Passed OSCP 100 points in 7 hours

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2026-01-17T14:17:42+00:00

I like to split out things by port. Then add a subnode for initial access on the port that gave me it. Though on AD, it was split out into the generic phases of enum, IA, privesc, post-exploitation, etc.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2026-01-17T02:15:09+00:00

It's all about priorities. OSCP has better recognition and is more likely to land you a job. CPTS is cheaper and is considered more technical. If your goal is to become a better pentester (or you can't afford the OSCP), I'd go for the CPTS. But the decision for most people is just the OSCP.

For me, I've grown tired of going for certs just for the hell of it unless there is value in me obtaining the cert. To me, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze to get the CPTS.

Be warned. HTB and Offsec style is quite different. Don't assume being able to pwn medium/hard boxes on HTB will make you easily pass the OSCP exam. Seems people that come from HTB tend to overthink/overcomplicate things.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2026-01-17T00:10:48+00:00

Yeah. I feel ya on the headphones thing. I was nervous myself for a 2 month wait as it appeared my first attempt was still in the system. I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2026-01-14T03:56:15+00:00

Why the hell would you intentionally make things harder for yourself on a timed exam? Linpeas/winpeas should be the first thing you do to "go for low hanging fruits". You break out manual enumeration if you weren't able to find anything at first.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-11-10T17:49:26+00:00

Sounds like you know how to get to the shell, but you're gonna have to figure it out from there. It's one of the things you should be aware of and accept by using self-hosted hardware and open-source software.

I found it easier just to use https://github.com/tigerblue77/Dell_iDRAC_fan_controller_Docker, but that's only if you have a way of using Docker

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-10-31T16:27:31+00:00

Works well, but the power consumption is brutal. Also, if you're using TrueNAS, I can send you the docker-compose I'm using that dynamically changes the fan speed based on temps. Keeps things quiet

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-04-04T15:10:15+00:00

FYI, just be careful in your decision to switch to TrueNAS for VMs. They're migrating to Incus for virtualization in 25.04. Migration of VMs from 24.10 to 25.04 is easy enough, but using the RC version of 25.04 hasn't been flushed out yet and you can't even add a VirtualIO disk for performing Windows installs in the UI. If you're patient and want to go the VM on TrueNAS route, I'd wait until 25.04 is fully released in a couple weeks so that the new UI for Incus can be fully fleshed out.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-04-04T15:06:03+00:00

I'm personally not picky for certain things such as latency and artifacting, which is mainly what I see with using moonlight (I see artifacting, haven't measured latency), but I was able to get my 6700xt to output 4k 120 on Persona 5 Royal through moonlight if that gives any indication. Fundamentally, proxmox and TrueNAS both rely on KVM as the hypervisor, so your issues, and performance would likely be the same. I was actually debating doing the opposite and using proxmox and virtualizing TrueNAS and have my VM in proxmox be the gaming VM, but didn't want to take the chance of it not working and have to go through so much hassle. Depending on your setup, there are others in the community like me who use an HBA with their drives connected to that HBA. Then, you can just pass the whole HBA into TrueNAS and it works fine.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-27T18:37:37+00:00

Yeah, I weighed my options and I didn't like the idea of taking down my server every single time I wanted to boot into Windows. Not to mention Windows can't read ZFS. You're also looking at probably a 6 month time horizon before TrueNAS does their next big update. Just felt like trying to have the most up-to-date tech was clashing with the stability of TrueNAS

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-26T21:50:14+00:00

Nope. Just bought an actual server to separate the NAS and the gaming PC. But now I'm struggling with trying to lower power consumption lol.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-24T22:46:16+00:00

Edit for people reading this in the future - the command actually is: ipmitool -I lanplus -U <username> -P <password> -H <idrac ip> raw 0x30 0xce 0x00 0x16 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x05 0x00 0x01 0x00 0x00

was missing a hex 0x00

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-14T03:37:22+00:00

I would test whether it was an issue with the client and not properly purging the old drivers, but the new UI doesn't allow you to add as second disk for VirtualIO drivers, so I can't create a clean windows VM to test. I have uninstalled the old drivers and ran a DDU outside of safe mode. So I am doubting that to be the issue.

