Day 33. Wrapped the entire HTB Academy Footprinting module today.

What the module covered#

Over the past few sessions I worked through:

  • File services: FTP, SMB, NFS
  • Mail protocols: SMTP, IMAP/POP3
  • Network management: SNMP, IPMI
  • Databases: MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle
  • Name resolution: DNS
  • Remote management: WinRM, WMI, RDP, SSH, rsync
  • 3 skills assessments

What sucked#

Honestly the content in this module didn’t feel super engaging, just a slog through different types of footprinting until I got to put it to the test at the very end of the module.

I understand the importance of the material here but pushing through it was really slow.

The Footprinting module gets a reputation for being the protocol-by-protocol grind, and that reputation is earned.

Skills assessments#

The three skills assessments at the end were mostly tough.

The first one was really easy but I was thrown into the deep end with my first Windows machine experienced on the medium lab.

It was mostly the same workflow, but the use of RDP kind of threw me off and having to right-click to run as Administrator is not something I am used to lol.

What stuck#

I have a decent understanding of how to approach a ton of different services on both Windows and Linux!

What’s next#

With Footprinting done, my plan for the next stretch:

  • More easy retired HTB boxes to apply the enumeration patterns in practice
  • Continue Maldev Academy modules
  • Start looking ahead at TJnull’s list for early June

Day 34 down. OSCP is growing ever closer.

References#