DarkZero — HTB Hard (Teaser) Status: ✅ Completed Platform: Hack The Box – Machine Write-up: Redacted until box retires.

🧭 Overview DarkZero is a layered AD challenge that loves split-horizon DNS, linked SQL servers, and Kerberos surprises. It’s a playground for learning realistic enterprise attacks — if you like DNS puzzles, SQL trust chains, and Kerberos trickery, this one’s for you.

🧪 What I Can Share (No Spoilers)

• The hostname resolves to two IPs — try resolving against the target DNS. Multi-homed hosts are a clue.
• MSSQL linked servers are the tasty pivot — the linked context may let you enable xp_cmdshell.
• Local privesc is flaky: try the suggested exploit but have a hash-dump fallback.
• Rubeus + a UNC trigger (think xp_dirtree) is a reliable way to capture tickets or provoke NTLM fallbacks.
• Tunnel/pivoting tools (ligolo/lligolo) make internal routing painless once you have a foothold.

🧠 Takeaways

• Map names to all IPs, not just the one that answered first.
• Chaining small wins is the key — linked services, local exploits, and Kerberos flows connect the dots.
• Practice ticket handling and offline conversions (kirbi ⇄ ccache) — it’s worth it.

🖼️ Proofs DarkZero proof screen — retained privately.

📌 Notes No walkthrough here by design. When HTB allows public writeups for this machine, I’ll publish a full, defense-aware walkthrough with mitigations and detection notes.

Author: inkedqt • Site: https://inksec.io