Category: Security

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Hack Challenge Redo (part3)

We had a small break with our hacking challenges Redo. The format of the Meetup required a change, to accommodate for less experienced visitors. And as much as I love the SANS Institute Challenges, they tend to be quite a puzzle, especially later one. So for now, we are going to focus on couple other Hacking Challenges that are available online. And hopefully in December, when new 2022 SANS Hack Challenge starts, we will have a group ready to battle it together 🙂

Let’s start from Over the Wire. There are plenty games there, we will start with the Bandit, as most suitable to get used to the platform. Bandit offers 33 levels to play, it teaches Linux commands and tools. In each level your goal is identical, find a password to the next level, but let’s start from the beginning.

Over the Wire artwork

To play Bandit you will need to establish SSH connection to the Over the Wire lab server, all details of connection are given in Level 0.

So, what is SSH?

Secure Shell, sometimes referred to as Secure Socket Shell, is a protocol which allows you to connect securely to a remote computer or a server by using a text-based interface. When a secure SSH connection is established, a shell session will be started, and you will be able to manipulate the server by typing commands within the client on your local computer. System and network administrators use this protocol the most, as well as anyone who needs to manage a computer remotely in a highly secure manner.

How to use SSH on Windows?

Most common ways of using SSH on Windows is by using one of the clients. Most popular clients are: PuTTY, BitwiseSSH and OpenSSH. Windows 10 users have now the option to use build-in OpenSSH client. Just follow the installation details of your choose client.

How to use SSH on Mac?

Mac’s have build-in Terminal feature, that provides SSH client.

How do we do it on Linux?

That shouldn’t be a problem for any regular Linux users, but in case you are just starting with Linux. Go to your terminal and type:

ssh

This should list all ssh details and commands. If that’s not the case, just use the following command to install OpenSSH:

sudo apt-get install openssh-client

Full list of common SSH flags can be found here.

This should get everyone started and ready for this week challenge 🙂

One more thing, you may need to use Vim and couple Linux commands.

See you @ 5-7pm today @ our dedicated Discord channel.

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Holiday Hack Challenge Redo (part 2)

Hello Everyone, we are about to join in ranks to battle the SANS Holiday Hack Challenge tasks again, today on dedicated Discord server. Please use the Meetup page for more details, ongoing announcements.

This post will summaries last Meetup progress and provides clues for further steps.

Let’s start we the recap. We started with:

12 years of TOG – a perfect time to do some hacking 🙂

Followed shortly by:

12 years of TOG – Holiday Hack Challenge Redo (part 1)

On the 23rd of January Meetup we have completed following tasks:

  • Objective 1 – Uncover Santa’s Gift List – clues in blog post video above
  • Objective 2a – Kringle Kiosk – clues in blog post video above
  • Objective 2b – S3 bucket – clues give at a Discord were: update the wordlist and add the searched bucket name, use ‘cat’ command to inspect the bucket. Copy and inspect in CyberChef the file. Start unpacking and remember to pipe the output whenever needed.
  • Objective 3a – Linux Primer – no clues were needed 🙂
  • Objective 3b – Point-of-Sale Password Recovery – clues give at a Discord were: download the package, no need to install the shop. Unpack the exe file, and poke around until you find app.asar and use 7zip to open Asar file.

Later today, 5-7pm GMT we will be focusing on following tasks:

  • all unfinished past tasks
  • Objective 4a – Unescape Tmux – no help needed
  • Objective 4b – Santavator operations – no help needed
  • Objective 5a – Speaker UNPrep – first clue: ‘strings door’ with some filters, more clues @Discord
  • Objective 5b – 5b: 33 Gkbps – no help needed
  • Objective 5c – Open the HID lock in the Workshop – no help needed
  • Objective 6a – Regex Toy Sorting – we will battle it together @Discord
  • Objective 6b – Splunk Challenge – clue: look for Bro.

See you later at Discord.

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12 years of TOG – Holiday Hack Challenge Redo (part 1)

So, as promised we are going to start SANS Holiday Hack Challenge Redo run by Counter Hack Team. We will start with the latest 2020 challenge . You will need a valid email to create user account, which is instant. You can start straight away on your own or watch a couple helpful videos.

The first video that I would like talk about, it’s Ed Skoudis 2020 Hack Challenge Intro. Video is a great overview of this year challenge.

Second video is aimed at Hack Challenge first timers, it’s walk through the login page and the starting interface.

And don’t forget to join discussion later today at a dedicated Discord Channel https://discord.gg/MqCQkSzG. We start at 5pm today 🙂

This month we are going to focus on 2 objectives.

To help with starting the first objective you can watch this video:

Or read this article with helpful techniques. The online photo editor can be found here.

Watch the video below for the start of the second objective overview:

See you at Discord after 5pm GMT today, we will try to finish Objectives 1 &2 together.

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12 years of TOG – a perfect time to do some hacking :-)

For the last five years I was getting more and more anxious the closer it was till the end of the year. Why so? The answer is very simple – the SANS Hack Challenge (https://holidayhackchallenge.com/2020/index.html) run online by Counter Hack Team (https://www.counterhack.com/expert-pen-testers). I have learnt plenty and had an immeasurable amount of fun while solving hacking challenges. This winter I found myself helping others with their tasks by giving hints and I discovered that I have learnt even more. The best part was seeing others to grow and to learn how to beat the tasks.

Unfortunately, SANS hack challenge is only once a year and I didn’t always managed to find enough spare time to solve all the puzzles. Luckily, there is a way to fix that.

So, this year to celebrate 12th birthday of Tog, there will be a pleasant surprise. A walk through a past SANS Holiday Challenges. We will start on the 23rd of January, all info will be posted online. So, keep an eye on our website and reserve time between 5 pm and 7 pm on the day to join the discussion on a dedicated Discord channel https://discord.gg/322Kw4bkQK.

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Announcing Cyber Night

TOG is holding a Cyber Security evening starting 23rd August 2017 and every 2 weeks thereafter. This is an open night for people to work on projects, or study, cybersecurity / information security topics. You should have some understanding of the topic and must bring your own laptop to take part. The event is a shared study session, not a class.
Some ‘cyber’ resources are available – we have a dedicated pen test box for you to hone your skills against including Bricks, Security Shepherd and more.
We will do our best to point attendees in the right direction, but it will be expected that people will be comfortable with finding out information on their own – either with the books on hand, or search engine.
The event starts at 7pm and ends at 10pm. Note the space will be members only before 7pm.