Leveraging RDP Access and PowerShell History to Escalate Privileges on a Windows HostOct 2, 2026·4 min read
Active Directory Compromise via ACL Chains & ESC4 Certificate Template AbuseObjective: 404 Bank, a staple of the local financial community, is conducting its annual security assessment. To uphold their motto of being "Proven, Local, Strong" the bank has commissioned the Hack Oct 5, 2026·11 min read
OSCP-LK: Achieving System Administrator Privileges via Credential Harvesting, MSSQL Impersonation, and Registry ExtractionSep 9, 2026·5 min read
LDAP Enumeration & NFS Misconfiguration To Privilege Escalation as RootObjective: You have been assigned a penetration test on a critical Linux server in the client's environment. The primary objective is to gain root-level access to this system to demonstrate maximum imSep 4, 2026·3 min read
From Guest WiFi to Root: How One API Leak + SSTI Destroyed a Luxury ResortObjective: Las Vegas is gearing up for a massive cybersecurity conference, and you've been hired to conduct a penetration test against a luxury resort where many of the attendees will be staying. YourAug 22, 2026·5 min read
Chained Exploitation: From WordPress Vulnerable Plugin to Docker Container Breakout Achieving RootObjective: You have been hired to perform a penetration test on a single host in a company's network. Your task is to identify all vulnerabilities and demonstrate impact to the client by elevating youAug 20, 2026·4 min read
BloodHound Enumeration, ACL Abuse & ADCS Attacks on Active Directory. Objective: You are a member of the Hack Smarter Red Team. This penetration test will operate under an assumed breach scenario, starting with valid credentials for a standard domain user: faraday. The Aug 19, 2026·4 min read
Breached Credentials Lead to Admin Account Compromise via stored XSSObjective: Health Smarter is releasing a new portal for patients and employees to manage appointments and healthcare data. You have been hired to perform a full web application penetration test againsAug 16, 2026·5 min read
AWS Cognito Account Takeover: Exploiting update-user-attributes to Hijack Admin AccessObjective: Incognito Travel is rolling out a new authentication process for their flagship travel application. Before deploying to production, they have contracted Hack Smarter to rigorously test the Aug 14, 2026·3 min read
