How I Passed HTB AWS Blacksky: Hailstrom
What is Blacksky: Hailstrom
BlackSky: Hailstorm is specifically designed for AWS professionals and learners by the Hack The Box, who want to build practical skills and gain hands-on experience in assessing and securing AWS environments.
Overview
Hack The Box is a well-known penetration testing platform that provides a wide range of virtual labs for users to develop and refine their hacking skills. One of its advanced labs, BlackSky, focuses on attacking cloud infrastructures across different providers. It is divided into three parts: Cyclone (Azure), Blizzard (Google Cloud), and Hailstorm (AWS).
The BlackSky AWS lab, Hailstorm, is built to replicate a real-world Amazon Web Services environment with multiple exploitable vulnerabilities. It offers a hands-on, flag-based experience that challenges users to think critically while navigating various attack surfaces, including web applications, APIs, and serverless components.
The objective of the lab is to capture 15 hidden flag across a complex cloud environment. Due to my work commitments, it took me around two months to capture all the flags, with nearly a full week dedicated just to finding the final one. I have to say, the journey to that last flag was especially fun and rewarding. I officially completed the lab in October 2023.
Skills & Knowledge Required
- Understanding of AWS cloud infrastructure concepts
- Familiar with Linux operating system
- Experience in web and network exploitation techniques
- Foundational knowledge of AWS services, including S3 buckets, Lambda, EC2 instances, and IAM.
Key Areas Covered
- IAM policies, roles, and assumed identities
- EC2 metadata and snapshot exploitation
- S3 bucket misconfigurations
- Serverless attack techniques
- Cloud-based privilege escalation methods
What You Will Learn?
- AWS enumeration techniques
- Exploitation of serverless applications
- Identifying and exploiting s3 misconfigurations
- Lateral movement within cloud environments
- Local privilege escalation concepts
- Mitigation strategies and security best practices
- Improving situational awareness during assessments
- Web application and API exploitation
Who can take BlackSky: Hailstorm?
This lab is well-suited for cybersecurity professionals seeking to expand their expertise in AWS environments and develop practical, hands-on experience in offensive cloud security.
Conclusion
The BlackSky: Hailstorm lab offers a realistic and challenging deep dive into AWS security from an offensive perspective. By combining hands-on exploitation with real-world cloud scenarios, it helps build strong skills in enumeration, misconfiguration discovery, privilege escalation, and lateral movement. Overall, it is a highly valuable experience for cybersecurity professionals looking to strengthen their practical knowledge of cloud security and AWS attack techniques.