My Third CTF Writeup

Solved by thewhiteh4t

Similar to second variant of this challenge, we again had to perform directory enumeration but this time it was nested. That means nested directories. I used the same wordlist I created in second variant, so I will skip that part, if you are looking for that please read the writeup for second variant.

Got first hit, but we get 403 on this, I could not find anything after poking around so I finally tried to enumerate nested directories in the one I found and got another hit!

After several iterations of the same process I finally landed on the flag directory!

Key Learning and Takeaways

• Thinking beyond 403 : After poking around a bit and realizing the challenge was likely nested was the key. So, instead of giving up on the 403 directory, we started enumerating inside it!
• Try Harder : Sometimes, the solution isn’t immediate, and you just have to keep digging, keep iterating, and trust your instinct and tools to eventually find that hidden gem. Overtime with experience both your instinct and tooling will improve.