misDIRection

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

Description

During an assessment of a unix system the HTB team found a suspicious directory. They looked at everything within but couldn't find any files with malicious intent.

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 .zip file given.

2. Next since the extracted directory is hidden, run ls -a, then jump to the hidden directory.

3. Since there's many directories, we can filter it using find to delete all directories which contain no file.

find . -type d -empty -delete | to delete.
find . -type d -empty -print | to print all empty directories.

1. Now let us traverse every directory.

0

1

1. Hmm.. Confused here, anyway we can list all of it without jump to the directory, simply run ls -LR.

2. Confused here. But maybe the number's here refers to the directory name order.

3. When i tried to concate the directory name based on their number inside it.

4. Got this string:

SFRCe0RJUjNjdEx5XzFuX1BsNDFuX1NpN2V9

1. Remember the prefix looks like a HTB strings encoded in base64, Try to decode it.

2. Got the flag!

Flag

REDACTED

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.