TryHackMe Empline Walkthrough | CMS Exploit → Database Dump → Root Privilege Escalation

#tryhackme #cybersecurity #pentesting In this detailed TryHackMe Empline walkthrough, we fully compromise the Empline machine starting from enumeration all the way to root access. This room is an excellent example of real-world web application exploitation, chaining an XXE vulnerability in OpenCats ATS with database credential harvesting, hash cracking, SSH access, and a Linux capabilities privilege escalation. 🔍 What You’ll Learn in This Video Full Nmap enumeration (SSH, HTTP, MySQL) Virtual host discovery & OpenCats ATS identification Reading sensitive files like /etc/passwd and config.php Extracting and decoding database credentials Dumping user password hashes from MariaDB Cracking MD5 hashes using Hashcat Gaining SSH access as a low-privilege user Linux privilege escalation using file capabilities (cap_chown) with Ruby Abusing /etc/shadow to gain root access Understanding real-world misconfigurations and attack chains 🧠 Skills Covered Web application pentesting XML External Entity (XXE) exploitation File upload attacks Linux enumeration & privilege escalation Password cracking & hash analysis This walkthrough is ideal for TryHackMe learners, OSCP-style practice, and anyone looking to sharpen their offensive security skills with realistic exploitation techniques. ⚠️ For educational purposes only. Practice responsibly and only on authorized labs.