HTB Academy: Pwnbox configuration

In life sometimes simple is much better than complex

Below, you will find the current contents of my personal configuration gist and the one-liner to immediately set up your Pwnbox. For security purposes and long-term personalization, I recommend hosting your own version of this script.

HackTheBox Academy offers a Pwnbox environment similar to vanilla HtB. However, there is a particularly important (to me) piece of functionality missing: Persistent configuration. Because these instances are ephemeral, any quality-of-life adjustments vanish the moment the lab ends.

Having worked for some time with zsh I can no longer tolerate most other shells. It is not that I have high standards or use obscure configuration options. It is much simpler than that: I use bindkey -v ¹ and have written quite a lot of scripts in it to be wary of a transition. At the same time, an indispensable tool in my arsenal is tmux. My configuration for it mimics vi keybindings, using C-b h/j/k/l for pane navigation instead of the arrow keys. Frankly, a no-brainer.

Inspired by the “fetch-and-run” ease of tools like linpeas, I created a single command that retrieves my environment and applies it instantly:

zsh <(curl -fsSL 'https://gist.githubusercontent.com/chatziiola/4960b0bd6d0f323c2d79432216cb8b87/raw/htbacad_setup.sh'); zsh

This script effectively configures the Pwnbox to use my preferred shell and multiplexer settings:

# TLDR: this is a basic configuration gist for htb academy: responsible for zsh, tmux
# feel free to use it yourself, but try to make your own copy: this one might be changed ?

# zsh <(curl -fsSL 'https://gist.githubusercontent.com/chatziiola/4960b0bd6d0f323c2d79432216cb8b87/raw/htbacad_setup.sh')
echo "Creating zshrc"
cat << 'END' > "$HOME/.zshrc"
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit -d ~/.cache/zcompdump

# Custom prompt
setopt PROMPT_SUBST

# Function to display Python virtual environment if active
venv_prompt() {
  if [[ -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]]; then
    echo "($(basename $VIRTUAL_ENV))"
  fi
}

unset VIRTUAL_ENV_DISABLE_PROMPT
# Main prompt
PROMPT='%F{red}[ %~ ]%f (%?%)
%F{green}$(venv_prompt)%f -> '


bindkey -v
alias cll='clear && ls -l'
alias cl='clear'
END

echo "Now tmux"
cat << 'END' > "$HOME/.tmux.conf"
# Src: https://gist.github.com/william8th/faf23d311fc842be698a1d80737d9631
bind c new-window -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind '"' split-window -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind % split-window -h -c "#{pane_current_path}"

# Src: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51639540/tmux-scroll-mode-vim-keybindings
set-option -g default-shell /usr/bin/zsh

set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi Enter send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "xclip -selection c"
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "xclip -in -selection clipboard"


bind h select-pane -L
bind j select-pane -D
bind k select-pane -U
bind l select-pane -R
bind : command-prompt

setw -g mouse on
END

Footnotes:

While writing this I decided to test this belief: It is wrong. Even bash has vi keybindings with set -o vi. I could perhaps go back to it but, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.