--- title: HTB: DarkZero | daily.dev description: A detailed walkthrough of the HackTheBox machine DarkZero, a Windows assume-breach scenario involving two Active Directory forests connected by a bidirectional... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/htb-darkzero-fchwjkj1l twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: HTB: DarkZero | daily.dev og:description: A detailed walkthrough of the HackTheBox machine DarkZero, a Windows assume-breach scenario involving two Active Directory forests connected by a bidirectional... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/htb-darkzero-fchwjkj1l og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/FChwjkj1l.png og:image:alt: HTB: DarkZero og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # HTB: DarkZero **[0xdf hacks stuff](https://daily.dev/sources/0xdf)** · 56 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A detailed walkthrough of the HackTheBox machine DarkZero, a Windows assume-breach scenario involving two Active Directory forests connected by a bidirectional cross-forest trust. Starting with provided credentials, the path involves enumerating MSSQL on DC01, discovering a linked server to DC02 in the other forest where the mapped account has sysadmin privileges, enabling xp_cmdshell to get a shell as the SQL service account. Four privilege escalation paths to SYSTEM on DC02 are demonstrated: named pipe impersonation to recover SeImpersonatePrivilege, ADCS certificate enrollment with RunAsCS, NTLM reflection via CMTI DNS record trick, and CVE-2024-30088. Finally, cross-forest TGT delegation abuse is used to capture DC01's machine account TGT and dump all domain hashes. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [HTB: DarkCorp](https://daily.dev/posts/htb-darkcorp-26vq8n3fx) · 0xdf hacks stuff · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [HTB: Signed](https://daily.dev/posts/htb-signed-zkhb7xhv2) · 0xdf hacks stuff · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [ShadowGate Active Directory Lab Walkthrough \[HackSmarter\]](https://daily.dev/posts/shadowgate-active-directory-lab-walkthrough-hacksmarter--ovegbtw2c) · InfoSec Write-ups · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [HTB: Breach](https://daily.dev/posts/htb-breach-mzot368ee) · 0xdf hacks stuff · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#active-directory](https://daily.dev/tags/active-directory), [#kerberos](https://daily.dev/tags/kerberos) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/htb-darkzero-fchwjkj1l) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"HTB: DarkZero","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/htb-darkzero-fchwjkj1l","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/htb-darkzero-fchwjkj1l"},"datePublished":"2026-04-04T17:59:58.495Z","dateModified":"2026-04-04T18:00:36.266Z","description":"A detailed walkthrough of the HackTheBox machine DarkZero, a Windows assume-breach scenario involving two Active Directory forests connected by a bidirectional...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--2-1xRawN--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2011","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--2-1xRawN--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2011","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"0xdf hacks stuff","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"0xdf hacks stuff","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/16cdada70d5f4fac8b588c53bcf005ff","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/0xdf"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/htb-darkzero-fchwjkj1l","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"active-directory,kerberos","timeRequired":"PT56M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"0xdf hacks stuff","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/0xdf"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"HTB: DarkZero"}]} ```