHP to include arbitrary files on disk, and chain it with the classic PEAR pearcmd technique to write and execute a webshell. From there I’ll read database credentials, crack a bcrypt hash,…
Overwatch starts with anonymous SMB access to a software share that hosts a custom .NET monitoring binary. I’ll reverse engineer it to recover SQL Server credentials and identify a WCF service with a PowerShell command injection sink. With the SQL creds, I’ll find a linked server pointing to a non-resolving host and abuse CREATE_CHILD on the AD-integrated DNS zone to add a record pointing the…
Sorcery is a Linux box with a Rust Rocket web app backed by Neo4j, Gitea, and a Kafka message bus. I’ll exploit Cypher injection in a derive-macro-generated query to leak the seller registration key, then use XSS in a product description to register a passkey on the admin account through a headless Chrome bot. I’ll also show a shortcut to change the admin’s password using cypher injection. As…
AirTouch simulates a wireless network environment. I’ll start by pulling a default password from SNMP to SSH as a consultant user inside a container with virtual wireless interfaces. From there, I’ll capture and crack a WPA2-PSK handshake to join the tablet network, then decrypt the captured traffic in WireShark to recover session cookies for a router management site. A client-side role cookie…
Eighteen is a Windows Server 2025 assume-breach box starting with MSSQL credentials. I’ll use MSSQL login impersonation to access the financial planner database and recover a Werkzeug PBKDF2 hash for the web admin. After cracking the hash and spraying the password against domain users, I’ll get a WinRM shell. From there, I’ll identify that the domain is running at the Windows 2025 functional level…
DarkZero is an assume breach Windows box with two forests connected by a bidirectional cross-forest trust. Starting with given credentials, I’ll enumerate MSSQL on DC01 and find a linked server to DC02 in the other forest where the mapped account is sysadmin. I’ll enable xp_cmdshell on DC02 to get a shell as the SQL service account. To escalate to SYSTEM on DC02, I’ll show four paths: recovering…
Snapped is a Linux box hosting a static site behind nginx, with an Nginx UI admin panel. I’ll exploit CVE-2026-27944 to decrypt a backup download from the Nginx UI to find bcrypt password hashes in a SQLite database. I’ll crack one to get SSH access. To escalate to root, I’ll exploit CVE-2026-3888, a recent vulnerability in snapd where systemd-tmpfiles deletes snap-confine’s private temp…
Principal is a Linux box with a Java web application using pac4j for JWT authentication. I’ll exploit a vulnerability in pac4j-jwt that allows forging encrypted JWTs using only the server’s public RSA key, bypassing signature verification to access the admin dashboard. From there, I’ll find credentials in the settings and spray them against SSH to get a shell as svc-deploy. For root, I’ll abuse…
Browsed is a Linux box hosting a browser extension repository where uploaded extensions are tested in a headless Chrome instance. I’ll analyze the Chrome debug logs to discover an internal Gitea instance and a Python Flask app running on localhost. By crafting a malicious Chrome extension with a background service worker, I’ll perform SSRF to reach the internal Flask app and exploit a Bash…
Conversor is a Linux box hosting a Flask web application that converts nmap XML output to HTML using XSLT. I’ll find the source code and exploit insecure use of os.path.join to write a Python reverse shell into a cron-executed scripts directory, or alternatively abuse XSLT’s exslt:document extension to write files to the server. From there, I’ll find an MD5-hashed password in the SQLite database…
Gavel is a Linux box hosting a PHP auction website with an exposed .git directory. I’ll recover the source code with git-dumper and exploit a novel SQL injection technique that bypasses PDO’s backtick-quoted prepared statements to dump the database. After cracking a bcrypt hash, I’ll access the admin panel and exploit PHP’s runkit extension to inject arbitrary code into auction rules, getting RCE.…
Expressway is a Linux box with only SSH and an IKE VPN service on UDP. I’ll use ike-scan in aggressive mode to leak the VPN identity and capture a pre-shared key hash, which cracks quickly with hashcat. Connecting to the IPSEC VPN doesn’t provide any additional attack surface, but the PSK works for SSH access. For privilege escalation, I’ll show exploitation of two different CVEs in sudo. In…
Barrier is a Linux box with GitLab, Authentik, and Apache Guacamole. I’ll exploit a SAML signature bypass vulnerability in GitLab’s Ruby SAML library to forge a SAML assertion and log in as admin. From GitLab’s CI/CD variables, I’ll recover an Authentik API token and use it to create an admin account. With Authentik admin access, I’ll impersonate a user in Guacamole to get an SSH shell. From…
