Hunting

Platform: HackTheBox | Category: Pwn | Difficulty: N/A | Author: D3v0o0Nu11 | Date: 2026-02-10

Description

I've hidden the flag very carefully, you'll never manage to find it! Please note that the goal is to find the flag, and not to obtain a shell.

Solution Approach

Core idea: Identify the weakness from source review or fingerprinting first. Iterate with incremental payloads instead of guessing.

Steps

1. First, unzip the file given.

2. Jump to the extracted folder.

3. Check the file type.

4. Since, the binary is stripped, it's harder for us to debug the binary.

5. Now, check the binary protection.

6. Let us run the binary.

7. Got segmentation fault even though i entered a char.

8. Hmm.. let us run the file in GDB.

9. I tried to enter longer strings, but the program crashed at the same offset.

PROOF

1. When i tried to analyze the main function, i found the dummy flag.

2. I think the dummy flag is accessed in the main() function (?).

Flag

(no flag captured)

Lessons Learned

1. Identify the weakness from source review or fingerprinting first.
2. Iterate with incremental payloads instead of guessing.
3. Reuse the same pattern in future engagements.