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HackTheBox - CozyHosting Writeup

CozyHosting is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine running a Spring Boot app with exposed Actuator endpoints. Session hijacking grants dashboard access, and a command injection vulnerability provides a reverse shell. Hardcoded credentials in the JAR file reveal a database hash, which, once cracked, allows SSH access as josh. The user can run ssh as root, leading to full privilege escalation.

HackTheBox - Devvortex Writeup

Devvortex is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine running Joomla CMS vulnerable to info disclosure. The config file exposes plaintext admin credentials, enabling template injection for RCE. Cracked database hashes grant SSH access. Privilege escalation is achieved via apport-cli, run as root.

HackTheBox - Surveillance Writeup

Surveillance is a medium-difficulty Linux machine featuring Craft CMS [CVE-2023-41892] PHP object injection for initial access. Privilege escalation involves authenticated RCE in ZoneMinder and a sudo misconfiguration using LD_PRELOAD, leading to root access.

HackTheBox - Valentine Writeup

Valentine is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine vulnerable to Heartbleed (CVE-2014-0160). Nmap reveals SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS services, with a clue to Heartbleed in the SSL cert. Exploiting the vulnerability leaks memory contents containing a base64-encoded passphrase. This decrypts an SSH private key, granting access as hype. Privilege escalation is achieved via an exposed tmux session, leading to root.

HackTheBox - Sense Writeup

Sense is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine featuring a vulnerable pfSense firewall. Although a public PoC exploit exists, it is unreliable. A more stable approach using the same pfSense vulnerability is required to gain remote access. Once exploited, it provides a straightforward path to root.

HackTheBox - Shocker Writeup

Shocker is a simple Hack The Box machine that highlights the critical impact of the Shellshock vulnerability, which once affected millions of public-facing servers worldwide.

HackTheBox - Blocky Writeup

Blocky is a straightforward Hack The Box (HTB) machine inspired by a real-world scenario. It highlights the dangers of poor password management and exposed internal files on public systems. Additionally, it showcases a major attack surface through Minecraft servers—widely deployed and often misconfigured by inexperienced admins—making them prime targets.

HackTheBox - Bank Writeup

Bank is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine featuring a custom PHP banking app. An exposed /balance-transfer endpoint leaks valid credentials via an improperly encrypted .acc file. Authenticated access reveals a file upload bypass using a .htb extension, leading to RCE as www-data. Privilege escalation is achieved by exploiting a custom SUID binary (/var/htb/bin/emergency) to gain root access.

HackTheBox - Nibbles Writeup

Nibbles is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine featuring a custom blogging platform. A login blacklist adds a slight challenge, but username enumeration and basic password guessing lead to access. Once logged in, a vulnerable file upload function enables Remote Code Execution, resulting in a shell. Privilege escalation is achieved via a poorly secured root script.

HackTheBox - Validation Writeup

HackTheBox - Paper Writeup

Paper is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine running Apache on ports 80 and 443. A hidden virtual host reveals a vulnerable WordPress blog susceptible to [CVE-2019-17671], allowing access to sensitive draft content. A discovered link leads to a Rocket.Chat instance, where bot interaction leaks system credentials. SSH access is obtained, and privilege escalation is achieved by exploiting a vulnerable version of sudo via [CVE-2021-3560], resulting in root access.

HackTheBox - Bashed Writeup

Bashed is an easy Hack The Box (HTB) Linux machine focused on web fuzzing and file enumeration. Initial access is gained through a vulnerable web shell, and privilege escalation involves analyzing scheduled tasks with restricted crontab access.

HackTheBox - Beep Writeup

Beep is an easy Hack The Box (HTB) Linux machine with numerous exposed services, making initial enumeration challenging. Despite the noise, multiple clear exploitation paths exist for gaining access and escalating privileges.

HackTheBox - Knife Writeup

Knife is an easy Hack The Box Linux machine running a backdoored version of PHP, which is exploited to gain a foothold via remote code execution. Post-exploitation enumeration reveals a sudo misconfiguration that allows privilege escalation to root without a password, resulting in full system compromise.

HackTheBox - Love Writeup

Love is an easy Windows machine featuring a vulnerable voting system web application. Initial enumeration reveals a service on port 5000, but direct access is denied. A secondary file scanner service is found to be vulnerable to SSRF, which is exploited to access an internal password manager. Credentials obtained from this allow authentication to the voting system, which is vulnerable to authenticated Remote Code Execution. This grants access as the phoebe user. Post-exploitation reveals AppLocker is enabled, but a misconfiguration allows privilege escalation by deploying a malicious .msi file, resulting in a shell as SYSTEM.

HackTheBox - Base Writeup

Starting Point Machine

HackTheBox - Oopsie Writeup

Starting Point Machine