Completed: 04.04.2025
Time Spent: ~1 week
Experience Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Completed the FullHouse Pro Lab by Hack The Box? Here’s a full, honest review of the experience — including blockchain exploitation, AI bypass, Active Directory, and more. Learn what to expect, what challenges you’ll face, and if it’s worth your time.

What’s Inside

FullHouse explores a wide variety of topics, including:

• Source Code Review
• Web Application Exploitation
• AI Bypass & Exploitation
• Blockchain Exploitation
• Reversing
• Windows and Active Directory Attacks

The lab starts off strong with blockchain and AI-based scenarios — a refreshing break from more traditional CTF content. These early stages were especially engaging and stood out in terms of learning value and creativity.

First Flag: A Slow Start

The first challenge was the toughest part of the lab — not because of technical depth, but because of how little feedback it gave. It took hours to troubleshoot and understand what was actually going wrong. A lot of time was spent debugging and making educated guesses.

Once I passed that hurdle, the rest of the lab became more manageable and flowed much better.

Blockchain Exploitation: A Real Highlight

This section was easily the most rewarding. It offers a hands-on approach to understanding how blockchain applications can be broken, from smart contract logic to token manipulation.

Although the blockchain-focused content ends earlier than expected, it sets a solid foundation for anyone looking to get into blockchain security.

AI Bypass: Simple but Smart

This part sounds more complex than it actually is. In essence, it’s about crafting inputs that confuse or mislead AI-based logic systems. It was more about clever payload shaping than actual machine learning exploitation.

It’s a cool concept and a nice introduction to how adversarial thinking can be applied to AI systems.

Debugging: The Real Time Sink

The longest time I spent was on a section involving a script that didn’t return any errors or output. It was a real patience test — requiring lots of log analysis and tiny changes to isolate the issue. Took me more than 10 hours just to push past that one roadblock.

It was frustrating, but it also taught me to be methodical and thorough when dealing with black-box behaviors.

Overall Experience

The first half of FullHouse felt creative and modern. The challenges were fun, relevant, and packed with valuable takeaways. The second half leans more toward classic HTB-style machines — still solid, but not as unique as the early challenges.

That said, the lab overall provided a strong learning experience and exposed me to areas I hadn’t really explored before.

Final Thoughts

What I liked:

• Strong and practical blockchain challenges
• Creative AI bypass section
• A solid mix of web, reversing, and AD exploitation
• Real-world skill development

What to expect:

• First flag is slow and requires persistence
• Some sections involve a lot of trial-and-error
• Later machines are more traditional and familiar

Would I Recommend It?

Yes — especially for anyone tackling their first HTB Pro Lab.

If you’re interested in blockchain security or want to see AI exploitation in action, this lab gives you a meaningful, guided way to explore them. The structure is well thought out, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a strong learning opportunity that I’m glad I took on.

Thanks for reading — and good luck if you decide to take on FullHouse yourself!