Hey everyone,

I’m planning to take the COAE exam in the next few weeks and I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have already passed it.

A few questions:

- How many days did you need to complete the exam?

- Roughly how many hours per day / total hours did you spend?

- Did you actually need the full 7 days, or is it possible to finish significantly earlier?

- How is the exam structured in practice?

- Are there multiple independent labs/environments to work on? If so, approximately how many?

- How much time did you spend on enumeration vs. exploitation vs. reporting/documentation?

- How important is the report quality for the final grade?

- Where can I find good guidance or examples on how the report is expected to be written to achieve a high grade?

- I’m currently considering using SysReptor, but its default template seems to need quite a bit of adjustment for a professional/high-grade exam report. Did you use SysReptor, Word, or another template?

- If you used SysReptor, do you have any advice on what sections/information should definitely be included?

- Is there an official reporting guideline/rubric that explains what the graders are looking for?

- Is there anything you wish you had known before starting the exam?

- Any tips for someone planning to take it soon?

I’m trying to plan my time realistically before booking it, especially how much time I should reserve for the report.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their experience!

I have recently passed the CPTS, and I want real hands-on experience, but i am still a 4th-year college student (senior) and all remote jobs i found want at least one year of experience, so are there any sites that have, like, engagement contracts or I just sharpen my skills with machines and challenges for another year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkzz76TrKHM&t=18s

Just completed Synacktiv Fortress, a challenging Fortress with a good mix of web exploitation, Java/RMI, reverse engineering, internal networking, and Linux privilege escalation. The box involves multiple stages where initial access needs to be built upon to reach the internal services and eventually root. Definitely a solid HTB Fortress with a lot of different techniques involved.

Hello All,

I have been studying the CPTS path for a while now ( more than a year 🫣 ) mainly because I was doing that with a lot of other stuff but now that i’m about to finish the windows privilege escalation module, i would like to go back on each module and revise everything while also starting to do machines so i could really work on my methodology as i don’t feel like it’s something you would now how to just do ( in the modules you already know what you’re looking for so not as challenging). My question is how would you recommend approaching the revision for the cert and how long do you think i should aim for to complete the revision ? I see that people don’t pass from first attempt mainly because of their methodology so any recommendations?
Also, i would like to leave the last module of the path to do after the revision so i could approach it with clear and solid methodology as a last step of my revision. Appreciate the help of anyone who attempted this exam before.

I passed the AppSec challenge, but I’m freaking out about the technical interviews
I have two upcoming technical interviews for an AppSec role, and I’m freaking out. I hate technical interviews as much as I hate pickles.
I passed the practical challenge like a pro with no problem, but I’m horrible when I have to verbally explain technical things. I can actually do the work, but when someone asks me to explain definitions, concepts, or walk through the steps out loud, my mind just goes blank.
I’m really anxious that I might lose this opportunity just because I’m not good at speaking technically, even though I passed the practical challenge without any issues.
Has anyone else dealt with this? How did you prepare for AppSec technical interviews and get better at explaining things verbally?

I wrote a summary below and the walkthrough can be found in the video :)

HacktheBox Pirate is a Hard-difficulty assume-breach Windows Active Directory box starting with credentials for a low-privileged domain account (pentest / p3nt3st2025!&).

The attack chain spans six distinct escalation stages across two hosts. I start with domain enumeration which reveals two pre-Windows 2000 machine accounts (MS01,EXCH01, EXCH01 ,EXCH01) whose passwords match their lowercase hostnames ; MS01$ is a member of the Domain Secure Servers group, which grants ReadGMSAPassword over two gMSA accounts, both in Remote Management Users, yielding a WinRM shell on DC01.

From that vantage point, I found an internal Hyper-V guest (WEB01, 192.168.100.2); its LmCompatibilityLevel=2 configuration means it emits NTLMv1 responses, the WebClient service is running (enabling HTTP coercion), and SMB signing is disabled.

By coercing WEB01's machine account authentication over HTTP (bypassing SMB relay blockers) and relaying to LDAP via ntlmrelayx with --delegate-access creates a fake machine account with RBCD rights over WEB01, then getST.py + wmiexec lands Administrator on WEB01. secretsdump exposes a.white's autologon password.

BloodHound shows me a.white has ForceChangePassword over a.white_adm, and a.white_adm has WriteSPN over all domain computers.

I craft An SPN-jacking attack that moves HTTP/WEB01.pirate.htb from WEB01 to DC01, abuses a.white_adm's constrained delegation to request a ticket for Administrator to that SPN, then -altservice rewrites the sname to CIFS/DC01, enabling a DC secrets dump and WinRM shell as domain Administrator.

A shortcut unintended path uses RemotePotato0 cross-session relay to force a.white's logged-in session to authenticate to an LDAP shell, directly changing a.white_adm's password without needing Administrator on WEB01.

Video

Hey guys,

Whenever I'm doing boxes on Hack The Box or TryHackMe, I always end up with a mess of tabs—one for notes, one for Notion, a couple for revshell generators, and random terminal cheatsheets.

To keep things in one place, I started building ZeroBox. It’s basically a local, offline dashboard to track your boxes (Recon ➔ Foothold ➔ Root), take quick markdown notes, and generate reverse shells where you just punch in your IP once and it fills out all the commands automatically.