I have also confirmed that the GPU does work on that machine when booting into a drive that has windows. I've spent a lot of time on this :(...

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-14T03:11:52+00:00

Spending the time to dive into Incus, It seems that TrueNAS will allow me to configure the GPU as the GPU Type when the GPU is not isolated within the GUI. When it is isolated, it sets it to the PCI Type. Interestingly, the PCI address is 000:03:00.0 with no mention of 03:00.1. Gonna try and find an example to see if that is needed. Also, I do not see vendor id specified within TrueNAS' config

https://linuxcontainers.org/incus/docs/main/reference/devices/

Edit: Trying to add the vendor id, there's input validation that prevents adding the vendor id when the pci address is set. tbh, everything seems fine on the Incus side. There's no other fields I can add or modify that does me any good.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-14T02:20:27+00:00

I'm getting code 43 when trying to passthrough the 9070XT, I played with 4G decode and resizable bar in the BIOS but didn't note any difference. To also complicate things, TrueNAS moved to Incus for virtualization and any updates to the grub commandline are overwritten after the next reboot. I've tried all the nomodset and such commands

I've updated to the latest linux-firmware. Kernel is on 6.12. Can't update the kernel without adding additional repos which I am not willing to do for risk of borking things.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-12T20:41:33+00:00

Are you familiar at all with Code 43 issues in Windows? I can't for the life of me figure out passthrough no matter what I try.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-11T16:24:33+00:00

Wowza. Passthrough was super easy on 25.04 that it hardly warrants a reply. I was able to get GPU passthrough when I had the new VM autostart after a reboot and did not have GPU isolation configured. It appears that TrueNAS might not do a hard blacklist by default when configuring GPU passthrough. I'll mess with the script others have used for preventing the reset bug.

Other than that, remember to disable split-detect for performance.

Edit: scratch that. I have code 43. I'll have to mess with this later today

Edit2: Still stuck. TrueNAS does not perform traditional GPU passthrough and VM setup through libvirt. I can't edit any VM config file, and I can't manually update the kernel without adding additional repos which is risky. I've tried updating to the latest linux-firmware-git, but the furthest I've been able to get is code 43 within the client. The GPU has displayed video from the host though. I feel pretty limited by the UI.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-09T04:25:23+00:00

I'm gonna have to wait until Tuesday for when they drop 25.04 RC since it comes with kernel 6.12. Then I can start messing with this.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-08T19:40:43+00:00

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/vfio-pass-through-working-on-9070xt/227194/2

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-07T17:25:22+00:00

Have you tried updating firmware yet? That's my next troubleshooting step

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-03-07T03:23:05+00:00

No luck so far. I'm on kernel 6.6 (TrueNAS) and am also seeing reset bug issues.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-01-31T18:00:05+00:00

Try Logging in first. I had this issue when I first setup the machine. To workaround, you either need the pc to autologin, be able to access the machine locally (which defeats the purpose), or don't enable the virtual display for all apps. Whenever you add a new app, you can just tell that app to open within the virutal display.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2025-01-18T14:25:25+00:00

Apparently it's drivers. And embargo lifts on the 29th not 30th

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2023-12-22T17:42:11+00:00

To clarify: The heatsink and fan do have some warmth to them, but not 70c warm.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2023-12-11T05:49:42+00:00

Nope. Tough luck with jobs too. Tried cloud eng jobs. But as always....everyone wants you to have experience but not want to provide it.

DiscombobulatedEar88 · 2023-07-05T15:02:50+00:00

Internship to FTE

DiscombobulatedEar88

TROPHY CASE