Bandit Level 12 Level 13

Introduction

Greetings, As we step into Level 12 of the Bandit wargame, we're faced with a unique challenge involving data manipulation and repeated compression. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and dive into the intricate world of command-line operations.

Steps

Before we embark on our journey, make sure you've successfully acquired the password for the previous level: JVNBBFSmZwKKOP0XbFXOoW8chDz5yVRv.

1. Creating a Workspace: Begin by creating a temporary directory named /tmp/hexdump. Navigate to this new directory using the following commands:
   

   mkdir /tmp/hexdump
   cd /tmp/hexdump
   

   This step ensures you have a clean workspace to carry out the tasks.

2. Preparing the Data: Now, let's grab the data.txt file from the previous level and place it into your temporary directory:
   

   cp /home/bandit12/data.txt .
   

   This sets the stage for our data manipulation journey.

3. Decoding Hexdump: We'll start by converting the hexdump back to its original form. Execute the following commands to perform this transformation:
   

   xxd -r data.txt > hex
   file hex
   

   The xxd -r command reverses the hexdump, reconstructing the original data. The file command is used to inspect the type of data in the hex file.

4. Compressing and Decompressing: In the next steps, we'll play with compression. These commands help us understand the data and its transformations:
   

   mv hex hex.gz
   gunzip hex.gz
   file hex
   

   Here, we rename hex to hex.gz, then unzip it using gunzip. The file command confirms the type of data.

5. Further Compression: Our exploration continues with more compression:
   

   mv hex hex.bz2
   bunzip2 hex.bz2
   file hex
   

   We rename hex to hex.bz2 and use bunzip2 to decompress it. Once again, the file command provides insight into the data's nature.

6. Final Steps: The puzzle nears its completion. Execute these commands to perform more decompression given the working file’s data type:
   

   mv hex hex.gz
   gunzip hex.gz
   file hex
   tar -xf hex
   file data5.bin
   tar -xf data5.bin
   file data6.bin
   mv data6.bin data6.bin.bz2
   bunzip2 data6.bin.bz2
   file data6.bin
   tar -xf data6.bin
   file data8.bin
   mv data8.bin data8.bin.gz
   cat data8.bin
   
   

   These commands navigate through decompression, untar, and finally, reveal the contents of data8.bin which is the password for the next level:
   

wbWdlBxEir4CaE8LaPhauuOo6pwRmrDw