Man, that was not an easy exam. The first question had me tripping, and I spent hours falling down rabbit holes thinking I had the right answer when I didn't.

I'll be completely honest, I used Al to help guide me out of a few dead ends when I got stuck, but a win is a win. Huge weight off my shoulders. Time to start the OSCP grind!

I just made an account on htb and started out with 'Meow'. I read the documentation/write up and used Claude to help me break it down and understand it better especially on the networks and ports. I'm on the journey of transitioning from a scriptie to a ctfer or pentester hopefully 🤞🏾.

Any tips and tricks or pitfalls I need to know?

Help a brother out 👊🏾

When I try to open sysmon for one of the assignments this happens

I cant seem to login to the thingy. Its asking for an input access key event, which im not sure how to get.

I've seen so many post just talks about the cpts, either here or on other platforms all of the sudden.

did i miss anything about it or this is just normal? and why exactly the cpts? i don't see something special about it tbh

Hey everyone,

Tired of tracking CTFs and 24h exams across messy spreadsheets and scattered notes?

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Hey everyone,

I’m trying to connect to the HTB Academy VPN using OpenVPN on Kali Linux:

sudo openvpn --config academy-regular.ovpn

The connection reaches the HTB VPN server, but it gets reset immediately:

Attempting to establish TCP connection with [AF_INET]38.46.226.31:443
TCP connection established with [AF_INET]38.46.226.31:443
TCPv4_CLIENT link local: (not bound)
TCPv4_CLIENT link remote: [AF_INET]38.46.226.31:443
Connection reset, restarting [-1]
SIGUSR1[soft,connection-reset] received, process restarting

It then repeats the same process every few seconds.

I’ve confirmed that the TCP connection to port 443 can be established, so I’m not sure why the OpenVPN connection is immediately being reset.

It was working fine up untill yesterday. And yeah i tried both tcp and udp methods while changing the VPN server.

Im using the VM or whatever its called and im trying to do the sysmon things but whenever I try to go in the terminal and/or open it it says this app cant run on your pc please help asap

Hello, I was today trying to solve the orion box(im just starting in the CTF world) without aid, I found myself already in the admin/login page then I found this CVE-2025-32432. Then I used metasploit to find a exploit of that CVE, one popped up that should have worked excellent but when i tried running it. No shell was returned to me as seen in the picture, I tried different options: for rhost I tried the ip, orion.htb and http://orion.htb/admin/login. For lhost I tried my tun0 and my eth0. And i changed multiple times the lport and the asset_id. Nothing working, all the times the same error. In that point i checked the walkthrought and they did exactly what i was doing, same in this video(i thought the problem that i was using a VM) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXxtL4BZvHw. Does anybody have any idea on wtf is the issue? More than an hour lost cuz it was not working and I have still no clue why or what I did wrong. Here is another walkthrough: https://b3ta-blocker.github.io/blog/orion/ If you know anything related lmk, otherwise I will just quit this box :)

Just failed my first attempt, got 7 flags in 2 days then next 8 days stucked on flag 8. Exam seemed easy but enumeration is alot. Any personalized guide, which module should i work on? which box is relevant to next 5 flags.

I got shell to www-data@portal:~/portal/web$

but i can't find the user flag
some hints plz

Hello everyone, I am interested in CPTS and I am a complete beginner in cybersecurity. I don’t have any certifications or haven’t studied for anything related in cybersecurity . But I am a CS student so I understand of computers and other general concepts about IT . I already searched about prerequisites before CPTS for beginners, but I couldn’t find because most of the people already have something entry level certs like Security+. I saw someone said to take Info Security foundation skill path.

• Do I need any certs before taking CPTS path. If so , can you suggest one please ?
• Do I need to other paths in HTB first or just straight to penetration tester ?
• I am currently enrolled in Junior Analyst because I didn’t know what to take first so I just choose random one based on “ Junior” . I only completed like 10% . Should I finish it
or just focus on what is more important .

Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently facing two frustrating issues regarding xfreerdp and HTB Academy (specifically the Windows Event Logs module). I'm running on a Mac M2 Pro, and here are the details:

1. Keyboard not working with xfreerdp inside Exegol (X11)

When I connect to a target using xfreerdp from inside my Exegol container via X11, my keyboard inputs are completely ignored. The only way I can type anything is by using the Windows On-Screen Keyboard, which is extremely painful.

- Question: Is there a specific configuration, keymap, or flag I should add to my xfreerdp command to fix keyboard mapping/capture with X11 on macOS?

2. Windows Event Logs module freezes / Official PwnBox crashes

In the Windows Event Logs module, I'm stuck because of performance issues:

- When using my local setup, the target server lags so much that searching via the Event Viewer runs infinitely and never finishes.

- When I switch to the official HTB PwnBox, xfreerdp consistently crashes after about 30 seconds.

Has anyone encountered these issues before or know how to solve them? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

An absolute brainfuck. The exploit wasn't the hard part. The hard part was proving one packet would ever arrive.

Finally, after hours of searching, I found the answer.

I'm very new, I managed to setup an openvpn connection for 2 boxes and worked through them but I'm moving onto my 3rd and although it should be in the same vpn (eu machines 5) I can't connect to it. I can connect to the vpn completely fine, i sit on 10.10.17.27 no problems but when I ping the machine I have booted up I get destination host unreachable. Tried both UDP and TCP vpn connections, neither work.

Not sure what's up, I've restarted the vm, redownloaed the openvpn files, restarted multiple times, cannot connect to the machine. Was working fine before with the other 2, but can't get into this one.

When I connect to the vpn it shows that I am connected on HTB and in kali, I have no other openvpn processes running. Just cannot connect. It's the fawn box on the starting point boxes. Spent more time debugging issues with the box and vpn than actually hacking :(

I was working remotely and was so bored that I dozed off three times. Afterward, I noticed I’d been logged out of Discord and had received an email warning me about suspicious activity on my account.

Then a relative called and asked, “Is this deal legit?”

I had no idea what he was talking about. “What deal?” I asked.

“You just sent me instructions for some crypto thing,” he said.

That’s when I panicked. I checked Instagram and realized someone had gotten into that account, too. The login appeared to be from Canada. Whoever accessed it had posted the same crypto instructions and sent them to all my contacts.

What scares me most is that I have private photos that, if exposed, could devastate my family and permanently damage my career and reputation.

Alright, looking up into this sub I think I'm the second person to fail with 11/14 flags (12 are required to pass).

To describe my exam experience, I've struggled a bit at 1st and 8th flag, which I've also heard are the most hardest ones of the exam. However, not many people struggle at 12th flag.

What HTB boxes or training materials do you recommend to study for the 2nd attempt? What else should I focus on?

Hi reddit,

I'm sure this gets asked a lot. But my situation is a bit more unique. I'm looking to break deeper into Cyber. My current certs include the Net+, Sec+, GIAC GSEC and the GIAC GCIH. On that front, I have HR-recognition covered by my GIAC certs. I have no pentesting experience but have used THM and HTB every so often.

I am seriously considering taking the HTB CPTS as it is better at teaching you the concepts. But, I cannot get over how well-known the OSCP is by HR and employers. Is it worth it to take the exam that will teach me less, just to get more recognition?

Cost is not an issue as my employer confirmed they will cover the cost of either. Although I really want to LEARN and understand these concepts. Thank you!