I know Mag1k

Platform: HackTheBox | Category: Cryptography | Difficulty: Easy | Author: D3v0o0Nu11 | Date: 2026-02-10

Description

Can you get to the profile page of the admin?

Solution Approach

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

Steps

1. Open the host given.

2. Since we don't have any creds, let's try to register and login.

3. There's nothing interesting here, so i tried to check the cookies storage.

4. When i tried to decode the mag1k cookie, got random text.

5. Since i stuck here, i read the forum and found out the challenge related to padding oracle attack.

6. Hence, i tried to use padbuster.

padbuster http://188.166.148.162:32309/profile.php 9gH0dY2dcbIcTGya8Oe08osnxYExeoXx4ZnLS1hltFWNxYCJ2hWTdQ%3D%3D 8 -cookies iknowmag1k=9gH0dY2dcbIcTGya8Oe08osnxYExeoXx4ZnLS1hltFWNxYCJ2hWTdQ%3D%3D

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.