Connected

Technical Walkthrough

Connected Walkthrough

Raw flags and reusable secrets are stored only under loot/.

Summary

Evidence

• State: target-state.json
• Notes: notes.md

Source-Backed Dossier

The sections below are merged from companion Markdown notes for the same case. They are rendered after sanitization so the article stays precise without publishing raw flags, credentials, or target-specific secrets.

Notes

Scope

Evidence Ledger

Synthesis

Current completion state: BASELINE.

Current blocker: continuity has been rebound to the new Pwnbox <TARGET>, and the new VPN source <TARGET> routes correctly to <TARGET> over tun0, but the target still exposes no reachable service surface. HTB UI verification remains inconclusive because prior automated checks hit HTB-side Network Error and rate limiting, so assigned IP/spawn/region still require manual HTB verification. Do not proceed to exploitation or broader service research until the machine is manually verified/reset and at least one port becomes reachable.

Raw flags and reusable secrets must be stored only under loot/.

Attack Map

Current State

• Target: <TARGET>
• Difficulty/OS: Easy / Linux
• Completion state: BASELINE
• Services: none reachable after fresh baseline recheck
• Hostname/domain: unknown
• Credentials: none
• Shells: none
• Pwnbox/VPN: profex0r@<TARGET>, tun0=<TARGET>
• Current blocker: HTB machine-page verification is still inconclusive and the target still has no reachable service surface after rebinding to a new Pwnbox.

Working Hypotheses

Decision Rule

Do not exploit until services and likely path are synthesized from live enumeration. Current live enumeration has no reachable service surface, so the next step is manual HTB UI verification and reset/re-spawn, not deeper scanning.

Session Resume

Last updated: 2026-06-07T06:52:37Z

Current Access

• Completion state: BASELINE.
• Target IP expected from user scope: <TARGET>.
• Machine: Connected.
• Difficulty/OS: Easy / Linux.
• Safe public metadata indicates Connected is active/free and newly released on 2026-06-06. Avoid machine-specific writeups/hints unless explicitly switching to spoiler mode.
• Pwnbox is active as profex0r@<TARGET>.
• HTB VPN interface is tun0 with attacker IP <TARGET>.
• Fresh rebound Pwnbox recheck confirms the route to <TARGET> still goes via <TARGET> over tun0.
• The target is still not reachable enough for enumeration:

- rebound ping returned 100% packet loss with no replies.

- rebound common-port baseline left ports 22,80,443,3000,5000,8000,8080 filtered with no-response.

- no open TCP ports have been validated.

• HTB UI automation was only partially useful:

- the official page path/title matched Connected, but the machine panel showed Network Error.

- a second local browser profile hit HTB rate limiting.

- assigned IP, spawned state, and lab/Pwnbox region remain inconclusive and still require manual UI verification.

• No user flag, root flag, shell, credential, hostname, or service path has been validated yet.

Collaboration Model

• Codex used htbctl for minimal remote baseline checks from the local Mac to the Pwnbox.
• Browser automation was limited to read-only HTB UI confirmation attempts and stopped once rate limiting and HTB-side errors appeared.
• No exploitation or deeper enumeration should proceed until HTB machine state is manually verified and recovered.

Next Three Actions

1. Manually verify in the HTB UI that the machine name is Connected, the assigned IP is still <TARGET>, and the instance is fully spawned.
2. If HTB still shows <TARGET>, use the HTB controls to reset/release and re-spawn the machine, then confirm the lab/Pwnbox region matches before scanning again.
3. After respawn, rerun only the minimal baseline (ping plus common ports) from the rebound Pwnbox; continue to full TCP and service enumeration only if at least one port opens.

Blockers

• HTB machine-page automation could not fully confirm assigned IP/spawn/region because the page returned Network Error and rate limiting was triggered on a secondary profile.
• Service surface remains unavailable on the rebound Pwnbox because no open TCP ports are reachable and common ports stay filtered with no-response.
• Current blocker is target/spawn/lab state, not an exploit path.
• Research blocker: do not use machine-specific walkthroughs while the box appears active.

Session Registry

Dead Ends

Attack Map

Completion State

COMPLETE

Known Facts

Ranked Hypotheses

Decision Rule

The current target is the respawned <TARGET> instance. Historical work from <TARGET> remained advisory only until revalidated. The final active chain on <TARGET> was:

1. Revalidate FreePBX endpoint route anchors.
2. Reuse the endpoint CVE to regain transient asterisk execution.
3. Prove the root-side sysadmin_manager watched-filename pipe injection with a harmless marker.
4. Use the same root-side filename pipeline to create /ROOTTAR from /root.
5. Read root/root.txt from that archive into loot/root.txt.
6. Remove /ROOTTAR and validation artifacts.
7. Verify there are no remaining watchTowr cron rows and remove the active webshell.

Memory Summary

Connected (<TARGET> respawn) reached COMPLETE by revalidating the FreePBX <TARGET> endpoint CVE foothold and then pivoting to a stronger local privesc than the earlier amportal/dnsmasq ideas. The durable lesson is that /usr/bin/sysadmin_manager on this image concatenates watched-filename params into system("$hookfile $params") while missing pipe |, and root-owned incrond watches /usr/local/asterisk/incron with <secret redacted>. A harmless watched filename proved root-side command execution, and a watched filename |tar cf ROOTTAR root produced a readable root-owned tar archive that allowed root/root.txt recovery through the existing asterisk foothold. Cleanup mattered: remove /ROOTTAR and validation markers, confirm no leftover watchTowr cron rows, delete the active webshell, and verify the old URL returns 404.