I’m rather new to the world of hacking–just started learning in April. After completing the “Starting Point” machine and completing several modules in the HTB academy, I felt ready to try a machine. I picked the machine “Open Source” because the difficulty was rated “Easy”…
It took me THREE WEEKS to get in that thing! When I checked the forums for hints after completely running out of ideas, I couldn’t help but notice the countless amounts of other newbies struggling with the box as well.
Who is deciding the difficulty level of the boxes here? HTB or the box developer? Because if it’s the developer, someone needs to remind them that “What’s a piece of cake for someone who’s been doing this for 5 years is a mountain for someone just starting!”
If you add up all the retired and active easy boxes there might be more than eighty easy machines. The problem is that a difficulty creep builds up as more boxes release. The classic attack vectors have already been handled by older easy boxes. Newer boxes will try to be creative to stand out. This results in boxes that beginners might experience as a jump that is too large to make. Like opening a calculus book in the middle and expecting you to be able to solve its problems.
To solve your problem I can see different options. You could watch Ippsec on youtube solve easy boxes on youtube to get an idea of the general methodology. You could buy a VIP subscription and do retired easy boxes. Order the machines by difficulty and start hacking. You could also try your hand at other websites that are more suited for beginners, like TryHackMe.
Hello
My friend, the difficulty is determined by the community who completed this box. No one was ever born a professional and therefore I can advise you to start studying at the academy https://academy.hackthebox.com/ where you can get all the necessary knowledge and open your first box)
Good mood and successful hacking)
I really wish I had known that beforehand! I completely exhausted myself, telling myself repeatedly “Come on, this thing is rated EASY! If you can’t crack a system rated easy, you’re not gonna make it!” I have a VIP subscription already; I wanted to do the active boxes for points and ranking. But if the retired boxes are far easier, then that’s the route I’ll take. Thanks for your help!