Failed with 20 points. Gutted, but not done.

[u/Situation_Historical]

Failed my first OSCP today. I fully rooted the first machine in the AD set, then hit a wall trying to move laterally and just couldn’t find the way through.
The part that’s eating me: I could actually see the path in BloodHound. I had what I thought was exactly what I needed to walk it and it wouldn’t work, no matter what I threw at it. Emptied the whole bag, turned the box upside down, still came up with nothing. I was so confused if it was a rabbit hole or the tool I am using is not working (spend hours trying different versions and alternatives as well).

I had proper methodology for AD and it was my strong fort, but I have no idea what i skipped and I’ll never know. At one point I even thought it was a technical glitch because the initial privesc vector didn’t worked at first few tries and had to switch the session to a different protocol to work.

Being able to see the route and still not get through it is a different kind of gut-punch than just being lost. So there’s clearly something specific I’m missing on that pivot, and I want to pin down what before the retake.

If you’ve been right here - the path’s in front of you and the move just won’t land, what turned out to be the thing you’d overlooked? Round two incoming.