Bandit [Level 12] - Overthewire

ssh bandit12@bandit.labs.overthewire.org -p 2220
bandit password: JVNBBFSmZwKKOP0XbFXOoW8chDz5yVRv

Task

The password for the next level is stored in the file data.txt, which is a hexdump of a file that has been repeatedly compressed. For this level it may be useful to create a directory under /tmp in which you can work using mkdir. For example: mkdir /tmp/myname123. Then copy the datafile using cp, and rename it using mv (read the manpages!)

Solution

Create folder under the tmp directory

mkdir /tmp/idk

Copy file data.txt to folder created

cp data.txt /tmp/idk

Decypher the hexdump file

xxd -r data.txt > bandit

check file bandit –> gzip so using gunzip –> bandit: gzip compressed data, was “data2.bin”, last modified: Sun Apr 23 18:04:23 2023, max compression, from Unix, original size modulo 2^32 581

gunzip bandit.gz

check file bandit –> bzip2 so mv file to bzip after unzip file –> bandit: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k

mv bandit bandit.bz2
bzip2 -d bandit.bz2

now checking file bandit ==> bandit: gzip compressed data, was "data4.bin", last modified: Sun Apr 23 18:04:23 2023, max compression, from Unix, original size modulo 2^32 20480

mv bandit bandit.gz
gunzip bandit.gz

Now i have file bandit with bandit: POSIX tar archive (GNU)

mv bandit bandit.tar
tar -xf bandit.tar

And i see data5.bin: POSIX tar archive (GNU) but still format tar so i need change it

mv data5.bin data5.tar
tar -xf data5.tar

Now check file data6.bin i see data6.bin: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k

mv data6.bin data6.bz2
bzip2 -d data6.bz2

And output ==> data6: POSIX tar archive (GNU) via format tar

mv data6 data6.tar
tar -xf data6.tar

Now data8.bin: gzip compressed data, was "data9.bin", last modified: Sun Apr 23 18:04:23 2023, max compression, from Unix, original size modulo 2^32 49

mv data8.bin data8.gz
gunzip  data8.gz

Now i look that the data contained ASCII text meaning we finally reached the end of the layers of compression ^^ data8: ASCII text

cat data8
==> The password is wbWdlBxEir4CaE8LaPhauuOo6pwRmrDw

==> CTF: { wbWdlBxEir4CaE8LaPhauuOo6pwRmrDw }