_hot_ | Scrambled Hackthebox

For the aspiring OSCP or CPTS candidate, completing Scrambled without a walkthrough is a genuine milestone. It teaches you that in the real world, systems are not just vulnerable in one place—they are "scrambled" messes of misconfigurations, weak crypto, and forgotten binaries.

Here is a breakdown of the typical exploitation path for this machine. 1. Enumeration: Finding the Entry Point

Because port 53 is open, we can perform a DNS Zone Transfer or brute-force subdomains using the DNS server. Tools like dig are essential here:

nmap -sC -sV -oA scrambled_initial 10.10.11.25 scrambled hackthebox

With the secret found, we can forge our own tokens. The admin account likely has higher privileges. Let's generate a token for admin :

We save the SSH key to a file ( id_rsa ), set chmod 600 , and connect:

While enumerating as svc_scrambled , we check /etc/crontab . There is a cron job running every 2 minutes: For the aspiring OSCP or CPTS candidate, completing

Visualizing AD relationships and finding the delegation path.

Through a combination of web scraping (finding email addresses or usernames on the site) and Kerberos enumeration, we can build a list of potential users. Tools like kerbrute are incredibly effective here. By brute-forcing usernames against the Kerberos service, we can validate which accounts exist without triggering account lockouts.

: Deep enumeration of the database reveals credentials for another user, MiscSvc . The admin account likely has higher privileges

Hack The Box's is a masterclass in multi-vector exploitation. It is not a "pwn and done" machine. It requires patience, a blend of web app hacking (JWT manipulation), static binary analysis (Ghidra/strings), and creative file system abuse (symlink attacks on cron jobs).

A collection of Python classes for working with network protocols (includes GetUserSPNs mssqlclient Fast password cracking for the Kerberos TGS-REP hash. BloodHound

If successful, this provides a hash that can be cracked offline using hashcat . This typically grants us the credentials for a low-privileged domain user.

This endpoint allows new user registration. Since the main page requires a token to log in, we register a test user: