Hint for TartarSauce!

You stole my words @sazouki xD

ready… steady… goo &&
:rootdance:

Would anyone be willing to give me some hints regarding obtaining a root shell?

I already have the root flag from exploiting the “differences” generated by a certain program. That same exploit lets me read files with root privileges, but due to the “time limit” involved, it’s not very practical to go snooping through every single file I wouldn’t normally have access to, nor am I sure that it’s even the right course of action.

That’s what I’m doing at the moment, though. Slowly but surely.

I spent a little time attempting to decode a certain file with odd characters in its name, but that was fruitless. It seems like just another rabbit hole.

Am I on the right track with either of these or am I overlooking something else?

Edit: I’ve also tried cracking the hashes from the shadow file with no luck.

This initial foothold makes me tar tar tar…owno cry cry cry. Who xxan nudge me in the right direction via PM

much appreciated

Update: Got a root shell after someone pointed out something very obvious that I was missing. Awesome box. Very realistic and challenging, as others have said.

The hints in this thread are all on point. The biggest problem everyone has with this box (including me) is overthinking things and going down rabbit holes. Everything you need is right in front of your face.

My hint for everyone else: If you’ve managed to get the root flag, you’ve ALREADY experimented with everything you need to pop a shell! Pay attention!

Don’t be a retartar!

@opt1kz said:
Update: Got a root shell after someone pointed out something very obvious that I was missing. Awesome box. Very realistic and challenging, as others have said.

The hints in this thread are all on point. The biggest problem everyone has with this box (including me) is overthinking things and going down rabbit holes. Everything you need is right in front of your face.

My hint for everyone else: If you’ve managed to get the root flag, you’ve ALREADY experimented with everything you need to pop a shell! Pay attention!

Don’t be a retartar!

As a non native eng;lish speaker I figured googling the retartar was a good way to get some directions regarding initial foothold.

Gives me the following:

An individual who has mental retardation. This defers from the term retarded as one who is retar-tar is retarded to the exent of homosexuality
(“Yo I fucked a guy by accident”
“Thats retarded”
“Nah bro its gay, so its retar-tar”)
(“If you relax your ■■■-■■■ then you arch-arch”
“Thats retar-tar”)
(“Yo I just got some of my nut in my mouth, it was pretty retar-tar”)

So…I’m still open for some initial foothold nudges :slight_smile:

@drmz said:
As a non native eng;lish speaker I figured googling the retartar was a good way to get some directions regarding initial foothold.

Gives me the following:

An individual who has mental retardation. This defers from the term retarded as one who is retar-tar is retarded to the exent of homosexuality
(“Yo I fucked a guy by accident”
“Thats retarded”
“Nah bro its gay, so its retar-tar”)
(“If you relax your ■■■-■■■ then you arch-arch”
“Thats retar-tar”)
(“Yo I just got some of my nut in my mouth, it was pretty retar-tar”)

So…I’m still open for some initial foothold nudges :slight_smile:

■■■■! I’m so sorry. No, that’s not AT ALL what “retartar” is referring to…

It’s a play on/combination of common words. Think more along the lines of Linux/BSD, less along the lines of… That.

Look what you’re doing to people @3mrgnc3

got a shell to the system but no user.txt yet. Need some advice on how to proceed since i’m not sure. Pm’s welcome

I will say this machine was fun but not fun… It was a roller coaster ride from initial foothold to root.txt to root shell… Great work to the creators of it @3mrgnc3 and thanks to the folks who gave me great hints…

In this box, the first thing is to change the role of admin to Editor, then the other is a piece of cake!

I ? in that I am :slight_smile:

Stuck on getting root, can someone give me a nudge, if needed DM me

@rlfonseca same.

Stuck on getting initial foothold. Found other app, and some things related to it (not posting it here if it’s considered spoiling). Could someone give me a nudge? Any help much appreciated. DM welcome.

I got root flag whithout root shell.
Anybody knows how to get a shell ?

One small hint for the initial foothold from me: Do not always blindly trust your tools! I hate google, but sometimes it’s better to recheck some critical findings:)

As much as I hated this for the time it took, the clock watching element is probably pretty realistic :slight_smile: Good lab to learn, and work fast :+1:

That machine taught me a lot.
Specialy getting a root shell… Awesome.

Getting shell was not too realistic, changing some info to confuse scanners is something clever but strange. Getting root was fun, had a chance to practise python skills.

can someone pm me for initial steps ?

CAn someone PM for final priv esc, so close yet so far

nvm root