overthewire-writeups

Bandit03 -> 04: Hiding From You

Challenge

Level Description

The password for the next level is stored in a hidden file in the inhere directory. Like a digital game of hide-and-seek, you need to find where it’s tucked away!

The Process

After logging in, I navigated into the inhere directory. I tried using the basic ls command, but to my surprise, the directory looked empty!

In Linux, files that start with a dot . are considered hidden. They don’t show up with a regular list command. To see these “ghost” files, I had to use the -a (all) flag with ls.

Here is the sequence I used:

$ cd inhere
$ ls -a

Bingo! A file named .hidden appeared. I then used cat to read it:

$ cat .hidden

The password revealed itself immediately. Hide-and-seek over!

Password For the Next Level

[SPOILER]

What I Learned

Helpful Reading Material