My OSCP Study and Plan Update 2022

This post is a long time coming, but I have been so busy focusing on prepping for an exam attempt that I just haven’t been doing anything else.

The quick summary

I had thought I might get to my next exam attempt in February, but that didn’t work out. Being sick and cost me too much study time. The bright side is that my next attempt is scheduled, and I am better prepared. Lets break down what I have done this year to prep, and how I am feeling about this attempt.

January and February of 2022

At the beginning of the year I changed how I worked on boxes. I went back to the TJ Null’s list of HtB machines, and in doing machines I incorporated a spaced repetition into the boxes I did. This technique probably wants a post of it’s own, but I will do a quick summary.

Each machine that was completed gets a rating of 1 to 5. 1 is very easy, and 5 is very hard. Each rating is associated with a repeat date for that box. A very hard box would get repeated 2 days after it was initially done, and a very easy box would be done after 30 days.

The repeat schedule was built in because I found that machines I completed months in the past were not as easy as I thought they should be. Doing techniques that you are not good at, and then not doing them again, for a very long time meant that if that technique comes up you have to look it back up, search notes and work through it. After the change some machines on the HtB list were completed 4 times during the months of Jan. and Feb.

This change worked out really well. There was a noticeable increase in my recognizing vulnerabilities quickly. Using basic tools that I really didn’t like to use before, because I wasn’t comfortable enough with them became natural.

In all I completed all the machines on TJ Null’s list completing each between 2 and 4 times during the 2 months.

Late February and Early March

The TJ Null list of Offsec Proving Grounds Practice machines was also on my prep list, and I started working those into my rotation during the second half of February. I did this during one month of lab time, and was able to complete all but 2 machines on the list, while repeating all of them at least once.

The change to the Offsec machines is very noticeable, and there were a number of things that I found I hadn’t seen in the HtB machines. By the time All these machines were completed I had a lot more notes, and had significantly added to my list of things to check when I get stuck. I think these machines add a different flavor than the Htb machines, and they were well worth the month of Lab time.

Late March until now

The last part of my prep plan was to get more PWK lab time so I could do the Active Directory networks as a review. I wasn’t sure how long this would take, but I wanted to make sure I had completed them before trying the exam with the new AD section. The minimum purchase for lab time was 30 days, and as soon as my Proving Grounds time was up I jumped in.

The first week I concentrated on the two Available domains and completed both. I also completed all the AD exercises. The approach was different than the normal approach on the HtB AD boxes. I learned functionality I had never used in CrackMapExec, and actually enjoyed the two domains. The techniques used were good to practice, and I think I will be happy to have practiced them when it is exam time.

After doing the two domains I still had weeks of lab time left, and decided to give the rest of the lab machines a try. Previously (About a year ago) I had only completed a fraction of the machines, and had not worked on any of the networks that require pivoting.

Over the following two weeks I saw a large improvement in my success in their PWK lab, and went from 20+ machines to accessing all of the labs sections and 60+ machines completed. Where as during the initial work in the lab a year ago it was very difficult, and I struggled just to complete all the machines I did, this time was different.

The lab time was actually fun. My experience level during this lab time is where it would have been good to be a year ago when I first started the lab.

The last weeks before another attempt

I am down to just a week and a half until my next attempt. My lab time will end soon. I don’t know for sure if I will pass, but I do know that I have made huge improvements over the last year.

And what after the exam?

Even if I don’t pass I will be changing up my study schedule. I have been studying full time since the beginning of the year. No matter what happens in the exam I plan on moving to just doing weekly HtB machines, making posts about interesting topics, and probably completing a cheesy Azure certification. At any rate I will have more time to do other things, and decide where to go, and how to improve more.