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HackTheBox - Cypher

HackTheBox - Cypher

Source: YouTube · IppSec · published Jul 26, 2025 · 38:11

Penetration Testing
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Description

The video demonstrates a Hack The Box walkthrough for the "Cipher" machine, focusing on Neo4j cipher injection to bypass authentication and exploit a command injection vulnerability for initial access.

Key Takeaways:
• The attacker uses Neo4j cipher queries without BloodHound to bypass authentication and map the internal network topology 2:00.
• A custom function is discovered that contains a command injection vulnerability, allowing for remote code execution 4:30.
• Initial shell access is gained by exploiting the command injection within the custom Neo4j function 5:15.
• Privilege escalation is achieved by exploiting a misconfiguration where a user can run BBBOT as root via sudo 8:00.

This walkthrough highlights the importance of securing custom database functions and reviewing sudo permissions to prevent lateral movement and root compromise.

Sources:

  • 2:00 Introduction to cipher injection and Neo4j usage.
  • 4:30 Discovery of the custom function with command injection.
  • 5:15 Exploitation of the command injection for shell access.
  • 8:00 Privilege escalation via BBBOT sudo misconfiguration.

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Estimated credit: 0.5 CPE hours

Estimate uses the video runtime (1 hour ≈ 1 CPE, rounded to the nearest 0.5, minimum 0.5, maximum 2.0). The final amount can be lower after review, never higher.

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 Cipher from Hack the Box, which starts off with cipher injection, which I found to be really fun to play with. You're probably most familiar with cipher syntax as it's what Blood Hound uses. But with this, we're just using Neo4j without Blood Hound. So, we'll have to write some custom cipher queries, which I'm sure a lot of people can learn from. We'll use it to bypass authentication and then discover that there is a custom function loaded that has a command injection vulnerability. So, we can use that to get a shell on the box. And then we'll discover that we have a user that can use pseudo to run an OS init tool called BBBOT. And we'll find a couple of ways to exploit this. It's a pretty straightforward box. So let's just jump in.…