HTB Pro Lab: Zephyr — A Legit Investment or a Waste of Money ?
A Bit About Me
I’m Reju, a full-time bug hunter and an athlete. 💪 I spend my days digging into code, hunting for vulnerabilities, and pushing my limits both online and in the gym. When I’m not breaking things apart, I’m probably tackling a new challenge or chasing that next adrenaline rush. 🚀
Let’s Start: My Experience on Zephyr
A few months back, I decided to tackle the Zephyr Pro Lab, provided by Hack the Box. To be honest, the platform had recently launched a new Pro Lab called Alchemy a few months ago, so the addition of Zephyr was a pleasant surprise. This lab featured 17 machines and 17 flags to capture, marked as an intermediate challenge with a Level 2 “Red Team Operator” designation. This honestly seemed a bit daunting, especially considering RastaLabs, which shared a similar rank, was infamously hard to finish at certain stages. Even so, following some encouragement from fellow pentesters, I chose to sign up and dive into the lab.
Subscription Cost
Hack The Box offers Pro Labs at USD $49/month for the monthly plan or USD $490/year for the annual plan, providing access to all scenarios with the flexibility to switch between them anytime. Your rankings and progress remain active even if you cancel your subscription.
You can purchase it here.
Lab Overview
Zephyr Pro Lab is presented as an intermediate-level Pro Lab, designed to help learners master red teaming techniques through practical, hands-on experience.
Zephyr Pro Labs: Red Team Operator Level II
Designed for intermediate-level red teamers, Zephyr Pro Lab offers a Red Team Operator Level II experience, enabling you to elevate your offensive security skills. You’ll navigate a realistic corporate network environment, mastering Active Directory exploitation, lateral movement, and post-exploitation techniques through hands-on challenges.
- Who Should Try Zephyr ?
Zephyr is perfect for security professionals and intermediate red teamers seeking to advance their knowledge of Active Directory attacks. It focuses on uncovering common misconfigurations, leveraging real-world attack paths, and applying practical skills in a simulated corporate setting.
2. Skills & Knowledge Required:
- Familiarity with penetration testing tools and methodologies
- Basic understanding of Linux, Windows, and Active Directory environments
- Knowledge of Microsoft SQL server exploitation
- Proficiency in web application attacks and PowerShell usage
- Understanding of pivoting techniques using Proxychains and Metasploit
- Experience with BloodHound for AD analysis
3. Mindset & Approach:
- Persistence and a problem-solving mindset
- A willingness to conduct in-depth research and adapt quickly
- Embracing failures as learning opportunities
- Attention to detail for identifying misconfigurations and vulnerabilities
4. What You’ll Gain:
Zephyr’s lab environment pushes you to enhance your skills in:
- Active Directory enumeration and exploitation
- Relay attacks and credential abuse
- Lateral movement and bypassing trust boundaries
- Pivoting and multi-layered attacks
- SQL injection and password cracking techniques
- Advanced privilege escalation methods
- Web application exploitation
Successfully completing Zephyr Pro Lab demonstrates your capability to navigate complex Active Directory environments and equips you with practical skills for real-world red teaming scenarios.
Zephyr Lab Breakdown: Strengths and Weaknesses
Zephyr is a focused Active Directory lab that sticks strictly to AD exploitation — no web applications or complex advanced techniques are involved. Compared to Offshore and other Red Team Pro Labs, Zephyr is significantly more approachable, making it an excellent starting point for those looking to sharpen their AD skills. The platform’s description of it being “A great introductory lab for Active Directory!” is spot-on. The core of this lab revolves around network enumeration and exploiting common misconfigurations typically seen in beginner-friendly AD-oriented training courses like CRTP and CRTO. In fact, around 85% of the content aligns with the CPTS path, leaving the remaining portion for you to research and figure out on your own.
While Zephyr doesn’t include any flashy or overly complex exploits, it does require you to think creatively and approach certain misconfigurations in less conventional ways. This aspect keeps the lab engaging and prevents it from feeling too predictable or repetitive. However, this creativity comes at a cost — some parts of the lab can feel a bit less realistic compared to other environments designed to mimic enterprise networks more closely. The absence of advanced techniques might disappoint those looking for a higher level of challenge, but it serves its purpose well for those who are still building their foundational AD exploitation skills.
Conquering Zephyr: An Active Directory Quest
Pivoting is a key element in Zephyr, along with the presence of MSSQL Servers, which adds a layer of complexity to the overall experience. The lab does a good job of incorporating these elements without overwhelming players who are still getting comfortable with Active Directory attacks. For anyone who has already earned CRTP or CRTO certifications, Zephyr should be manageable in a few days. Personally, I wrapped it up in about a week, using extra time to revisit certain areas, refine my notes, and experiment with alternative attack paths to see what else might work.
One area where Zephyr could see some improvement is the inclusion of more internally running services — similar to what Offshore provides — to create a more realistic enterprise environment. This would not only enhance the immersion but also provide more diverse challenges for players. As it stands, the lab features 17 flags that are relatively easy to spot if you stick to the intended exploitation path. There are no hidden flags or side-quests, which makes the lab feel a bit linear at times. Adding a few more complex or hidden challenges could greatly enhance the overall experience and replay value.
A notable aspect of Zephyr is its daily revert system, which ensures a clean slate each day. This setup minimizes the frustration of persistence issues but does make pivoting a bit of a chore since you have to reconfigure everything from scratch every time you log back in. However, this is a common inconvenience in most similar environments, so it’s not a dealbreaker. On the support side, technical assistance for the lab is nearly nonexistent, which can be frustrating if you run into bugs or issues. Thankfully, the Discord server is quite active, and most members are more than willing to lend a hand if you get stuck or need guidance. The daily reverts also act as a safety net in case something goes wrong or if a server becomes unresponsive. Performance-wise, Zephyr is quite stable, with only a few instances where I encountered issues on specific servers.
All things considered, Zephyr is a solid option for anyone looking to build or reinforce their Active Directory exploitation skills without getting bogged down by overly complex scenarios. It might not have the depth of some of the other Red Team Pro Labs, but it serves as a great steppingstone for those aiming to transition into more challenging environments.
After spending a lot of time in the Zephyr lab, I can confidently say it was worth it. The experience was both challenging and rewarding and finally pwning!!! the lab felt amazing.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I would highly recommend the Zephyr lab to anyone looking to deepen their understanding of Active Directory security. It strikes a good balance — challenging enough to keep things interesting but not so overwhelming that you feel stuck for days. For the price, it’s a solid investment, especially considering the opportunity to move on to other Pro Labs if you complete it quickly. In my opinion, this lab fits more into the “Penetration Tester Level 2” category rather than being a full-fledged Red Teaming experience. After all, not every AD-centric challenge falls under the Red Teaming umbrella.
The absence of web applications might be seen as a drawback by some, but I believe it serves a purpose. Having a lab solely focused on Active Directory is a refreshing change and offers a more streamlined learning experience — especially useful for those who found RastaLabs a bit too advanced. The lab’s structure allows you to hone your skills on AD-specific attacks without the distractions of web app exploitation.
Kudos to Hack The Box for continuously expanding their content library with diverse and practical scenarios. Hopefully, we’ll see even more labs of this nature in the future.
If you’re considering diving into Zephyr, be sure to explore the subscription options — it might just be the perfect next step in your offensive security journey!
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