Guideline of how to proceed the hack

Hi all nice to meet you. I am new to here and I would like to seek for help of how to hack the machines here…

I am taking PWK course and planned to take OSCP. So far I can pwned the systems in PWK lab public network include those “big 4” (sometimes refer to hints in PWK forum).

After starting study in here, I only can pwned 1 machine which is extremely easy. For other machines (I have already selected easy one) I even unable to know what shall I do next (e.g. only 1 port open and use dirbuster shows nothing even use large wordlist to scan…). I feel the machines are much more difficult than PWK lab those…

Would you mind sharing some hints/suggestion of how can I further proceed of hacking machines here? Thanks a lot…

How i start
nmap tcp and udp scan
If there is webserver i run nikto and gobuster
look at source code
next i look for vulnerabilities,exploits
Rest depends on what I find
Hack The Box

I want to pass the OSCP too , What is the differences you see with Hackthebox ? is it much Easier ? or just different ?

In my opinion, Hack The Box tends to be more difficult than the OSCP labs. There is no “scope” or syllabus in HTB and the methods of exploitation change so much. The OSCP labs were in some ways CTFish but did mimic real networks so you’d see low hanging fruit, classic exploits, and DCs etc. I still miss the labs!

That same methodology you use while hacking is universally useful though (enumeration, discovery, enumeration…). @xMagass if you’re planning on taking the OSCP start taking detailed notes (if you aren’t already :smile: ) while rooting HTB boxes and you’ll get a head start on the reporting skills needed.

@xMagass said:
I want to pass the OSCP too , What is the differences you see with Hackthebox ? is it much Easier ? or just different ?

I think both applies including different objectives for box design and technique use (e.g. I never use SQLmap in PWK lab)…

Machines in PWK lab are little easier than machines on HTB - in my humble opinion. I have OSCP cert and pwned few machines here, so I can say for sure :slight_smile:

My advice,which in my opinion is best if you want to go further without too much suffering.

  1. Read Georgia Weidman’s book about penetration testing. This book fully covers everything that Offsec PWK/OSCP training covers.
  2. Do vulnhub, buy VIP subscription and do retired hackthebox boxes. They have official walkthroughs and you can learn a lot from them. Also watch Ippsec’s videos on Youtube, he is great at explaining things.
  3. Do active HTB boxes.

In summary, do as much box as you can. I started doing boxes in December-January I didn’t have OSCP cert still back then. First box that I started doing was Kioptrix #1 from vulnhub. It was really hard for me. I needed 2 days for it. Since then I did lots of boxes including 31 from offsec’s pwk lab + exam 8 boxes( I passed on 2nd try :smiley: )

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

@Higgsx said:
Machines in PWK lab are little easier than machines on HTB - in my humble opinion. I have OSCP cert and pwned few machines here, so I can say for sure :slight_smile:

My advice,which in my opinion is best if you want to go further without too much suffering.

  1. Read Georgia Weidman’s book about penetration testing. This book fully covers everything that Offsec PWK/OSCP training covers.
  2. Do vulnhub, buy VIP subscription and do retired hackthebox boxes. They have official walkthroughs and you can learn a lot from them. Also watch Ippsec’s videos on Youtube, he is great at explaining things.
  3. Do active HTB boxes.

In summary, do as much box as you can. I started doing boxes in December-January I didn’t have OSCP cert still back then. First box that I started doing was Kioptrix #1 from vulnhub. It was really hard for me. I needed 2 days for it. Since then I did lots of boxes including 31 from offsec’s pwk lab + exam 8 boxes( I passed on 2nd try :smiley: )

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

We pwned same number of machines :slight_smile: I am so lazy to use pivoting and only pwned machine in public network…

Georgia Weidman’s is excellent and I read it usually now. I purchased 1 year VIP and reading retired machine walkthrough…some techniques really new for me and I need some time to test for them.

Hope I can adopt the new environment soon and strengthening my hacking skills~

@tszwun said:
Hi all nice to meet you. I am new to here and I would like to seek for help of how to hack the machines here…

I am taking PWK course and planned to take OSCP. So far I can pwned the systems in PWK lab public network include those “big 4” (sometimes refer to hints in PWK forum).

After starting study in here, I only can pwned 1 machine which is extremely easy. For other machines (I have already selected easy one) I even unable to know what shall I do next (e.g. only 1 port open and use dirbuster shows nothing even use large wordlist to scan…). I feel the machines are much more difficult than PWK lab those…

Would you mind sharing some hints/suggestion of how can I further proceed of hacking machines here? Thanks a lot…

try -X option if you use dirb (dirb --help will explain this option)