TryHackMe | Advent of Cyber 2022 *Get started with Cyber Security in 24 Days - learn the basics by doing a new, beginner-friendly security challenge…*tryhackme.comhttps://tryhackme.com/room/adventofcyber4")[](https://tryhackme.com/room/adventofcyber4)

This challenge is just a introduction for the peeps looking to get into cybersec and it just explains the basic methodology of hacking and three “cycles” are shown namely: cycle 1 (in), cycle 2 (through), cycle 3 (out). I’ll explain all the three cycles in a nutshell

Cycle 1 is about doing some basic information gathering about the target, delivering payloads through phishing or better known as Social Engineering or better if the server has existing vulnerabilities then the attacker would just leverage them and exploit them.

Cycle 2 is about exploring the target and doing some privilege escalation. There is also a neat trick used in Cycle 2 known as Pivoting and it means that the attacker is able to compromise a system and now the attacker will be able to access the machines that were not available for the outside world but are available for the system and hence the attacker can try exploiting the inner-infrastructure. After privilege escalation the attacker can try to grab some files that the lower privileged user did not have access to but the higher privileged user has.

Cycle 3 is about covering the tracks and collecting as much data as possible before leaving the system. This includes removing data from logs, being anonymous, etc. Tryhackme also mentioned that if you are a real attacker you should give them financial and reputational damage.

Tryhackme also included this pretty dope picture of the “Cyber Kill Chain” (Credits to Tryhackme for this pic)

Now let’s get to the real challenge!

So first you have to click the view site button (it is located at the top of the challenge

After clicking that button a website should open up in split screen. When you click start, you are greeted with kind of a jigsaw puzzle game(Remember the theory mentioned above and in the tryhackme site). Solving the challenge is pretty straight-forward if you remember the theory. This first puzzle is based on the Cycle 1 (In). The answers:

This is just the first out of the three puzzles. After clicking the next button, we see another puzzle game. This second puzzle is based on the Cycle 2 (Through). The answers:

OK Alright the third and final puzzle and we want the flag so let’s do this! And if you have some experience with pattern you will recognize that this one is based on the Cycle 3 (Out). The answers:

When you click the next button after this you will see the flag and some other details required for answering the questions to solve this challenge. The first question asks us who is the adversary(attacker) who attacked Santa’s network and if you see the screen clearly the answer is “The Bandit Yeti”. Alright now we are excited for the flag and your time has come it is asking you for the flag. Should I show it here? Well I guess I should

There you go!

This challenge is pretty basic and is good for a kind of intro for non-cybersec peeps looking to get into this field. With this I think you should’ve completed the Day 1 challenge and now we know who we are up against. Let’s keep going and maybe defeat Bandit Yeti?