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HackTheBox - LinkVortex

HackTheBox - LinkVortex

Source: YouTube · IppSec · published Apr 12, 2025 · 30:14

Penetration Testing
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Description

The video demonstrates a CTF walkthrough for the "Link Vortex" box, focusing on virtual host enumeration and exploiting an outdated Ghost CMS to gain initial access.

Key Takeaways:
• The initial phase involves virtual host enumeration to discover a dev subdomain exposing a .git directory 2:15.
• Using git-dumper, the attacker retrieves repository files and finds uncommitted changes containing a password for the Ghost blogging application 3:00.
• The Ghost instance runs an outdated version vulnerable to file disclosure via zip files containing symbolic links (symlinks) 4:30.
• Exploiting this vulnerability allows extraction of the Ghost configuration file, revealing database credentials for further access 5:45.

This walkthrough highlights the critical importance of secure git configurations and keeping CMS software updated to prevent information leakage.

Sources:

  • 2:15 Explanation of virtual host enumeration and git directory discovery.
  • 3:00 Details on finding the password in uncommitted git files.
  • 4:30 Overview of the Ghost CMS symlink vulnerability.
  • 5:45 Process of extracting configuration and database credentials.

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Estimated credit: 0.5 CPE hours

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Topic: Penetration Testing. Commonly maps to: Security Assessment and Testing, Security Operations. Exact CISSP domains are assigned during generation.

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First 800 characters of the transcript

What's going on YouTube? This is IPSC and we'll be doing link vortex from hack the box which is a pretty easy box as long as you're good at enumeration. It starts off with virtual host enumeration to find a dev subdomain which exposes the.getit directory and you can use git dumper to download that repository and gain access to all the files. If you run git status, you'll discover there are two files that have been added to the repository but not committed yet. Looking more in depth at those files, you discover a password that lets you into the blogging application, which is running open- source software called Ghost. And it's running an outdated version that is vulnerable to a file disclosure when uploading zip files with a SIM link in them. So, we can use this to extract the ghost configu…