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Writeups for people
who actually get stuck
Step-by-step HTB and Academy walkthroughs. Real commands, real results, and the dead ends too — because that's where the learning happens.
Recent writeups
Academy - File Inclusion Skills Assessment
Linux
"Spent ages trying to get a reverse shell before realising the container was network isolated — just read the flag directly via the webshell"
HTB Academy - File Inclusions Techniques
Linux
"The GIF8 header shows up in every command output from the webshell — it's not an error, it's coming from your upload. Ignore it or strip it mentally"
Shocker
Linux
"Wrong gobuster wordlist wasted 30mins — and missing a semicolon in the payload caused a 500 for longer than I'd like to admit"
Nibbles
Linux
"Webshell broke because of bash variable interpolation — double quotes stripped $_REQUEST. Single quotes fixed it instantly"
Lame
Linux
"Shell looked completely blank after the exploit fired — it was actually live, just needed a command typed to confirm"
HTB Starting Point - Tier 0
Linux
"Tier 0 exists to teach one concept per box — if you're stuck, the answer is almost always the simplest thing you haven't tried yet"