Bandit Level 9 -> Level 10

Level Goal

The password for the next level is stored in the file data.txt in one of the few human-readable strings, preceded by several ‘=’ characters.

Commands you may need to solve this level

grep, sort, uniq, strings, base64, tr, tar, gzip, bzip2, xxd

• `strings` is used to display the printable characters from files.

 

Write up

bandit9@bandit:~$ ls
data.txt
bandit9@bandit:~$ cat data.txt
P>1#w^)
a %b2ck7l1X8_#@5HXaP0ٿ֗#mB}hF4ڐc4s%5    P3%A<.d
|諭<k!G#rP23/        .4˒Pm!(Ys^1(QЕt~ ݰo8}"I2Ӥі-Er4].nqtg8Wq{$"M
~^u-omc]/ʔE0J9^.;64.3
,F~V~!3^rG~nxדSLșwC=Boeډ"̺56v1ky0G8\[oTIY.jJy+o"h2ՙ^$CT2!}GϏlESuce0,%>fH<ؒ{yW4o#JwaK=CzY@R|u`
\4"I+0{o砪"q킃@2Svb
%wMr_8C¯!/|S/FA݂R2A^K>7]]1lxZeߋWaB|��=$9u`}ǐ wx9s=,Ԇ
>a Jt{Vo|*^|^j)=O$<2fϲ\a!;========== theignEi"ǵa;'^rOVQ5FoT?r9񴂢 (e}7p{zyl:b`��/`ۀn}^2nġS{I/}I,WzD<> &iQ*Gca٤MewS nЪL2@FbFW4>^^TdjLBY+m_eh ξ5|.PWAF=16VA`
p)#Y[0uTN3A&؛+^Y9:ֻFjBJ2$> Քn;\Z`

01Si*y:v.BԄd"b9X;/^8@-hl?J.
......

 

There is a file where we need to find strings that appear next to several "=" characters. However, when we use the `cat` command to view the content, it contains many non-human-readable strings.

 

bandit9@bandit:~$ strings data.txt
#mB}hF
3%A<.
~^u-
0J9^
;64.3
,F~V
IY.j
T yb

 

Therefore, the `strings` command is ideal for this challenge, as it lets us view only the human-readable strings in the file.

 

bandit9@bandit:~$ strings data.txt  | grep "="
=aA"f
\a!;========== the
PWAF=1
         M),\}=
2Y6=
G';?e=
========== passwordf
========== isc
*=N6
m=</
E=Bty
=sw
"M1=
========== FGUW5ilLVJrxX9kMYMmlN4MgbpfMiqey
!&=u&4$
*XA=

 

There are a few possible options for the password: "the," "passwordf," "isc," and "FGU*." However, based on the patterns we've seen in OverTheWire, we can conclude that the last one is the correct password.

 

 

 

Next Level : Level 10 -> 11