Bandit1->2

Level Goal

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

Commands useful to solve the level

• cat

Helpful Reading Material

• Open a dashed filename Contains Spoilers

Where to start?

The solution to this challenge is actually written in the Reading Material. However, if you would like more explanations. You can open the Full Solution to the Challenge

Full Solution

After listing the contents of the directory with ls, we can notice the following :

bandit1@bandit:~$ ls
-
bandit1@bandit:~$

This means that the file - is actually there. However, when we try print the contents of the file with cat - we get the following :

bandit1@bandit:~$ cat -

Where cat seems to wait for an input. By running man cat, we notice the following text in the Description section :
With no File, or when File is -, read standard input.
This tells us that cat doesn't interpret - as Filename but as a directive that tells it to read from standard input. It will echo everything you entered on standard input once you press the ENTER key. To tell cat that you're done writting to stdin, you can press ctrl+D (^D).
This is the reason why we need to run cat ./- thus specifying the relative path to the file and not only its name to cat

You can now jump to the next level