Role: Penetration Tester (Practical CTF challenge)
Summary: Performed full exploitation of a vulnerable virtual machine to achieve remote code execution and privilege escalation to root; documented findings and remediation steps.
Highlights / CV bullets
Performed comprehensive reconnaissance and full-port scanning to discover exposed services and identify attack surface.
Enumerated services and researched version-specific exploits, locating a critical Samba vulnerability (call_trans2open, CVE-2003-0201).
Configured and executed an exploit using Metasploit (exploit/linux/samba/trans2open), delivered a payload, and obtained a root shell on the target server.
Produced an exploitation timeline and remediation recommendations, emphasizing patching, service hardening, and monitoring for legacy services.
Verified post-exploitation impact and documented lessons learned to improve future assessments.
Tools & Techniques
Nmap (full port scan / service discovery)
Searchsploit / CVE research (vulnerability identification)
Metasploit (exploit module, payload delivery)
Enumeration & manual analysis (service/version fingerprinting)
Outcome / Impact
Demonstrated real-world RCE and privilege escalation against legacy services, reinforcing the critical risk of unpatched/obsolete software.
Delivered actionable remediation guidance: upgrade Samba, apply vendor patches, restrict exposed services, and implement continuous vulnerability scanning.
