A weekend with a wider range than usual. Saturday I rooted my first active box on HTB. Sunday was crypto study for a midterm Tuesday. Mixed in some HTB Academy and Maldev work where I had brain space for it. Two days, lots of moving parts.

Saturday - first active box#

Won’t get into specifics until it retires (HTB rules), but I rooted my first active box this weekend. Two CVE-class vulnerabilities chained for initial access, then a containerization-related privesc to get root.

It took most of the afternoon and evening. I gave up at one point and walked away for two and a half hours, came back fresh and made it through. The methodology that’s been getting drilled through HTB Academy actually worked: enumeration is key. There were a lot of dead ends, paths I was convinced were the way in that turned out not to be. The “step back and re-enumerate” reflex is something I didn’t have a week ago but love now.

The breakthrough moment when initial access landed and I had a shell on the box was hands down, the best feeling I’ve had with anything tech related. I will write up the full chain of events when the box is retired.

Sunday - crypto#

The Secure Computing midterm I mentioned in Day 8 is Tuesday. Spent most of Saturday morning and Sunday working through the material: distinguishers, the library/interchangeability framework, the hybrid technique, secret sharing, indistinguishability with the bad event lemma, basic PRG security.

The hybrid technique was a big breakthrough. Once the skeleton clicks: couple, decouple via known equivalence, swap inputs, recouple… it generalizes across most of the proofs in the course. I wrote out the full XOR n-of-n secret sharing security proof from scratch, which a few days ago would have looked like alphabet soup to me.

Took a mock exam Sunday morning and got demolished. Went back through every problem with the framework in hand and the gaps were almost all bookkeeping issues. I had the right shape, lost track of which variable was which midway through proofs. Built a cheat sheet (front side reference, back side worked examples) that should anchor the patterns Tuesday.

HTB Academy - Footprinting#

Started the Footprinting module on the Pentester Job Path today. Each section walks through a specific service SMB, NFS, SMTP, IMAP/POP3, etc. covering the protocol, the relevant tools, and what to look for during enumeration.

This module is going to take a while. There are a lot of services and each one has its own tooling. I’m fine with that, this is exactly the kind of muscle memory I want before OSCP.

Maldev - DLLs and Detection Methods#

Continued working through Maldev Academy. Today’s modules covered DLLs (how they’re structured, how they’re loaded, the import/export mechanics) and detection mechanisms (signature-based detection, heuristics, behavioral analysis, the layers EDRs sit on top of).

The DLL material connects directly to the PE format work from earlier. DLLs are PE files with a different bit set in the header, basically. Understanding the loader’s behavior is foundational for almost every injection or persistence technique.

The detection mechanisms module was useful for framing. Knowing why your loader gets caught is more useful than just knowing it does.

End of the weekend#

I’ve been running hard. Saturday was 4 hours of crypto plus 6 hours on the box. Sunday was another 4 hours of crypto plus the Academy/Maldev. I think it’s because I’ve finally found work that I actually love. Hacking has the same pull music had when I was into production and engineering. That seems to be rare.

I am genuinely proud of myself for this weekend.

Twelve days in. HEADLINE: I rooted my first active box, and I am going to pass Secure Computing!

Thanks for reading <3