Post Exploitation - Cybersecurity Academy

🔓 What is Post Exploitation?

Post exploitation refers to the phase after a system or application has been successfully compromised. It involves exploring, maintaining, and leveraging access to gather further intelligence, expand control, and achieve the attacker’s objectives — all while avoiding detection.

🎯 Key Goals of Post Exploitation

Privilege escalation
Credential harvesting
Data exfiltration
Persistence mechanisms
Pivoting to other systems
Covering tracks

🧩 Phases Explained

1. Enumeration of Environment

Identify OS, users, network configuration, running services, scheduled tasks, and mounted file systems.

# Linux
uname -a
whoami
ip a
cat /etc/passwd

# Windows
systeminfo
whoami
ipconfig /all
net user

2. Privilege Escalation

Gain higher-level permissions (e.g., root or SYSTEM). Use automated tools like linpeas.sh, winPEAS.exe, or manual enumeration.

Search for misconfigured SUID binaries (Linux)
Check unquoted service paths (Windows)
Look for vulnerable drivers or schedulers

3. Credential Harvesting

Extract stored passwords, hashes, or tokens.

# Windows: Dump SAM database
reg save HKLM\SAM sam
reg save HKLM\SYSTEM system
mimikatz # sekurlsa::logonpasswords

# Linux: View shadow file if root
cat /etc/shadow

4. Persistence

Establish long-term access, often using:

Startup scripts (.bashrc, .profile)
New user creation
Scheduled tasks or cron jobs
Registry Run keys (Windows)

5. Lateral Movement & Pivoting

Use the compromised system to move deeper into the network (e.g., through SSH agent forwarding, pass-the-hash, or RDP).

Identify internal IP ranges and services
Use tools like proxychains, chisel, or metasploit pivoting

6. Data Exfiltration

Identify and extract valuable data securely and stealthily.

# Archive and encrypt data
tar czf secrets.tar.gz /home/user/secrets
gpg -c secrets.tar.gz

# Use scp, curl, or exfil over DNS/TCP/HTTP

💼 Real-World Example

Scenario: After exploiting a vulnerable CMS plugin, you obtain a reverse shell as www-data on a Linux web server.

Enumerate the system: sudo -l shows ALL commands can be run as root
Escalate privilege: sudo su
Harvest credentials: dump Apache config, find database passwords
Persistence: create new cronjob as root
Exfiltrate: send database dump to remote VPS via scp

🧠 Pro Tips for Post Exploitation

Stay stealthy: avoid logs and alerts
Use in-memory tools or living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins)
Document everything for your report
Always respect client scope and privacy

🧬 Post Exploitation