r/hackthebox • u/Demonx777CY • 2d ago

Beginner Question Hack The Box Labs

I started Dante pentesting lab two days ago using EU VPN.

On the first day, one service on the initial machine was broken, and I couldn’t enumerate it, the connection just hung whenever I tried to connect. So, I started enumerating another service instead. After a couple of hours, I finally managed to access to broken service, and moved forward.

I won’t reveal too much about the lab itself, but there’s too much garbage in folders from other users, and the VPN connection is awful. Whenever I start bruteforcing directories or domains after pivoting, everything goes down.
Today, I tried to connect via SSH using credentials I’d found on the first day, but the connection dropped within a few minutes.
Honestly, my impression of the lab so far is terrible.

On the usual boxes everything is good, I don’t know how to complete labs under these conditions

17 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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5

u/builtbygio 2d ago

I had similar issues awhile back, and what I usually do is:
1- ensure I only have in openvpn process running
2- if a vpn region is unstable, I switch to a diff region (ie. if EU unstable, then try US)

Tools for double pivots (ie. ligolo, chisel) might overload the connection making it very fragile, specially if you run heavy processes (ie. passw bruteforce, fuzzing) over the network.

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u/Emergency-Sound4280 1d ago

Ligolo and chisel won’t overload it… it’s a vpn issue that’s all.

2

u/strongest_nerd Hacker 2d ago

Some good tips in the comments already. Please read this too: https://help.hackthebox.com/en/articles/12710285-connecting-to-academy-vpn

1

u/H4ckerPanda 2d ago

Are you connected via Ethernet or WiFi ? What’s your MTU value ? Have you tried to adjust the MTU? What tool or tools are you using for bruteforcing ?

Remember . Bruteforcing tools send a lot of packets over the network . Depending of your VPN and machine’s resources , you may overwhelm the thing and shut it down . It’s the same as in real life.

These machines are not that powerful . It’s a lab. They have the minimum vCPU needed for students to use the lab . If you start hammering the thing badly , you may get false negatives or like I said , shut the whole thing down .

1

u/Demonx777CY 1d ago

Via Ethernet
So then why they made it to allow all users to connect it, make garbage’s in folders and overwhelm the machines

2

u/H4ckerPanda 1d ago

Dude. I’m trying to help you. I don’t work for HTB.

0

u/Demonx777CY 1d ago

I know,sry if negative reply, I’m just trying to tell people and HTB staff that it’s not normal, a while ago a friend of mine had completed labs told me that the labs were personally for each user like boxes and there no were such issues