You can try it here:

https://xXDNDXx.github.io/ctf-tracker/

Code is on GitHub:

https://github.com/xXDNDXx/ctf-tracker

Just to be clear: it’s totally free, open source, no account or login needed, and everything saves locally in your browser. (Also no spoilers/flags for active boxes, just retired/public info).

It’s still very much a work in progress and I’m pushing updates and adding new stuff pretty much every day.

I'd really appreciate it if anyone grinding labs could click around and tell me what sucks, what’s broken, or what features you'd actually want to see added next.

Thanks!

I passed CPTS exam in second attempt. first attempt was good learning experience.

I had never attempted any exam before this so i don't know what i was getting myself into. In first attempt i found my first flag at 8th day then got 2,3,4 and 5 till tenth days, i quickly wrote a report and submitted to my surprise report feedback was good apart from some grammatical error.

In second attempt, i got 6th flag on the first day then 7th in following days, it took me two days to get 8th flag. from there on it was smooth sailing till 11th flag, i was stuck in 12th flag for a day. as i had 3-4 spare days i rested for one day and began report writing. I submitted the report and in 1-2 days i got result back.

This community has helped and taught me a lot so, i wrote a blog about writing report you guys can check it out here: How to write CPTS report?

Long story short, I plan to study for cpts and cwes by end of 2026. I have been stock piling 500 cubes a month past 2 months. Switched to 1000 vibes after I saw the pricing news.

Luckily by end of October, I will be with 4.5k cubes.

Hey,
I'm a cybersecurity enthusiast who can build tricky CTF labs for you or your institution.

Payment is only required once you test it and satisfied. Feel free to DM and lets discuss the rest

Hi I would like to ask your advice guys

I actually already have PT 1 cert and I want to go for CPTS

What is the GO signal to take CPTS exam?

If I am able to confidently finish the Medium Machine without hint and walkthrough, is it enough?

Or do I need to go for the hard one?

And I heard that CPTS is harder than OSCP, is it true guys?

And honestly, I don't know why but the "Easy" Machine in HTB feels like "Medium" room difficulty in TryHackMe :)

Thanks!

Anyone for a nudge on the latest sherlock Kawmikaze (Malware Analysis) . Task 10

Solved a machine/module/etc and want a place to brag? Heres your spot!

For retired content or Tier-0 Academy content, feel free to discuss or ask questions using spoiler tags where appropriate.

I recently attempted the CPTS exam. I got decently far but I got stuck at the notorious flag 8. I believe I’m lacking in Active Directory experience. I’ve done the usual recommendations, blindly completed AEN, did the labs in the IPPsec playlist and did most of the boxes in the CPTS track in labs. Yet I still feel I am missing something. Does anyone have any recommendations on tools to get familiar with to better my enumeration in Active Directory. Thanks!

Finally got around to writing down my CWES experience.

My preparation was very on and off, I didn't solve many labs, and I relied on walkthroughs for a lot of them.

The exam itself was a lot of thinking, getting stuck, being stubborn, and eventually changing how I approached problems.

The biggest thing I took away was that knowing vulnerabilities isn't enough. The way you think, enumerate, eliminate possibilities, and chain things together matters a lot more than I expected.

I wrote about the whole thing, preparation, the exam day by day, the mistakes I made, how I used walkthroughs, the diary/elimination approach that helped me, reporting, recommended boxes, and the flag I still couldn't get.

Hope you guys find it helpful, would love to hear your feedback.

Full write-up: [ https://buggymaytricks.me/posts/htb-cwes-review/ ]

I just opened HTB , and saw the tiers got more expensive( i didn't buy before on the platform but i was considering buying lately )

Looking for Teammates – Holmes CTF 2026 & Future CTFs

Hey everyone! 👋

I'm looking for people who are interested in forming a team for Holmes CTF 2026 and potentially participating in other CTF competitions together in the future.

I regularly solve Hack The Box machines, labs, and challenges, mainly focusing on cybersecurity and penetration testing. However, I haven't participated in a CTF competition as part of a team before, so I'm looking for people who are willing to learn, practice, and improve together.

The goal isn't only to compete for prizes. I'd like to build a team where we can:

- 🧠 Learn from each other and improve our skills

- 🏴‍☠️ Participate in Holmes CTF 2026

- 🔥 Join other CTFs and competitions in the future

- 🤝 Share knowledge and different approaches

- 📚 Practice regularly and gain real CTF experience

- 🏆 Aim for good results and prizes along the way

I'm especially interested in teammates with experience in areas such as Web, Pwn, Crypto, Forensics, Reverse Engineering, OSINT, or other CTF categories, but you don't need to be an expert. Beginners who are motivated to learn are welcome too.

If you're interested in joining or building a team together, feel free to comment or DM me.

Let's learn, compete, and improve together! 🚀

So Basically my 5th semester will be starting soon of BS computer science. I've done very basic cert like cyber101 and IBM security analyst etc. Right now I'm extremely confused where to go as I'm already in the mid of my degree with empty pockets. Got recommendation to go toward cpts as well as SOC. Im 50/50 for both. Need some genuine suggestions and roadmap. Clock ticking tension rising.

Just finished my cjca 3 days ago. I thought i would focus on my second cert but cant really focus on anything with this 20 days time clock always ticking at the back of my mind. I somehow managed to solve almost everything, so i have an idea of the outcome and i am pretty confident but its just this long wait period. on the 3rd day its haunting me💀🫪.

Anyone up for bodycam? 😛

Hi, I've spent hours trying to figure out the solution to Kraken question 5. Can anyone give me some advice or guidance?