HackTheBox TombWatcher Writeup
A walkthrough of the HackTheBox 'TombWatcher' machine which is easy rated windows box. This write-up covers initial access, privilege escalation, and post-exploitation techniques.
As is common in real life Windows pentests, you will start the TombWatcher box with credentials for the following account:
henry
/H3nry_987TGV!
RECONNAISSANCE
Nmap
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┌──(dollarboysushil㉿kali)-[~/Documents/HTB_BOXES/tombwatcher]
└─$ nmap -sC -sV 10.129.83.195
Starting Nmap 7.95 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2025-06-08 11:12 EDT
Stats: 0:01:07 elapsed; 0 hosts completed (1 up), 1 undergoing Script Scan
NSE Timing: About 97.91% done; ETC: 11:13 (0:00:00 remaining)
Stats: 0:01:25 elapsed; 0 hosts completed (1 up), 1 undergoing Script Scan
NSE Timing: About 99.94% done; ETC: 11:13 (0:00:00 remaining)
Nmap scan report for 10.129.83.195
Host is up (0.26s latency).
Not shown: 987 filtered tcp ports (no-response)
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
53/tcp open domain Simple DNS Plus
80/tcp open http Microsoft IIS httpd 10.0
|_http-server-header: Microsoft-IIS/10.0
|_http-title: IIS Windows Server
| http-methods:
|_ Potentially risky methods: TRACE
88/tcp open kerberos-sec Microsoft Windows Kerberos (server time: 2025-06-08 19:14:38Z)
135/tcp open msrpc Microsoft Windows RPC
139/tcp open netbios-ssn Microsoft Windows netbios-ssn
389/tcp open ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: tombwatcher.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-11-16T00:47:59
|_Not valid after: 2025-11-16T00:47:59
|_ssl-date: 2025-06-08T19:16:04+00:00; +4h01m48s from scanner time.
445/tcp open microsoft-ds?
464/tcp open kpasswd5?
593/tcp open ncacn_http Microsoft Windows RPC over HTTP 1.0
636/tcp open ssl/ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: tombwatcher.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
|_ssl-date: 2025-06-08T19:16:03+00:00; +4h01m48s from scanner time.
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-11-16T00:47:59
|_Not valid after: 2025-11-16T00:47:59
3268/tcp open ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: tombwatcher.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
|_ssl-date: 2025-06-08T19:16:04+00:00; +4h01m48s from scanner time.
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-11-16T00:47:59
|_Not valid after: 2025-11-16T00:47:59
3269/tcp open ssl/ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: tombwatcher.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:DC01.tombwatcher.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-11-16T00:47:59
|_Not valid after: 2025-11-16T00:47:59
|_ssl-date: 2025-06-08T19:16:03+00:00; +4h01m48s from scanner time.
5985/tcp open http Microsoft HTTPAPI httpd 2.0 (SSDP/UPnP)
|_http-server-header: Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
|_http-title: Not Found
Service Info: Host: DC01; OS: Windows; CPE: cpe:/o:microsoft:windows
Host script results:
| smb2-security-mode:
| 3:1:1:
|_ Message signing enabled and required
|_clock-skew: mean: 4h01m47s, deviation: 0s, median: 4h01m47s
| smb2-time:
| date: 2025-06-08T19:15:22
|_ start_date: N/A
Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 109.62 seconds
⚠️ Notice:
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In accordance with HackTheBox's content policy, this writeup will be made publicly available only after the challenge is retired.
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