My secure network sandbox for practicing hacking skills and learning in a safe virtual machine environment is a custom-built lab designed to simulate real-world penetration testing scenarios. The lab includes an Active Directory (AD) environment along with intentionally vulnerable Windows and Linux machines, providing a comprehensive platform for honing offensive security techniques. By setting up a controlled AD infrastructure, I am able to practice privilege escalation, lateral movement, and domain compromise strategies commonly encountered in enterprise environments. The vulnerable machines mimic common misconfigurations and security flaws, allowing me to experiment with a variety of attack vectors and develop remediation techniques. This hands-on experience has been invaluable in refining my skills in both network and system-level exploitation while ensuring all testing is performed in a safe, isolated environment.