Over The Wire - Bandit - Level 03#

Level Goal#

The password for the next level is stored in a file called --spaces in this filename-- located in the home directory

Commands you may need to solve this level#

ls , cd , cat , file , du , find

Steps#

This one is similar to the previous level (level 2), but in this case the special character is the space character. Normally the space after calling a program is a separator of arguments. So, let’s use an example with cat:

cat file.txt

So in this case we have the program cat and an argument expected separated by a space, a file named file.txt.

Reading a file with space in the name cause confusion to the console, it can’t separate what is an space and what is an argument. To make it work we, surprisingly, have two ways to read the file.

Quotes#

We can use quotes or double quotes around the path, so space is inside quotes and arguments is inside the quotes. It will be something like:

cat < "--spaces in this filename--"

(The < is necessary, since - is also a special character)

Backslash#

Backslash is also an special character, but it’s used to “Escape a Character”, making a space be read as a space and not a separator. It will be something like:

cat < --spaces\ in\ this\ filename--

So every space in the path should be replaced with backslash+space. With this, the answer to the next level is revealed.