Failing OSCP? Try These AD-Pivot Tricks to Secure a “First-Attempt” Pass

Heads-up: If you tripped up on your first PEN-200 exam (or are sweating that you might), you’re not alone. More than half of our OSCP students arrive at Cert Fast Pass after a false start. The common blocker? Active Directory pivoting. Nail the AD chain and the 70-point threshold suddenly looks easy.

Below are five field-tested tactics that transform “I-can’t-get-DA” frustration into a clean, report-ready exploit path—plus the fast-track resources Cert Fast Pass uses to guarantee a retake win.

1 | Start With Credential Recycling, Not BloodHound

Everyone fires up BloodHound first. Instead, dump local creds quickly with LSA Secrets or SAMR enumeration and test them on other hosts via SMB or WinRM. A reused admin password often short-circuits hours of graph analysis and drops you into an asset that holds the next ticket.

Tool combo: secretsdump.py + crackmapexec for a two-minute credential spray.

2 | Kerberoast—But Filter for Legacy RC4

The exam’s AD set almost always contains at least one RC4-encrypted service ticket. Skip AES tickets; focus Kerberoasting on SPNs that don’t display AES hashes in output. They crack 10-20× faster and turn into low-hanging reverse shells.

Feed just those hashes to Hashcat. Expect a win inside 15 minutes with the rockyou word-mangle rule set.

3 | GMSA Recon for Password-in-AD Gold

Group Managed Service Accounts store a rotating plaintext password in AD. If the lab’s domain uses GMSAs (hint: look for $ at the end of the account), pull it and impersonate the service immediately.

Mount SMB shares or schedule tasks under the service SID to pivot laterally.

4 | ACL Abuse Beats EOP Every Time

BloodHound’s edge “GenericAll” or “WriteDacl” on an OU is worth more than any local privilege-escalation exploit. Use Add-DomainGroupMember or Set-ObjectAcl to add your foothold user to Domain Admins—skip costly kernel hunts.

One-liner:
Invoke-ACLpwn -TargetDomain "corp.local" -User "lowpriv" -AddSelfTo "Domain Admins"

You’ll jump 20 points in minutes and reserve lab time for stand-alone boxes.

5 | Golden Ticket? Too Slow—Use RBCD Instead

Resource-Based Constrained Delegation (RBCD) needs no hash cracking and no DCsync. Create a computer object you control, set msDS-AllowedToActOnBehalfOfOtherIdentity, and trigger s4u2proxy. Boom: SYSTEM shell on any server in the delegation path.

How Cert Fast Pass Turns These Tips Into a Guaranteed Pass

OSCP⁺-accurate AD replica—our lab mirrors the 23-hour exam topology (one DC + two member servers).
Timed flag engine—auto-scores your pivot chain so you know when you’ve crossed 40 AD points.
One-to-one mentor calls—we review your BloodHound graphs, fix dead-end edges, and tighten report wording.
24 × 7 WhatsApp war-room—hit a Kerberos brick wall at 3 a.m.? Ping +1 512 710 5381 or +91 79734 89332 for instant triage.
Pay-After-You-Pass guarantee—zero upfront risk; tuition is due only after OffSec emails “You Passed!”

Already wondering which pentest credential comes next? See our side-by-side breakdown of OSCP, PNPT, and eCPPTv2 here: Best Pen-Testing Certification in 2025.

Next Steps—Secure Your Retake Win

DM “OSCP PIVOT” on WhatsApp for a free 30-question AD practice pack.
Book a 15-minute roadmap call—we’ll align your mock schedule with work shifts.
Hit 80 % on our timed lab; we green-light your retake and stay on standby until the flag submit button clicks green.

Upskill smarter. Pass faster. Negotiate higher—with Cert Fast Pass.

Cert Fast Pass