Active Directory

Escape is a medium-difficulty Windows machine on Hack The Box that revolves around Active Directory. The initial foothold is gained by finding credentials in a PDF file on an open SMB share. This access is then leveraged to connect to an MSSQL service, from which we capture and crack the NTLM hash of a service account. Lateral movement is achieved by discovering another user’s credentials in a log file. Finally, privilege escalation to Administrator is accomplished by exploiting a misconfiguration in Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS), specifically the ESC1 vulnerability.

Resolute is a medium-difficulty Windows machine on HackTheBox that involves a realistic Active Directory penetration test. The initial foothold is gained by enumerating domain users via a null SMB session and discovering a default password in a user’s description, which is then reused to gain access as another user via WinRM. Lateral movement is achieved by discovering cleartext credentials for a more privileged user within PowerShell transcripts. Finally, privilege escalation to SYSTEM is accomplished by abusing the permissions of the DnsAdmins group to load a malicious DLL.

Certified is a Windows machine having misconfigured ACL in Active Directory environment where initial access for a low-privileged user judith.mader is provided. Exploitation of the Active Directory Certificate Service (ADCS) is required to get access to the management_svc, ca_operator and Administrator account by abusing shadow credentials and ESC9.