# How to find HackTheBox writeups **URL:** \ **Category:** Discussion & Solutions\ **Tags:** solved\ **Created:** [June 14, 2026, 1:02pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-to-find-hackthebox-writeups/323058 "2026-06-14T13:02:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stick\_Chick](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/stick_chick/32/154033_2.png) [@Stick\_Chick](https://onehack.st/u/Stick_Chick)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2026, 1:02pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-to-find-hackthebox-writeups/323058/1 "2026-06-14T13:02:02Z")
Anyone know where we can find writeups of machines that haven’t retired? ---
**Author:** ![SRZ](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/srz/32/146132_2.png) [@SRZ](https://onehack.st/u/SRZ)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-to-find-hackthebox-writeups/323058/2 "2026-06-14T15:30:33Z")
Here’s the thing nobody says out loud: those writeups you want (the full play-by-play of how someone beat a machine) **already exist, in full, right this second** — even for boxes still **active** (live, not retired yet). Nothing’s missing. Someone just flipped a switch to hide the pointer, and switches flip back. ![image](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/d/d/ddff10e1e2d6e28317e402117bba153d1c182630.jpeg) ### Three ways to flip it, and one of 'em literally opens the door the moment _you_ win. Grab these. 👇 > **🔓 The lock that opens FOR you, not against you** > > The big community stashes — top one’s the **[Hackplayers repo](https://github.com/Hackplayers/hackthebox-writeups)** — are stuffed with active-machine writeups. Everyone goes _“password-protected, damn, useless.”_ > > Here’s what they don’t tell you: **the password is the box’s own admin hash** (the scrambled form of the password) — the thing you yank out yourself when you **root it** (get full god-mode control). > > So the lock only locks out people who _haven’t_ beaten the box. The second you win, you’re holding the key. Boom — every writeup for that machine springs open. It locks the people who don’t need it and opens for the people who do. Backwards, in your favour, and 100% allowed. Whole scheme’s spelled out by the community [in this thread](https://forum.hackthebox.com/t/so-how-do-we-protect-write-ups-now/2389) if you want proof. > > > 💡 PDF won’t open before you’ve rooted it? That’s it working as designed, not broken. Roll to the next chapters — that’s their whole job. > **⏳ The switch they hope you never find** > > Everyone thinks a box is either **active** (locked) or **retired** (open). There’s a third setting they bury. > > Straight from [HTB’s own rulebook](https://help.hackthebox.com/en/articles/5188925-streaming-writeups-walkthrough-guidelines): a box can be active **AND “expired.”** Expired = it stopped counting for season points, but hasn’t retired. > > Why that’s gold: people only guard a box while it’s worth points. Points gone = guard drops. The writeups start spilling out **weeks** early instead of you waiting the long-ass months till full retirement. > > The move: check if your box went expired yet. If yes — search ` hackthebox writeup 2026` and watch it appear. You just skipped the whole wait off one word. 😎 > **🌍 The blogs that tell the takedown letters to get lost** > > The hide-it switch is a **takedown notice** (a legal “delete this” letter) — and a letter like that has borders. It can’t reach a server in another country. So the stuff that gets scrubbed off English sites just… sits there, wide open, somewhere else: > > - 🇪🇸 **[albertoestrada.es](https://albertoestrada.es/hacking/write-up/hack-the-box/)** — Spanish, full walkthroughs posted _while the box was live_. > - 🇮🇩 **[joelindra.id](https://joelindra.id/hackthebox-editor/)** — Indonesian, full scripts, fresh boxes. > - 🇷🇺 **[habr.com](https://habr.com/en/articles/923612/comments)** — Russian, active-box walkthroughs out in the open, comments and all. > - Fresh ones slip onto Medium too — like [this one](https://medium.com/@0xmaverick/hack-the-box-tompwatcher-machine-dacl-gmsa-targetkerberoasting-esc15-91bc359615a3) with the entire chain laid out. > > Can’t read the language? Your browser translates it in one click — and the actual commands look the same in every language anyway. > **🛰️ The room where it happens first** > > Straight with you on this one. Before any writeup hits a blog, the real solving goes down **live, together, in private team chats** while the box is hot. That’s the source — where the method shows up before anywhere else. > > The snag: those rooms are invite-only and unsearchable on purpose. So I won’t fake you a link — but now you know the river starts there. Land in a good team server someday and you’ve got a front-row seat. 🎟 > **🔍 The two-second search I actually run** > > No fancy tools. This is the lazy combo, every time: > > ` hackthebox writeup 2026` > > English dries up 'cause the box is too fresh? I swap one word and the foreign blogs pour out: > > - ` hackthebox solución` _(Spanish)_ > - ` hackthebox прохождение` _(Russian)_ > - ` hackthebox walkthrough bahasa` _(Indonesian)_ > > > 💡 Got me once: searched English, got nothing, figured it didn’t exist. Switched to the Spanish word — full writeup was sitting there the whole time. English-only is the trap. Always try one more language before you tap out. > **🛡️ The trap that feels exactly like winning** > > Real talk, 'cause the long-timers all say it: reaching for writeups too early quietly rots your skills. > > There’s a [painfully honest post](https://robertscocca.medium.com/avoiding-common-oscp-pitfalls-d2dd929fdb03) from a guy whose loop became _get stuck → grab hint → win._ Felt amazing. Then came an exam with no hints, and his whole process shrank to just _“get stuck.”_ Done. > > The fix that keeps the fun: crack these open when you’re truly jammed and want to _learn_ the trick — not to dodge the fight. Struggle first, then peek. Now the writeup teaches you something instead of doing your push-ups for you. 💪 * * * **Simple-pimple, all of it in one breath:** none of this is missing — the protected writeups pop the _instant you root the box_, the buried word **“expired”** hands you the rest _weeks_ before retirement, and if it’s brand-new, a one-word language swap (`solución`, `прохождение`) drops the foreign blogs that never cared about the letters. The content was always there. You just got the keys. 🔑🔥 ---
**Author:** ![Stick\_Chick](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/stick_chick/32/154033_2.png) [@Stick\_Chick](https://onehack.st/u/Stick_Chick)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-to-find-hackthebox-writeups/323058/3 "2026-06-14T17:03:24Z")
Thanks for the great share! I’m gonna be spending hours on those writeups. Is there any way we can get writeups for machines that still do count season points? ---
**Author:** ![SRZ](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/srz/32/146132_2.png) [@SRZ](https://onehack.st/u/SRZ)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 12:21am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-to-find-hackthebox-writeups/323058/4 "2026-06-15T00:21:03Z")
Glad it helped! Straight truth: that window is exactly **7 days** , and HTB [defines an active box](https://help.hackthebox.com/en/articles/5185158-introduction-to-htb-labs) as one with _no public writeup_ — so a clean one mid-week doesn’t exist by design (anyone selling “fresh writeups” = scam 🚩). But there are [two scoreboards](https://help.hackthebox.com/en/articles/7041927-introduction-to-htb-seasons): **Leaderboard** = pure speed (a writeup can’t win that), **Tiers** = just flags you submit, speed-blind — so jump in the **[Release Arena](https://www.hackthebox.com/blog/HTB-Season-8-Depths)** (live Sat→Wed) + grab a release-day stream to get unstuck _inside_ the 7 days and still bank the points + climb your tier. And the second those 7 days expire it’s “[expired](https://help.hackthebox.com/en/articles/5188925-streaming-writeups-walkthrough-guidelines)” — every trick from the first post (locked PDFs, foreign blogs, the language-swap searches) floods wide open. One-week timer, not a wall. ⏳🔥