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HTB Cicada Walkthrough Exploiting Active Directory for Privilege Escalation

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🦗 Cicada HackTheBox machine showcases Active Directory exploitation techniques. The HackTheBox Cicada machine, rated as easy, emphasizes the exploitation of an Active Directory Domain Controller. Initial reconnaissance revealed open ports indicative of a domain controller, leading to the enumeration of SMB shares, including “HR” and “IPC$.” A default password was discovered in a text file, facilitating a password-spraying attack that successfully identified user credentials. Further enumeration using tools like ldapdomaindump and bloodhound revealed privileged group memberships, allowing for privilege escalation. Ultimately, the attacker captured the Administrator NTLM hash and gained a privileged shell, demonstrating effective techniques for exploiting Active Directory environments.

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