Guardian is a Linux box hosting a university portal built with PHP. I’ll exploit an IDOR in the chat feature to find Gitea credentials, then use the source code to identify a vulnerability in PhpSpreadsheet that allows XSS through a malicious XLSX file to steal a lecturer’s session cookie. From the lecturer account, I’ll combine a CSRF vulnerability with a weak CSRF token implementation to create…
Bruno is a Windows Active Directory box. I’ll start by finding a .NET sample scanning application on FTP, and after reverse engineering it, discover a ZipSlip vulnerability in how it handles zip archives. Combining that with a DLL hijack, I’ll get a shell as the service account that runs the scanner. For privilege escalation, I’ll exploit the lack of LDAP signing by performing a Kerberos relay…
Giveback starts with a WordPress website with a donation plugin that’s vulnerable to a RCE exploit. I’ll get a shell in a Kubernetes pod, and use it to scan an internal legacy app running PHP-CGI. I’ll abuse a vulnerability in that application to get to the next pod, where I’ll find a Kubernetes secret to interact with the API and dump secrets. I’ll use an SSH password to get on the host. For root…
Soulmate has a PHP-based dating website, as well as an instance of CrushFTP. I’ll showcase two different authentication bypass CVEs to get admin access to CrushFTP. From there I can upload a PHP webshell and get a foothold on the box. I’ll find hardcoded credentials in an Erlang SSH server, and use them to get to the next user. I’ll also use them to connect to this SSH server and navigate the…
Slonik showcases some interesting Linux techniques around NFS and PostgreSQL. I’ll start with an insecurely configured NFS mount where I can list and read files from anywhere on the filesystem as any user except root. I’ll find hashes for a service account in the shadow file and in a postgres history file, and crack either. The service account doesn’t have a shell set, so I can’t get a shell over…
Breach is a Windows domain controller box. I’ll start by using guest access to a writable SMB share to drop ntlm_theft lure files, capturing a NetNTLMv2 hash for a domain user with Responder. After cracking that hash, I’ll use BloodHound to find a Kerberoastable MSSQL service account and crack its hash as well. Both accounts map to guest on MSSQL, but I’ll forge a silver ticket as Administrator to…
Signed is an assume breach Windows box where I’m given credentials for a local MSSQL account. I’ll enumerate the database, coerce authentication from the MSSQL service account using xp_dirtree, and crack the NetNTLMv2 hash. With the service account password, I’ll forge a silver ticket with the IT group’s RID to gain sysadmin privileges on the database and get command execution. For root, I’ll show…
Bamboo offers a Squid HTTP proxy through which I’ll access a PaperCut NG instance. I’ll use Spose to scan through the proxy and discover the print management application. I’ll exploit an authentication bypass vulnerability in PaperCut and use application access to enabling print scripting to get code execution. For privilege escalation, I’ll abuse a root process that runs a script from the…
CodeTwo is a Linux box hosting a developer sandbox where users can execute JavaScript code. The site uses js2py, which I’ll exploit via CVE-2024-28397 to escape the sandbox and get remote code execution. From there, I’ll find MD5 password hashes in the SQLite database and crack one to pivot to marco. Marco can run npbackup-cli with sudo, and I’ll abuse this to read files from root’s backup,…
Members of the NetExec team created a small lab as a CTF for the Barbhack conference that took place in August 2025 in the South of France. There are four Windows servers on an Active Directory domain. I’ll find a leaked password on a printer webpage to get access to print jobs where I find initial passwords, some of which still work. I’ll use that to get into the domain, coercing an…
JobTwo is the sequel to Job, another Windows box from VulnLab released on HackTheBox. I’ll send a malicious Word document with VBA macros to the HR email address via SMTP. From the initial shell as Julian, I’ll find hMailServer and decrypt its database password using a known Blowfish key. After dumping password hashes from the mail database, I’ll crack Ferdinand’s password and pivot via WinRM.…
Job is a Windows box with a website saying that they are looking for resumes in Libre Office format. The box is listening on SMTP, so I’ll create a document with a malicious macro and get a shell on mailing it to the careers email address. For root, I’ll drop a webshell into the web directory, and abuse SeImpersonatePrivilege with GodPotato to get system.
