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After a weeks of preparation, countless PortSwigger labs, and more caffeine than I’d like to admit, I finally passed the Burp Suite Certified Practitioner (BSCP) exam. Here’s everything you need to know about the exam, my preparation strategy, and what to expect on exam day. Why the BSCP? The BSCP is one of the most respected practical certifications in web application security. Unlike multiple-choice exams that test memorization, this one throws you into a live environment where you have to actually exploit vulnerabilities. No guessing your way through. You either pop the shell or you don’t. ...

Synopsis Cypher is a Medium Linux machine from HackTheBox that features a Cypher injection vulnerability in its web application login form, which allows for initial access via a reverse shell, lateral movement using credentials discovered in bash history, and privilege escalation by exploiting a sudo misconfiguration for the bbot binary to load a malicious custom module. ...

Sypnosis Scepter is a Hard Windows machine from HackTheBox featuring an exposed NFS share that contains user certificate files, which after being cracked, allow for initial access and a series of chained Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS) abuses (ESC9 and ESC14) to pivot through multiple user accounts, ultimately gaining DCSync rights for full domain compromise. ...

Overview Dog is an easy box from HackTheBox that focuses on web application vulnerabilities, specifically a misconfigured Git repository and a vulnerable Backdrop CMS. We start by discovering an exposed .git directory, which allows us to dump the repository and uncover database credentials. These credentials lead to an authenticated web panel, where we exploit a known Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in Backdrop CMS to gain an initial shell as www-data. For privilege escalation, we discover that a user (johncusack) can execute a PHP utility (bee) as root, which we then abuse to spawn a root shell. ...

Overview Fusion corp is a hard rated box on tryhackme. After some basic enumeration fails, we find a backup file on the web server that contains a list of usernames. One of these users, lparker, is vulnerable to AS-REP Roasting because they have Kerberos pre-authentication disabled. We get their hash, crack it, and get a shell on the box. ...

Overview Crocc Crew is an insane machine on TryHackMe, but it’s kinda like a easy box. The path starts with some clever RDP reconnaissance to find initial credentials. From there, it involves kerberoasting a service account, diving into BloodHound to find a constrained delegation path, and wrestling with a very frustrating secretsdump error that I almost rage quit and touched grass. Let’s walk through it. ...

Overview Ra is a Hard machine on TryHackme it started with exploiting a weak password reset mechanism on a web application. After finding employee names and guessing a security question based on a pet’s name found in an image file, we get our initial credentials. This leads us to an SMB share with an installer for a vulnerable Spark XMPP client. ...

Overview This box focuses on web application vulnerabilities, specifically Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and SQL Injection, leading to privilege escalation. We start with an Nmap scan to identify open ports and services. We then enumerate the web application, discovering an exposed Git repository and an XSS vulnerability in the cat registration feature. Exploiting the XSS allows us to capture an admin session cookie, granting access to an administrative panel. From there, we identify and exploit a SQL Injection vulnerability to dump user credentials, which leads to SSH access as a low-privileged user. Finally, we leverage another XSS vulnerability within a local Gitea instance, triggered by an internal mail service, to compromise a higher-privileged user and obtain the root flag. ...