Sws101_ctf9

Topic : Capture

Overview

In this “Capture” room on TryHackMe, the challenge revolves around gaining unauthorized access to a web application through a brute-force attack.

Reconnaissance

To begin with, a thorough reconnaissance phase was initiated by scanning the target machine using rustscan. This revealed that port 80, hosting a web server, was open. Further inspection using gobuster identified directories /home and /login.

Exploitation

Brute Force Attack

1. Initial Attempts:

A brute-force attack was attempted using Hydra, leveraging a list of usernames and passwords. However, due to captcha protection, this method proved ineffective.

1. Captcha Bypass:

Recognizing the captcha challenge, a Python script was crafted. This script automates the login process by solving the captcha math challenge extracted from the login page’s response.

Conclusion

The Capture Room offered a realistic challenge in using a targeted brute-force attack on a web application to get around security barriers. Access credentials were successfully retrieved by utilizing Python scripting and comprehending the captcha process, proving the efficacy of penetration testing methodologies.

In addition to improving web application security testing abilities, this exercise made clear how crucial it is to put strong authentication measures in place in order to thwart attempts by unauthorized users to get access.