Hack The Box Platform Redesign Beta Release

7 Jul 2020

And the makeover continues.

April 1st, 2017: The first public day of the Hack The Box platform. The founding team (ch4p, azik, g0blin), just a few friends, 2 labs, and millions of hacking hours ahead.

July 3rd, 2020: We are getting a new face. A platform UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) redesign that we hope will make your hacking hours more productive, more engaging, and more fun.

We are proud to announce the beta release of the new Hack The Box platform. This beta release will be developed in increments with our first release focusing on the main pages of our platform which include Machines, Challenges and the User Profile. Our developers have been hard at work, creating a platform that provides a seamless gamified experience for all of our users. We hope you like it :)

The new Hack The Box design is available for everybody through the left sidebar menu as well as on the user dropdown on the top right corner.

Discover the New Platform

Want a proper walkthrough? Sit tight and read below the list of new features we have implemented.

Retractable Side Nav Menu

The menu options are now cleaned up. We no longer have huge lists inside of the Labs navigation menus, just a simple and straightforward direct link to the respective pages in which all the content is readily available. The rest of our navigation will be included after every new release.

The side navigation menu is also retractable by hovering over it’s edge.

User Profile Dashboard

After receiving plenty of feedback from the community, we have entirely revamped the User Profile page to better fit your needs.

You may now add a short (500 characters) description about yourself. Tell the community who you are!
You may now add social media handles to your profile: GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter, Website.
New badges have been added for each rank - from Noob up to Omniscient - which are now displayed on your profile.
Added cards that give you a better overview of your points, respect, owns and rankings.
Your profile progress chart (User Owns, System Owns, Challenge Owns, First Bloods, Respect) has been revamped so that you may filter between different timeframes (1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year) and have a better visual representation of your accomplishments.
Dedicated radar charts for Machines and Challenges. These charts compare your current standing in relation to the rest of Hack The Box players.
Progress bars that display your proficiency level in different Operating Systems and Challenge Categories.
Revamped Pro Labs cards that display your progress if you have started a Pro Lab.
Your Activity Timeline is now in it’s own tab so you can easily check your daily activity on Hack The Box.

Global Search

Get access to the entire Hack The Box platform at a click of a button. Search for Machines, Challenges, Players and Teams in our new global search component. Use search tags such as machine:, challenge:, user:, team: and more to refine your query. We store your search history for quick access to past pages.

Machine Access

Connecting to Machines has gotten a whole lot easier. You are now able to interact directly on the Machine list page to switch your Access and Server settings. Simply select your access type from either free, VIP or Pwnbox (coming soon).

After selecting your Lab, you may choose from the dropdown list, which server you would like to play in. You may now connect to the same server as your friends to tackle Machines together. Finally, you are able to download the connection pack and regenerate it when needed. VIP members continue having exclusive Labs.

Machine Featured Cards

The Machine list now features two rotating Machine cards. These are used as up front promotional cards for upcoming releases, retiring Machines as well as hand picked Machines by our team. Upcoming Machine releases include a countdown timer so you are ready to take on that first blood.

Machine List

Improvements we hope you enjoy:

Bigger and more prominent Machine avatars displaying their respective Operating System.
Once you select to play a Machine, it is now set to active and is pinned to the top of your list.
An improved, dynamic difficulty chart.
Easily accessible search function to locate a specific Machine within active or retired Machines.
Straightforward separation between active and retired Machines through a tab system. Within the retired Machines tab, there is now a clear separation between free and VIP Machines through expandable containers.
Machine card suggestions for retired Machines for our VIP players. Some of these include the most popular and staff picked Machines which are rotating constantly.
A Machine To-Do List tab has been added.

Machine/Challenge Multi-Tag Filtering & Advanced Search

A more advanced filtering system has been implemented to refine your search for that next pwnable Machine or Challenge.

You are now able to filter Machines between:

Machine Status (Complete, Incomplete, Both)
Sort By (Release Date, Name, User Owns, System Owns, Rating, User Difficulty)
Difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane)
Operating System (Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Other).

And, you are now able to filter Challenges between:

Challenge Status (Complete, Incomplete, Both)
Sort By (Release Date, Name, User Solves, Likes, Dislikes, Points, User Difficulty)
Difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane)
Categories (Reversing, Misc, Stego, Crypto, Web, Forensics, OSINT, Pwn, Mobile, Hardware).

