Once upon a late-night session in the cyber underground, I stumbled across a fresh “Expressway” box on HackTheBox — a promised route to digital mastery and a cautionary tale of misconfigured VPN gateways and homemade privilege escalation tools. Like a true cyber-detective, I geared up, eager for something deeper than just artifact hunting. This wasn’t just about flags — it was about learning.
Chapter 1: Recon — Listening for Opportunity
The Opening Scene
Imagine the network as a vast, silent street—shrouded in shadows. My first step: turn on the headlights and see what’s out there.
TCP Scan — First Pass, False Comfort
nmap -p- -T4 -sS 10.10.11.87 -oN initial_tcp_scan.txt
SSH (port 22) greets me and then slams the door in my face. No welcome mat here. The box seems as silent as a ghost. Seasoned hackers know—if you only look for doors, you might miss the windows.
The UDP Angle — Where All the Clues Hide
sudo nmap -sU 10.10.11.87 --min-rate 5000
Port 500 lights up. IPsec/IKE. VPN land: hostile territory for most, but a playground for those who know the rules.
