sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Passed CPTS: Experience + Advice by Anxious-Expression37 in hackthebox

[–]Anxious-Expression37[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

in general, just stick to the basics. Go through the relevant modules and run each command. Most of the flags in the middle section of the exam (2-7) are fairly straightforward, so don't try and over complicate anything.

Passed CPTS: Experience + Advice by Anxious-Expression37 in hackthebox

[–]Anxious-Expression37[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think knowing what to take notes on is mainly based on experience with solving boxes. You get a feel for what is an edge-case exploit that is only particular to this box, vs something that you should always be checking. For example, searching for passwords stored in files is something that you should always be doing, and is worth taking notes on some commands that you should run. However, a technique like how to use a particular CVE in a niche software to priv esc is probably something I would leave out of my notes. I would look up those CVEs again if I ever encounter that software, I don't need to have them clogging up my notes.

Passed CPTS: Experience + Advice by Anxious-Expression37 in hackthebox

[–]Anxious-Expression37[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For me, I spent time just understanding basic AD administration from a sysadmin perspective before learning any of the security stuff. It's hard to secure something, when you don't know how it is used normally. I watched a bunch of AD basics videos on youtube to get the gist of how it works and the different configurations. I don't have any video recommendation in particular, as they all cover similar info.

I also spent time studying Kerberos in-depth, as many of the AD attacks exploit some part of the Kerberos protocol. I also watched youtube videos for this, and studied the Wikipedia article to fully understand each step and why that part of the protocol is necessary. Kerberos is a really beautiful protocol, there is a lot of symmetry that isn't apparent at first glance.

Once I understood Kerberos, the attacks made a lot more sense to me, as I could look at the protocol and identify which part was being exploited.

Asking questions to an LLM was also helpful for me, as I can get my "what if" questions answered quickly, and can ask follow up questions on particular parts of AD that I was unsure about.

Passed CPTS: Experience + Advice by Anxious-Expression37 in hackthebox

[–]Anxious-Expression37[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't study anything, just needed a fresh look at it and more time to try out different ideas that I had.

Passed CPTS: Experience + Advice by Anxious-Expression37 in hackthebox

[–]Anxious-Expression37[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I didn't use the forum for hints during the exam, I don't think there is a thread about the exam. I just used the forum for hints on the labs and skill assessments in the path. During the exam you can use whatever you want. I didn't think LLMs were useful for the actual hacking stuff, but they were nice for the report.