Exam

Machines

For the solution of questions 8 through 15, you are required to perform the necessary operations on the exam machine specified in this section. First, click the "Start" button in this section to launch the exam machine and wait until the startup process is complete. Once the machine has started, establish an SSH connection to the provided IP address. You can connect via Hackviser VPN or HackerBox (accessible from the CONNECT section) using the following credentials: Username:

captain Password: shadow Port: 22 💡 Note: If you encounter any issues during the connection process, it is likely that your VPN or HackerBox connection is not active. Please check your connection and make sure that you have entered the credentials correctly.

🖥 1. Start and Connect to the Exam Machine

Step 1 – Start the Machine

• In your exam interface, find the section that says “Machines”.

• Click the “Start” button to power on the machine.

• Wait until it says “Running” (takes 1–2 minutes).

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Step 2 – Connect via SSH

Once it’s running, the interface will show something like:

IP: 10.10.40.25
Username: captain
Password: shadow
Port: 22

You must connect using SSH (Secure Shell) — this lets you remotely open a Linux terminal on that machine.

If you’re using Hackviser VPN or HackerBox, make sure it’s connected first.

Then open a terminal on your computer and type:

ssh captain@10.10.40.25 -p 22

(Replace 10.10.40.25 with the actual IP from your exam machine.)

When asked for a password, type:

shadow

If you see a message like “Welcome to Ubuntu...” — ✅ you’re inside the machine!

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📘 2. Concept Questions (1–7)

These are theory-based and do not need terminal commands. Let’s go through them one by one:

No	Question	Explanation	Correct Answer
1	Which layer is critical to the OS and intermediates between software and hardware?	The Kernel acts as a bridge between applications and the hardware (CPU, memory, etc.).	Kernel Layer
2	Directory path for storing system configuration files?	System configuration files (like network, DNS, etc.) are inside /etc.	/etc
3	Path to file where registered users are stored?	The /etc/passwd file stores all user account info.	/etc/passwd
4	In sudo apt ... apache2, which word removes the package?	The correct word is remove.	remove
5	Command to bring a background process to foreground?	Use fg (foreground).	fg
6	Command to list network interfaces and IPs?	Old but common command: ifconfig.	ifconfig
7	Which file is for DNS configuration?	/etc/resolv.conf stores the DNS server addresses.	/etc/resolv.conf

✅ You can submit those directly in your exam platform.

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💻 3. Practical Questions (8–15)

Now that you’re connected to the machine, you’ll find answers inside specific files.

Each question gives you a file path or command name. You’ll use Linux commands like cat, ls, grep, find, and wc to find the information.

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🧩 Q8 – What is the information in /home/captain/files?

Check what’s inside that folder:

ls -la /home/captain/files

• This lists all files in the files folder.

If there is a single file, show its contents:

cat /home/captain/files/filename

(Replace filename with the actual file name from ls output.)

✅ Whatever text appears after cat, that’s the answer.

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🧩 Q9 – Word count of /home/captain/moment.txt

Use the wc (word count) command:

wc -w /home/captain/moment.txt

Example output:

42 /home/captain/moment.txt

✅ The number 42 is your answer (the word count).

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🧩 Q10 – Last line of /home/captain/emailpass.txt

Use tail to show the last line:

tail -n 1 /home/captain/emailpass.txt

Example output:

[e-mail]:mysecret123

✅ That email:password pair is your answer.

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🧩 Q11 – Password for [e-mail]

Search that email in the same file:

grep '[e-mail]' /home/captain/emailpass.txt

Output might look like:

[e-mail]:supersecret

✅ The password is the part after the colon (:). If you want only the password:

grep '[e-mail]' /home/captain/emailpass.txt | awk -F: '{print $2}'

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🧩 Q12 – Working path for command hello

Find where the hello command exists:

which hello

or

command -v hello

Example output:

/usr/bin/hello

✅ That’s the working path to submit.

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🧩 Q13 – Where is database.conf located?

We’ll search the system for it:

sudo find / -type f -name 'database.conf' 2>/dev/null

(If sudo asks for a password, use shadow.)

Example output:

/etc/app/database.conf

✅ That full path is your answer.

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🧩 Q14 – What’s inside /home/captain/favorite_movie.txt?

Simply display the file:

cat /home/captain/favorite_movie.txt

Example output:

Inception

✅ “Inception” is your answer.

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🧩 Q15 – UID value of user specter

User IDs are stored in /etc/passwd. We can check it like this:

grep specter /etc/passwd

Example output:

specter:x:1001:1001::/home/specter:/bin/bash

Here, the third field (1001) is the UID.

You can get it directly with:

id -u specter

✅ The number printed is your answer.