Our VIP members can now utilize an Advanced Search Multi-Tag Filtering System on retired Machines to filter through over 60 tags. Choose from Attack Path, Attack Sub and Programming Languages. Now, it’s easier than ever to find the next retired Machine you want to hack!

Challenge List

Here is what’s new:

Challenge categories are now all displayed on a single page with the ability to filter by category.
Icons have been created to better depict each Challenge category.
Easily accessible search function to locate a specific challenge.
Clear and straightforward separation between active and retired Challenges through a tab system.
Challenge card suggestions have been included at the top of the page: new, most popular and staff picked, all rotating constantly.
A Challenge To-Do List tab has been added.

Machine/Challenge Sidebar

View Machine and Challenge details in a flash! Play both directly through the sidebar or navigate to their respective profile pages to view more details like activity, reviews, change-log, walkthroughs and statistics.

User experience when playing Machines is also improved. Now, all users will go through the flow of playing a Machine so we are able to account for the amount of users on a specific Machine as well as pushing the proper Machine notifications to you, so you never miss that Machine reset.

Now, it’s more clear which actions you need to take before starting a new Machine (e.g. join Machine or add to To-Do List) and after starting it (e.g. submitting a flag, resetting the Machine, extending its termination time, etc.).
Easily copy your Machine’s IP address to your clipboard.
Resetting a Machine will offer all users connected to it a popup message requesting that they accept or decline the Machine reset. A more democratic voting approach, hope you like it.
Easily extend a Machine's termination time.
Responsive flag submissions with sliders and feedback if you have gotten first blood, or submitted a correct/wrong flag.
Easily add the Machine to your To-Do List.
Review a Machine with ease, your review will now show up on the Machine’s profile page in which other users can mark as helpful or not.
Respect the Machine/Challenge creator directly from the sidebar.
A direct link to a Forum thread for all Machines is now included in the sidebar so you can easily join the discussion and ask questions.

Pinned-To-Top Active Machine

Your currently active Machine now gets pinned to the top navigation bar so you are always aware of what's going on. Simply click on the avatar to navigate to the Machine’s profile page.

Machine/Challenge Profile Pages

Many improvements have been made on the Machine and Challenge profile pages after listening to our community. Machines and Challenges now have separate tabs to better showcase content.

Machine Tabs: Information, Statistics, Activity, Changelog, Review, Walkthroughs. Last two tabs are available only for Retired Machines.
Challenge Tabs: Information, Activity.
On the “Information” tab, users can see all the relevant information pertaining to Machine and Challenge analytics. The Machine/Challenge creator, their progress, who owned bloods and the top 25 players to own this Machine/Challenge.
The “Activity” tab reveals recent Machine/Challenge activity including last owns, resets, bloods, etc.
For Machines:

The “Statistics” tab reveals other kinds of stats like the Machine Matrix, Difficulty Rating, Activity.
The “Changelog” tab reveals any changes, bugs, updates that have been made to a Machine.
The “Review” tab bundles up all the user reviews for Machines and creates an average rating. Other users can mark a review as helpful which makes it move up the list.
You can now find an exclusive “Walkthroughs” tab which has been revamped entirely. On top of the page, you can find the Hack The Box Write-up along with the official Video Walkthrough. On the bottom section, there is an expandable panel where you can see user-submitted reviews, now filtered by languages and ratings which are established by the community.

Notifications & Snackbars

Improvements have been made to general platform notifications and snackbars related to Machines and Challenges.

Successful Machine/Challenge PWN Popup

Hack The Box now supplies you with visual feedback when you have pwned a Machine’s or Challenge’s user and system flag. Users will receive a popup with stats pertaining to their achievement. And the best part? That popup can be shared directly to social media platforms.

Platform Knowledge Base

Finally! All Frequently Asked Questions and Guided Articles in one place. This is only the beginning as we will be enriching the content of our Knowledge Base as we enrich the HTB platform with new features and advanced functionality. Hope you find it helpful and valuable! Discover it here: help.hackthebox.eu

That’s it! But just for today. We hope you like this new look and feel along with all the features we added after collecting the most precious community feedback.