This is a writeup about a retired HacktheBox machine: Nest This box is classified as an easy machine. It was publish on January the 25th by VbScrub. This box is a bit different that the other ones on HTB. Until the last step you never have a shell on the box (and none is needed to root it). All commands and enumeration are done on the SMB service. There is also a personnalized service HQK.

Getting user involve understanding a bit of cryptography (homemade combination of base64 and AES) but nothing too complexe.

Getting root required to decompile some .NET executable to get some parameter for the homemade encryption.