tutorial · bandit

Bandit Level 26

Escape a non-bash shell (more/vi style) to get a real shell.

banditescapemorevi

Optional narration

Marks this level complete in your browser.

Goal

Logging into bandit26 is easy, but the shell isn’t /bin/bash.

Find what it is and break out into a real shell.

Hints

Check your login shell: cat /etc/passwd | grep bandit26.
Often the “shell” is something like more.
If you can open an editor/pager, you can often run shell commands from it.

Solution (click to reveal)

SSH in:

ssh bandit26@bandit.labs.overthewire.org -p 2220

Identify the shell:

grep '^bandit26:' /etc/passwd

If it’s more, you can trigger a shell via v to open vi (works when output is paged). In vi, run:

:set shell=/bin/bash
:shell

Once you have a shell, grab the password for bandit27 from the usual place:

cat /etc/bandit_pass/bandit27

Notes

This is a classic “escape the pager/editor” exercise.
On some terminals, you may need to resize so more actually activates.

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