Over The Wire - Bandit - Level 19#

Level Goal#

The password for the next level is stored in a file readme in the home directory. Unfortunately, someone has modified .bashrc to log you out when you log in with SSH.

Commands you may need to solve this level#

ssh, ls, cat

Steps#

This challenge kick you out just after you connect with the bandit18 user, the .bashrc initializes a script that prints the text “Byebye!” and disconnects you.

The way to solve this is to inject a command through ssh before it kicks you. Fortunately, the ssh command accepts a injected command inside the connection sequence. It’s something like this:

ssh bandit.labs.overthewire.org -p 2220 -l bandit18 "cat ~/readme"

The "cat ~/readme" is a common command for the console, and it will run just after the connection was completed. In the case we want to read the content of the file readme.

Just with that, the password for the next level is revealed.