OSCP-Like Machines: 42 boxes by difficulty

OSCP, the Offensive Security Certified Professional, is OffSec's hands-on penetration testing certification. The exam is a proctored practical of roughly 24 hours in which you compromise standalone machines and an Active Directory environment, followed by a written report.

The 42 machines on this page are tagged OSCP in the ZeroBox catalog and come from HTB & THM. By operating system that is 26 Windows, 16 Linux. Good preparation means practising the same loop on many different targets: enumerate carefully, find a foothold, escalate, and document each step. Boxes with public exploits that need small edits, web footholds and classic Linux and Windows privilege escalation map closely to what the exam rewards.

To use the list, start at the easiest group and work upward, spending real time on enumeration before looking at any help. After each box, write down the foothold, the escalation and what you would do faster next time. 4 of these are targets I solved myself, so they link to an attack path summary on this site; the others link to the official room. Once you are comfortable, rehearse under pressure in the exam simulator, and follow the phase-by-phase pentest methodology checklist so you do not skip steps. You can also browse the technique hubs to drill one skill at a time.

Jump to difficulty

OSCP machine list by difficulty

Very Easy (1)

Easy (19)

Medium (16)

Hard (6)

Related guides

Machines belong to HTB & THM. ZeroBox is not affiliated with the platforms or certification bodies named here.