I am not a professional pentester or something these are just the things that I have learned while doing Vulnerable VMs from websites like Vulnhub, HackTheBox, TryHackMe etc.
If you have downloaded the VM from Website like Vulnhub or any other website then make sure you run it in host-only
mode. Even though Vulnhub can be super trusted but still it's good to be paranoid.
Most of the VM with bridged
as their default network setting.
Also if you want to be super paranoid then go for NAT setting but I've had issues with some VMs in NAT
network setting.
Enumeration is the Key but only till a certain level. Lot of times the way is too guessy, too CTF type and that point enumeration
doesn't help at all. So if you have done the basics of enumeration like for HTTP service fuzzing, dirsearch etc then don't worry it's totally okay to ask for a damn hint.
Always take a good look of what you've found
php file type can be bypassed by php5
If in a file upload the output is shown meaning it's processing the upload
exploit it with command injection in filename like "shell.txt;id"
Change Static IP
sudo ifconfig vmnet1 10.10.10.11 netmask 255.255.255.0
VMware /dev/vmmon not loaded
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
Fix the issue of vmware modprobe error
If cracking password for kdbx takes longer time then try finding a key file for it.
For git repos always check out the git logs
If for some reason dirsearch or gobuster doesn't work on any URL or if they show every URL as the right try to use wfuzz
wfuzz -c -w wordlist --hw 12 --hc 400 URL