HTB STARTING POINT · Tier 1

Tactics

Administrator with an empty password on a Windows box — SMB signing disabled, psexec drops SYSTEM in 15 minutes flat. The most honest failure mode in Active Directory.…

April 29, 2026 · 5 min · crAIzy
SMB Null Session

HTB STARTING POINT · Tier 1

Responder

PHP LFI forces the server to issue a NetNTLMv2 request to a rogue Responder listener; the captured hash cracks to Administrator in seconds.…

April 28, 2026 · 6 min · crAIzy
LFI + Responder

HTB STARTING POINT · Tier 0

Explosion

RDP and WinRM both accept a blank Administrator password — attack surface is two services wide when credential assumptions fail at the front door.…

April 27, 2026 · 5 min · crAIzy
RDP

HTB STARTING POINT · Tier 2

Markup

XXE in an order form reads the Administrator's SSH private key from disk. job.bat runs as SYSTEM on a schedule — drop a reverse shell into the watched directory.…

April 27, 2026 · 3 min · crAIzy
XXE File ReadScheduled Task Abuse

HTB STARTING POINT · Tier 0

Dancing

SMB null session on Windows delivers a flag from an exposed WorkShares share; the takeaway is unauthenticated SMB enumeration without Metasploit.…

April 27, 2026 · 6 min · crAIzy
SMB Null Session

HTB STARTING POINT · Tier 2

Archetype

Anonymous SMB exposes a config file with SA credentials. MSSQL xp_cmdshell goes active, winPEAS finds a PowerShell history file with admin credentials. Classic AD escalation in four steps.…

April 27, 2026 · 4 min · crAIzy
MSSQL RCESMB Anonymous

HTB · Tier 0

PingPong

Two-domain AD forest under Assumed Breach. NTLM disabled globally. TCP port 88 asymmetrically filtered — a custom impacket monkey-patch unblocks Kerberos. ESC13 on TemporaryWinRM template grants WinRM shell on DC1. ……

April 27, 2026 · 7 min · crAIzy
MSSQL RCE