nitesh@gupta
Proving Grounds Windows

Monster

Full walkthrough — enumeration, foothold and privilege escalation.

Nmap output

Nmap scan report for 192.168.181.180
Host is up (0.058s latency).
Not shown: 59559 closed tcp ports (conn-refused), 5964 filtered tcp ports (no-response)
Some closed ports may be reported as filtered due to --defeat-rst-ratelimit
PORT      STATE SERVICE       VERSION
80/tcp    open  http          Apache httpd 2.4.41 ((Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1c PHP/7.3.10)
|_http-title: Mike Wazowski
| http-methods: 
|   Supported Methods: GET POST OPTIONS HEAD TRACE
|_  Potentially risky methods: TRACE
135/tcp   open  msrpc         Microsoft Windows RPC
139/tcp   open  netbios-ssn   Microsoft Windows netbios-ssn
443/tcp   open  ssl/http      Apache httpd 2.4.41 ((Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1c PHP/7.3.10)
|_http-title: Mike Wazowski
| http-methods: 
|   Supported Methods: GET POST OPTIONS HEAD TRACE
|_  Potentially risky methods: TRACE
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=localhost
| Issuer: commonName=localhost
| Public Key type: rsa
| Public Key bits: 1024
| Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption
| Not valid before: 2009-11-10T23:48:47
| Not valid after:  2019-11-08T23:48:47
| MD5:   a0a4:4cc9:9e84:b26f:9e63:9f9e:d229:dee0
|_SHA-1: b023:8c54:7a90:5bfa:119c:4e8b:acca:eacf:3649:1ff6
|_http-server-header: Apache/2.4.41 (Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1c PHP/7.3.10
|_ssl-date: TLS randomness does not represent time
| tls-alpn: 
|_  http/1.1
445/tcp   open  microsoft-ds?
3389/tcp  open  ms-wbt-server Microsoft Terminal Services
|_ssl-date: 2025-10-23T06:36:17+00:00; 0s from scanner time.
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=Mike-PC
| Issuer: commonName=Mike-PC
| Public Key type: rsa
| Public Key bits: 2048
| Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption
| Not valid before: 2025-10-22T06:31:49
| Not valid after:  2026-04-23T06:31:49
| MD5:   e3ac:9411:b1c6:33ad:1ec6:9b34:f817:d101
|_SHA-1: 2933:3031:4b7a:ecf2:e071:091d:b45c:5ad9:6efb:c000
| rdp-ntlm-info: 
|   Target_Name: MIKE-PC
|   NetBIOS_Domain_Name: MIKE-PC
|   NetBIOS_Computer_Name: MIKE-PC
|   DNS_Domain_Name: Mike-PC
|   DNS_Computer_Name: Mike-PC
|   Product_Version: 10.0.19041
|_  System_Time: 2025-10-23T06:36:00+00:00
5040/tcp  open  unknown
7680/tcp  open  pando-pub?
49664/tcp open  msrpc         Microsoft Windows RPC
49666/tcp open  msrpc         Microsoft Windows RPC
49667/tcp open  msrpc         Microsoft Windows RPC
49669/tcp open  msrpc         Microsoft Windows RPC
Service Info: OS: Windows; CPE: cpe:/o:microsoft:windows

We got /blog directory via the directory bruteforcing

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 1
Monster, step 1

After opening we see a blog page which is running Monstra 3.0.4 which is mentioned in the footer

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 2
Monster, step 2

Monstra 3.0.4 is vulnerable to RCE & found an exploit on exploit-db. But it requires admin username & password.

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 3
Monster, step 3

Tried login with admin : wazowski

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 4
Monster, step 4

We were able to login successfully

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 5
Monster, step 5

Using https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/52038 this exploit to upload the shell

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 6
Monster, step 6

We have command execution

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 7
Monster, step 7

Using powershell base64 payload to get reverse shell

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 8
Monster, step 8

Got reverse shell

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 9
Monster, step 9

Got local.txt (d752b3c697dec1c553d1b1978d45752f)

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 10
Monster, step 10

Found this local privilege escalation exploit for xampp https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/50337 & ran the command as per exploit

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 11
Monster, step 11

Restarted the machine

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 12
Monster, step 12

Got shell as administrator

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 13
Monster, step 13

Got proof.txt (e6d73b2308958bed47e942d747b968ed)

Monster walkthrough, Got shell as administrator, screenshot 14
Monster, step 14

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