Forest Hackthebox Walkthrough Best ~repack~ Jun 2026
Now that we have a shell, our objective is to escalate from our low-privileged service account to a domain administrator. To find the path, we'll use BloodHound for in-depth analysis.
This will generate a zip file. Download this zip file back to our attacker machine using evil-winrm :
The presence of LDAP and Kerberos confirms this is an Active Directory Domain Controller. Enumerating Users via LDAP
Manages file sharing and remote communication. Port 389/3268 (LDAP): Queries directory information. Port 5985/5986 (WinRM): Enables remote Windows management. forest hackthebox walkthrough best
The script successfully dumps the NTLM hashes for every user in the Active Directory database, including the account. Pass-the-Hash for Full Control
Start with an aggressive Nmap scan to discover open ports and running services. nmap -sC -sV -p- -T4 -oN forest_nmap.txt 10.10.10.161 Use code with caution. Key Ports Discovered Indicates an Active Directory environment.
With no valid credentials, use anonymous LDAP queries or specialized tools to enumerate valid domain usernames. Username Enumeration Now that we have a shell, our objective
is an easy-tier Active Directory machine on HackTheBox that serves as an excellent introduction to Windows network penetration testing. This walkthrough provides the most efficient path to compromising the domain controller, bypassing common rabbit holes, and securing both user and root flags. Enumeration: Mapping the Attack Surface
Use the PowerView PowerShell script to grant your new user account the necessary replication rights ( DS-Replication-Get-Changes and DS-Replication-Get-Changes-All ): powershell
group, which allows for the creation of new users and modification of certain group memberships. DCSync Attack : Use the newly created user to grant yourself privileges (via on the domain object). Then, use Impacket's secretsdump.py to dump the NT hashes for all domain users, including the Administrator Root Access : Perform a Pass-the-Hash (PtH) attack using the Administrator's hash with wmiexec.py to gain full control of the machine. Top Resources Download this zip file back to our attacker
Active Directory enumeration, AS-REP Roasting, BloodHound analysis, ACL exploitation. Step 1: Reconnaissance & Port Scanning
Active Directory, Enumeration, Kerberos, PowerShell Remoting.
This command extracts a list of valid domain usernames, including: sebastien lucas andy mark santi Save these usernames into a text file named users.txt . Phase 2: Initial Foothold (AS-REP Roasting)