So, I was messing around with this “hacker sports” thing today, just to see what it’s all about. I’m not gonna lie, it sounded kinda cool, like something out of a movie.
Getting Started
First, I had to figure out what I was even doing. I started poking around, trying to find some easy challenges to get my feet wet. I ended up choosing the beginner-friendly “Bandit” challenges on this one platform.
The Process
It was all command-line stuff, which, you know, I’m okay with. I’ve used the terminal a bit before, but I’m no expert. The first few levels were pretty straightforward. Stuff like using basic commands to navigate directories, read files, things like that. It was a good way to refresh my memory, I guess.
Then things got a bit more interesting. I had to start using things like grep to search for specific text within files, and I even had to figure out how to connect to different ports using netcat. That was new to me, but the instructions were pretty clear, and I managed to muddle through it. It felt pretty good to actually figure that stuff out, like I was actually doing some “hacking” (even though it was all very controlled and safe, of course).
There was one level where I had to find a password hidden in a file, but the file had a bunch of weird characters in it. I spent way too long trying to figure that one out. Turns out, I just needed to use a simple command to display the file contents in a readable way. Ugh, felt kinda dumb after that one, but hey, live and learn, right?
Results
I didn’t get through all the levels, not even close. But I did manage to complete a good chunk of them. It was actually pretty fun, in a nerdy kind of way. I definitely learned a few new things, and it was cool to see how these basic commands could be used in a more, let’s say, “creative” way. I’m not sure if I’ll become a full-blown “hacker” anytime soon, but it was a fun little experiment.
I might try some more of these challenges later, just to see how far I can get. It’s like a puzzle, and who doesn’t like a good puzzle?
