Level 25

Connect to the server as bandit25 with the password.

Logging in to bandit26 from bandit25 should be fairly easy… The shell for user bandit26 is not /bin/bash, but something else. Find out what it is, how it works and how to break out of it.

bandit25@bandit:~$ ls
bandit26.sshkey
bandit25@bandit:~$ cat bandit26.sshkey
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----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-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
bandit25@bandit:~$

I find out what shell the users bandit26 uses.

bandit25@bandit:~$ cat /etc/passwd | grep bandit26
bandit26:x:11026:11026:bandit level 26:/home/bandit26:/usr/bin/showtext

What is this showtext? I can't find anything in it on the man pages. It might be a script, so I look at it.

bandit25@bandit:~$ cat /usr/bin/showtext
#!/bin/sh

export TERM=linux

more ~/text.txt
exit 0

It's a bash script that shows me a file using more. That's a strange way of doing it.

It is possible to invoke an editor from the more utility. In order for the more utility to work, I needed to set the size of my terminal to be small enough for it to not just print the text.

Then I connected to the level using SSH. The fact that more is active is apparent from the little info box in the corner.

--More--(83%)

Next, I pressed v to open up the visual editor (vim by default). At that point I'm able to resize my terminal back to a more reasonable size. I can type :e /etc/bandit_pass/bandit26 to open up the password, which is

5czgV9L3Xx8JPOyRbXh6lQbmIOWvPT6Z