Rooted! Thanks @thek for the great machine who’s user (then eventually root) got me my Pro Hacker rank! Achievement get!
Honestly, this was a good machine to learn enumeration skills. I found this took a lot longer than it should have for me because I messed up (and then didn’t notice or retry until way later) some basic enumeration commands. Oh well!
Hints for all:
User: See a name you don’t recognize? Google it! Then, read through strings and strings of data until you find the right stuff.
User2: Search again with your new knowledge, and continue upwards from there. Now you have all the power… be the change that you want to see in the world.
Root: Some people here would say RTFM (which you should), but honestly I just played around with it until I noticed a pattern. Try it out, make it work.
Feel free to PM me for any hints or nudges! Always happy to help.