Forest Hackthebox Walkthrough Best [patched] «2027»

The Forest machine on Hack The Box is an "Easy" rated Windows box designed to teach the fundamentals of Active Directory (AD) enumeration and exploitation. It is a classic entry point for learning techniques like AS-REP Roasting and BloodHound path analysis. Machine Overview Operating System: Windows

Difficulty: Easy (though some rate it as "Bit Hard" for AD beginners)

Key Skills: AD Enumeration, AS-REP Roasting, BloodHound, ACL Abuse, DCSync. Step-by-Step Walkthrough 1. Reconnaissance & Enumeration

Start with an Nmap scan to identify open ports and services.

Key Ports: 88 (Kerberos), 135 (RPC), 389/636 (LDAP), 445 (SMB), 5985 (WinRM).

LDAP Enumeration: The machine often allows anonymous LDAP binds. Use tools like ldapsearch or enum4linux-ng to enumerate users and domain objects.

SMB/RPC: Use rpcclient to enumerate users via a null session if LDAP is restricted. 2. Foothold: AS-REP Roasting

During enumeration, you will find a list of domain users. One specific user (e.g., svc-alfresco) typically has the "Do Not Require Kerberos Pre-authentication" property set. forest hackthebox walkthrough best

The Attack: Use Impacket's GetNPUsers.py to request a TGT for this user.

Cracking: If successful, you will receive a hash. Use Hashcat or John the Ripper to crack the password offline.

Access: Log in via Evil-WinRM using the cracked credentials to grab the user flag. 3. Privilege Escalation: ACL Abuse Once inside, you need to find a path to Domain Admin.

BloodHound: Upload and run the BloodHound ingestor (SharpHound.exe) on the target. Export the data and analyze it on your attacking machine.

The Vulnerability: Your user (svc-alfresco) is likely a member of the Account Operators group, which has permissions to create and modify users. Exploitation Path: Create a new user on the domain.

Add that user to high-privilege groups like Exchange Windows Permissions.

Use PowerView (a PowerSploit script) to grant your new user DCSync rights (Add-DomainObjectAcl). 4. Domain Compromise: DCSync The Forest machine on Hack The Box is

With DCSync rights, you can impersonate a Domain Controller to request password hashes for any user.

DCSync Attack: Use Impacket’s secretsdump.py with your new user's credentials to dump all domain hashes, including the Administrator NTLM hash.

Pass-the-Hash: Log in as the Administrator using psexec.py or evil-winrm with the NTLM hash to claim the root flag. Expert Tips HackTheBox: Forest Walkthrough - Sanaullah Aman Korai

machine on HackTheBox is an "Easy" rated Windows box designed to teach core Active Directory (AD) exploitation concepts. The attack path focuses on service enumeration, Kerberos vulnerabilities, and misconfigured group permissions. Hack The Box 1. Enumeration & Information Gathering

The initial scan reveals a typical Windows Domain Controller setup. Port Scanning

to identify active services like LDAP (389), Kerberos (88), SMB (445), and WinRM (5985). LDAP Enumeration : Use tools like enum4linux-ng ldapsearch to perform anonymous binds and enumerate domain users. Hack The Box 2. Foothold: AS-REP Roasting The system contains a service account, svc-alfresco

, with "Do not require Kerberos pre-authentication" enabled. Hack The Box Request Ticket Impacket's GetNPUsers.py to request an AS-REP for this user. Crack the Hash We see the user belongs to Service Accounts

to crack the captured hash offline to obtain the password for svc-alfresco Initial Access : Use the credentials with Evil-WinRM to spawn a shell. Hack The Box 3. Privilege Escalation: Exploiting AD Groups Once inside, you'll find that svc-alfresco is a member of the Account Operators group, which grants significant power over domain objects. Hack The Box HackTheBox: Forest Walkthrough - Sanaullah Aman Korai 10 Jul 2023 —

Phase 3: Gaining User Access

Now we have credentials: svc-alfresco:s3rvice

Step 1: Enumerate Current Privileges

From the WinRM session, run:

whoami /all
net user svc-alfresco

We see the user belongs to Service Accounts and Privileged IT Accounts, but more importantly, we need to check group memberships recursively.

Key Findings:

| Port | Service | State | Observation | |------|---------|-------|--------------| | 53 | DNS | Open | Domain: htb.local | | 88 | Kerberos | Open | Key Distribution Center | | 135 | MSRPC | Open | | | 139/445 | SMB | Open | NetBIOS | | 389 | LDAP | Open | Anonymous bind allowed? | | 5985 | WinRM | Open | Potential for remote execution | | 9389 | .NET Remoting | Open | |

Critical Discovery: Port 5985 is open, meaning we can use Evil-WinRM later—no need for RDP.

Connect via WinRM

Since port 5985 is open, use evil-winrm:

evil-winrm -i 10.10.10.161 -u svc-alfresco -p s3rvice

We are now in a limited shell. Navigate to the desktop:

cd C:\Users\svc-alfresco\Desktop
type user.txt

User flag obtained.