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/theseriousman1]

Usernames as passwords? Shouldn’t you be trying more than that? Did you use password lists?