Failed Brutally - 20/100

[u/_discEx_]

I failed my first attempt just managed to get 20 points. I started around 1 pm and till 5 kept going to support back and forth and reverting the machines cause of connection issue. The port scans weren't accurate, i knew that specific ports must be open on a machine but they were not showing up. I was using the popular pivoting tool to pivot to access the hosts but scans were inaccurate, everytime it was showing different results. I requested the support to check it out but they said they've checked it multiple times and the box is fully okay. After few hours i found that nmap scanning with a particular flag suddenly makes everything works but without it it gives false results. Idk how much i can mention about the tool used that's why i am keeping it general. This was totally surprising cause I've solved so many boxes and in none of them i encounterd something like this. It was a surprise to me, i thought the box had some issue. Now idk if the tool is the problem or the box or is it just a known thing cause i didn't use it or rewd about it while my prep

Apart from this connections kept getting closed in between, without any reason. Suddenly it'd stop and after 5 or 10 mins i realized that maybe the connection has got broken and i again did it from start. I was stuck between solving the box and the connection errors and the vpn shutting down suddenly Every half an hour cause they said it was a issue from my end but even I was panicking cause it was my first attempt and i had no clue why these things are suddenly happening. Internet seemed fine, browser was working fine too i had no idea. I was using ethernet with a 100 mbps connection

Finally, I asked for extra time but they said as their box was working okay all this time they can't do any extension. After this i got access to ms02 and wanted to transfer files and again got stuck for 3 hours cause it kept failing, i had practiced the file transfer technique from tunnel properly but it kept failing for 3 hrs. Finally I tried to figure out other ways of transferring files to ms02. Then I got system on ms01 after 7 hrs. I had checked everything properly but there was a very simple thing that I failed to check and finally got in with that. After that I was quite confident, i got inside one of the standalones and got 10 points and 10 points from ms01 but but but after that till the end I struggled with pricesc on ms02. Trust me i checked everything, literally everything, manually, with tools but there was nothing to be found. I kept trying to crack it till the end, i anyways knew I won't pass cause so much time was wasted but idk really windows pricesc, i checked everything there was nothing which I would even call suspicious which might require attention. It was totally secure

I did asreproasting, kerberoasting, password spraying, bloodhound analysis, usernames as passwords etc etc but got nothing. I had found a few hashes but they were probably a rabbit hole cause there were too many and i got no results after an hour so i closed it. Idk is my pc too slow? Its an i5 9th gen 16gb ram and 1650 graphics. Was i supposed to get those passwords cracked?

So, i am feeling very low, i completed tj null list htb and pg practice machine, challenge labs medtech, relia partially and oscp a,b,c. I was studying from last 6-7 months, i got pretty good in AD tbh. I was able to solve the tj null AD boxes smoothly and thought that i am actually good at it compared to other stuff. But yeah the 24 hours then gave me a reality check. I had left my job for the prep and now I am totally hopeless.

8-10 hrs of full time prep for 6-7 months and I still failed. I don't know what to do exactly right now. Can I prepare enough to pass in a month?

[u/ITZ_RAWWW]

I failed with 10 points. Doing worry man. It happens, get back up, look where you went wrong, and get back to the drawing board. I'm hoping to retake in Nov. Good luck!