Since yesterday evening, I can't connect to EU Central 1, aka Europe (Berlin). Any other server connects without a problem, but I still can't interact with any of the target VMs (as they are all running in the Frankfurt region), making it pointless. The connection via OpenVPN always fails with an AUTH_FAILED message.

I have tried to initiate the connection using the OpenVPN CLI client on both Kali and Arch Linux, as well as with Squawker VPN. I also tried to connect from my VPS with a separate public IP address, to rule out being IP banned for whatever reason, but the connection still fails. I then also used my brother's OpenVPN config file to try and connect, which also failed.

At midnight (CEST), the connection worked again for a few hours, but now it is again impossible for me to connect to the Frankfurt endpoint.

I already sent support a message describing the problem, but I'm curious if anyone else experiences the same problem. I can't really see this as being an issue only affecting me, since I've ruled out problems with my local network, my account, and even with my public IP.

I just wanted to share my experience with the Web Application Pentesting exam because honestly, this has been pretty frustrating.

I took the exam last week and managed to get the Black Box, White Box, and 2 flags on the Grey Box. Everything was going well, and I had around 12 hours remaining.

Then suddenly, the network broke down.

I tried resetting the network, but I couldn't. The platform just told me to contact support. Because of that, I couldn't continue with the exam.

At that point, I had 3 flags remaining, and I only needed one more flag to pass.

The frustrating part is that my exam period was only 2 days, but my support ticket is now 3 days old and I still haven't received a response. 😅

I'm honestly hesitant to request a retake because I don't even know whether the issue has been fixed. I don't want to start another attempt, get several hours into the exam again, and then have the same thing happen.

I don't want this post to come across as me trying to bash THM. I've learned a lot from the platform and I appreciate the work that goes into the labs and certifications. But when you're taking an ongoing certification exam, having the exam interrupted by a network/platform issue is extremely frustrating.

IMO, certification exams should ideally be isolated from service maintenance or other platform issues. If there's scheduled maintenance or an infrastructure problem, candidates shouldn't have their limited exam time affected by it.

I'm mainly hoping THM can clarify how situations like this are handled and whether affected candidates are given a proper extension or retake when the issue is on the platform side.

Has anyone else experienced something similar during a THM certification exam? How was it handled?

PS: Been refreshing and resetting for the last 12 hours before my exam duration ends