Tripping Over the Wire

Bandit Level 1 → Level 2

Friday the 13th. Always a lucky day for me. I proposed to my wife on a Friday the 13th.

Level Goal

Level 1 → Level 2

The password for the next level is stored in a file called - located in the home directory

Commands you may need to solve this level

ls , cd , cat , file , du , find

Helpful Reading Material

Google Search for “dashed filename”

Advanced Bash-scripting Guide - Chapter 3 - Special Characters

Thought Process

I am a firm believer in always reading the manual, and here OTW both provides and suggests reading the manual. Who am I to argue? The first Google search response is from the venerable Stack Overflow. It suggests that reading a dashed filename requires one to give the full path otherwise the - will be treated as a redirect to stdout.

Likewise, the Linux documentation has this helpful note:

Caution

Filenames beginning with "-" may cause problems when coupled with the "-" redirection operator. A script should check for this and add an appropriate prefix to such filenames, for example ./-FILENAME, $PWD/-FILENAME, or $PATHNAME/-FILENAME.

Combining cat with the full path to the file provides the password needed.

Drawing of a farmer on a tractor holding aloft a red book titled 'T.F.M.'. Art in the style of Maoist propaganda.