{"slug": "solving-hack-the-box-challenges-with-grok-4-6", "title": "Solving Hack the Box Challenges with Grok 4.6", "summary": "XAI's Grok 4.6 achieved an 80% benchmark score on the HTB-Challenger Benchmark, solving 14 of 16 Hack The Box challenges with zero false positives, surpassing all previously tested models in both speed and cost. The model, released today, completed challenges in a median of 14 steps and $0.23 per challenge, with a total cost of $17.31 across 16 challenges. The author, who previously called an older version 'useless', now regards Grok 4.6 as the best model tested on offensive-security challenges.", "body_md": "# Solving Hack The Box Challenges with Grok 4.6\n\nWhen I tested an older version of Grok [this spring](/2026/04/14/agentic-ai-pentesting-with-strix-results-from-18-llm-models.html), my only comment was blunt: “grok-4.20 was useless.” So when Grok 4.5 was released a month ago and started receiving very positive reviews, I was quite surprised.\n\nToday, Grok 4.6 was released and I’ve finally had a chance to test it against HTB challenges, and the team behind it deserves an apology. I’m not sure what the folks at xAI did, but the performance increase over the older version is jaw-dropping.\n\nThis blog post is part of a series of tests for the HTB-Challenger Benchmark. See the\n\n[benchmark results page]for all results and the[benchmark methodology]to learn how the benchmark is calculated.\n\nDuring my testing, I watched this model crack one HTB challenge after another in a steady, confident way, and the final boss fight against the last two challenges was exhilarating, even though it was ultimately unsuccessful. In the end, with a 80% score, it’s the undisputed new king of my leaderboard - not only because of its results, but also because of its speed (it had the fewest steps per challenge of all the models I’ve tested so far) and cost. Look at the **Cost vs. Benchmark Score** graph on the [HTB-Challenger Benchmark](/htb-challenger-benchmark) page to see what I mean.\n\nSo let’s forget that useless old version. For me, **Grok 4.6** is currently the best model I’ve tested on offensive-security challenges.\n\n## Overall benchmark results\n\n**Number of challenges:** 16**Number of solved challenges:** 14**Number of false positives:** 0**Runs where the model gave up:** 0**Runs that reached the step or cost limit:** 2**Runs where the model got stuck:** 0**Benchmark score:** 80.0%\n\n| Metric | Per challenge (median) | Total |\n|---|---|---|\n| Model steps | 14 | 452 |\n| Model cost | $0.23 | $17.31 |\n| Duration | 00:03:38 | 02:45:35 |\n| Number of input tokens | 0.23M | 20.29M |\n| Number of output tokens | 0.01M | 0.47M |\nNumber of `read_file` tool calls |\n1.0 | 41 |\nNumber of `write_file` tool calls |\n0.0 | 35 |\nNumber of `execute_command` tool calls |\n10.0 | 403 |\nNumber of `web_search` tool calls |\n0.0 | 15 |\n\n## Results by challenge difficulty\n\n### Very Easy challenges\n\n**Number of challenges:** 4**Number of solved challenges:** 4**Number of false positives:** 0**Runs where the model gave up:** 0**Runs that reached the step or cost limit:** 0**Runs where the model got stuck:** 0**Benchmark score:** 100.0%\n\n| Metric | Per challenge (median) | Total |\n|---|---|---|\n| Model steps | 11.5 | 50 |\n| Model cost | $0.10 | $0.96 |\n| Duration | 00:01:26 | 00:09:26 |\n| Number of input tokens | 0.10M | 1.05M |\n| Number of output tokens | 0.00M | 0.03M |\nNumber of `read_file` tool calls |\n0.5 | 8 |\nNumber of `write_file` tool calls |\n0.0 | 1 |\nNumber of `execute_command` tool calls |\n9.0 | 42 |\nNumber of `web_search` tool calls |\n0.5 | 4 |\n\n### Easy challenges\n\n**Number of challenges:** 4**Number of solved challenges:** 4**Number of false positives:** 0**Runs where the model gave up:** 0**Runs that reached the step or cost limit:** 0**Runs where the model got stuck:** 0**Benchmark score:** 100.0%\n\n| Metric | Per challenge (median) | Total |\n|---|---|---|\n| Model steps | 11.5 | 43 |\n| Model cost | $0.14 | $0.58 |\n| Duration | 00:03:00 | 00:12:29 |\n| Number of input tokens | 0.12M | 0.51M |\n| Number of output tokens | 0.01M | 0.03M |\nNumber of `read_file` tool calls |\n1.0 | 4 |\nNumber of `write_file` tool calls |\n2.0 | 8 |\nNumber of `execute_command` tool calls |\n8.0 | 30 |\nNumber of `web_search` tool calls |\n0.5 | 3 |\n\n### Medium challenges\n\n**Number of challenges:** 4**Number of solved challenges:** 4**Number of false positives:** 0**Runs where the model gave up:** 0**Runs that reached the step or cost limit:** 0**Runs where the model got stuck:** 0**Benchmark score:** 100.0%\n\n| Metric | Per challenge (median) | Total |\n|---|---|---|\n| Model steps | 19 | 106 |\n| Model cost | $0.58 | $3.98 |\n| Duration | 00:09:39 | 00:45:15 |\n| Number of input tokens | 0.61M | 4.50M |\n| Number of output tokens | 0.02M | 0.11M |\nNumber of `read_file` tool calls |\n0.0 | 4 |\nNumber of `write_file` tool calls |\n0.5 | 6 |\nNumber of `execute_command` tool calls |\n16.5 | 102 |\nNumber of `web_search` tool calls |\n0.0 | 0 |\n\n### Hard challenges\n\n**Number of challenges:** 4**Number of solved challenges:** 2**Number of false positives:** 0**Runs where the model gave up:** 0**Runs that reached the step or cost limit:** 2**Runs where the model got stuck:** 0**Benchmark score:** 50.0%\n\n| Metric | Per challenge (median) | Total |\n|---|---|---|\n| Model steps | 63.5 | 253 |\n| Model cost | $2.89 | $11.79 |\n| Duration | 00:24:56 | 01:38:25 |\n| Number of input tokens | 3.50M | 14.23M |\n| Number of output tokens | 0.08M | 0.31M |\nNumber of `read_file` tool calls |\n4.5 | 25 |\nNumber of `write_file` tool calls |\n1.0 | 20 |\nNumber of `execute_command` tool calls |\n55.0 | 229 |\nNumber of `web_search` tool calls |\n1.0 | 8 |", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/solving-hack-the-box-challenges-with-grok-4-6", "canonical_source": "https://theaq.blog/2026/08/12/solving-htb-challenges-with-x-ai-grok-4.6.html", "published_at": "2026-08-12 20:43:34+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-12 21:14:40.445806+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "ai-research", "ai-products"], "entities": ["xAI", "Grok 4.6", "Hack The Box", "HTB-Challenger Benchmark"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/solving-hack-the-box-challenges-with-grok-4-6", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/solving-hack-the-box-challenges-with-grok-4-6.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/solving-hack-the-box-challenges-with-grok-4-6.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/solving-hack-the-box-challenges-with-grok-4-6.jsonld"}}