All posts for: HTB

Alonzo Spire is fascinated by AI after noticing the recent uptick in usage of AI tools to help aid in daily tasks. He came across a sponsored post on social media about an AI tool by Google. The post had a massive reach, and the page that posted it had 200k+ followers. Without any second thought, he downloaded the tool provided via the post. However, after installing it, he couldn’t find the tool on his system, which raised his suspicions. A DFIR analyst was notified of a possible incident on Forela’s sysadmin machine. You are tasked with helping the analyst analyze the true source of this odd incident.

HTB did not provide a scenario for the Sherlock challenge.

Forela.org’s IT Helpdesk has been receiving reports from employees experiencing unusual behavior on their Windows systems. Within 30 minutes, the number of affected systems increased drastically, with employees unable to access their files or run essential business applications. An ominous ransom note appeared on many screens, asking the users to communicate with the ransomware group’s customer service department. It became apparent that Forela.org was under a significant ransomware attack. As a member of Forela.org’s Incident Response (IR) team, you have been assigned a critical task. A ticket has been created for you to reverse engineer the ransomware that has compromised Forela.org’s Windows systems. Your objective is to fully understand the ransomware’s capabilities and extract any Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) to feed into the organization’s detection tools, preventing further infection.

A non-technical client recently purchased a used computer for personal use from a stranger they encountered online. Since acquiring the computer, the client has been using it without making any changes, specifically not installing or uninstalling any software. However, they have begun experiencing issues related to internet connectivity. This includes receiving error messages such as “Server Not Found” and encountering difficulties with video streaming. Despite these problems, checks with the Windows Network Troubleshooter indicate no issues with the internet connection itself. The client has provided a memory image and disk artifacts for investigation to determine if there are any underlying issues causing these problems.

With the rising utilization of open-source C2 frameworks by threat actors, our red team has simulated the functionalities of one such widely employed framework. The objective of this exercise is to aid blue teams in strengthening their defenses against these specific threats. We have been provided with PCAP files and APIs collected during the event, which will serve as valuable resources.

We’ve been hit by Ransomware again, but this time the threat actor seems to have upped their skillset. Once again a they’ve managed to encrypt a large set of our files. It is our policy NOT to negotiate with criminals. Please recover the files they have encrypted - we have no other option! Unfortunately our CEO is on a no-tech retreat so can’t be reached.

You’ll notice a lot of our critical server infrastructure was recently transferred from the domain of our MSSP - Forela.local over to Northpole.local. We actually managed to purchase some second-hand servers from the MSSP who have confirmed they are as secure as Christmas is! It seems not, as we believe Christmas is doomed, and the attackers seemed to have the stealth of a clattering sleigh bell, or they didn’t want to hide at all!!!!!! We have found nasty notes from the Grinch on all of our TinkerTech workstations and servers! Christmas seems doomed. Please help us recover from whoever committed this naughty attack! Please note - these Sherlocks are built to be completed sequentially and in order!

The threat actors of the Lockpick variant of Ransomware seem to have increased their skillset. Thankfully on this occasion they only hit a development, non-production server. We require your assistance performing some reverse engineering of the payload in addition to some analysis of some relevant artifacts. Interestingly, we can’t find evidence of remote access so there is likely an insider threat. Good luck!

Forela is in need of your assistance. They were informed by an employee that their Discord account had been used to send a message with a link to a file they suspect is malware. The message read: “Hi! I have been working on a new game I think you may be interested in it. It combines a number of games we like to play together, check it out!”. The Forela user has tried to secure their Discord account, but somehow the messages keep being sent and they need your help to understand this malware and regain control of their account!

Our cloud administration team recently received a warning from Amazon that an EC2 instance deployed in our cloud environment is being utilised for malicious purposes. Our sysadmin team have no recollection of deploying this EC2, however do recall logging onto the AWS console and finding in excess of 6 EC2s running, which he did not recall deploying. You have been provided with the interview with our Cloud sysadmin within the triage.