Imagery hosts a Flask-based image gallery application. I’ll exploit a stored XSS vulnerability in the bug report feature to steal an admin cookie. From the admin panel, I’ll use directory traversal to read the application source code, finding a command injection vulnerability in the image crop feature that requires access as a test user. After reading the database and cracking the test user’s…
HackNet hosts a social media site for hackers built with Django. I’ll find an HTML injection in the username field that, combined with how the likes page renders usernames, leads to server-side template injection. While Django templates are restrictive, I’ll use the SSTI to dump user data including plaintext passwords, finding one user whose email reveals their Linux username. After SSHing in,…
Previous starts with a NextJS application for a fictional JavaScript framework. I’ll exploit the infamous NextJS middleware vulnerability to access the authenticated portion of the site. From there, I’ll find a directory traversal vulnerability in a download API that allows reading files from the server, including the NextAuth config with hard-coded credentials. Those creds work for SSH, and I’ll…
The 2025 SANS Holiday Hack Challenge: Revenge of the Gnome(s) takes place over three acts in the Dosis neighborhood, where gnome dolls have come to life and are scurrying around furthering a plot by Frosty the Snowman to freeze the world so that it’s always winter and he never melts. I’ll work through 27 challenges ranging from beginner-friendly to expert-level, covering web exploitation, reverse…
When Hackvent was canceled this year, the community came together and created Flagvent, and it delivered! In the easy sections I’ll reassemble QRcodes, find hidden audio channels in a video, decode a DNA sequence, look at a musicxml file, and do some good old XOR brute forcing. There were also two challenge from me, centered on PyGyat and symbolic links. The medium days brought an interesting steg…
WhiteRabbit is a pentesting company. I’ll exploit their Uptime Kuma instance to find the domain for their WikiJS wiki. On that I’ll find documentation for a n8n pipeline, and find an SQL injection vulnerability in how it processes email, as well as the key for crafting signatures. I’ll make a proxy to add signatures using mitmproxy and then use sqlmap to dump the database. In the DB I’ll find…
Editor is a Linux box hosting a code editor website, with documentation on an XWiki instance. I’ll exploit a vulnerability in XWiki’s Solr search that allows unauthenticated Groovy script injection to get remote code execution and a shell. From there, I’ll find database credentials in the XWiki Hibernate config and pivot to a user who reuses the password. Enumerating localhost services, I’ll find…
Era starts with a custom file upload website full of insecure direct object reference vulnerabilities. I’ll create an account and abuse one IDOR to download a site backup from the admin account. Then I’ll abuse an IDOR like vulnerability to get admin access to the site. The admin panel has a PHP vulnerability where I can get it to use the SSH module to login to the host and run commands, providing…
Mirage is an Active Directory DC. I’ll start by finding a domain name in a report on an open NFS server. That name is not registered in DNS, so I’ll register it pointing to my host, and use that to capture NATS credentials. I’ll use those to enumerate NATS and find another set of creds. With those, I’ll Kerberoast another user to get a shell, and find another user logged into the box. A…