Mission 0x34

🔎 Solution

After connecting as noa, the next step points to a file that appears intentionally messy.

noa@venus:~$ cat mission.txt 
################
# MISSION 0x34 #
################

## EN ##
The password of maia is surrounded by trash 

Opening the file normally isn't very readable, so using strings is a better approach to filter out meaningful ASCII sequences.

noa@venus:~$ strings trash 
b;pK
*&dv
 |.-
wsG9
D55-
\|gu
1q#^
YV!)}
f}nP
T735
5GOj'
g3-5v)S~hK
{Xu7
O;rTl,
]Bokc
04`0
X:Uf
;Vtr3
`vr)
k`      I
<(;pQ
@$LiJ
u7TI
*Q{r%
;%gzDB
b%/*
3g?d
=I+"
xfFN
\nh1hnDPHpydEjoEN
!       2L~8
JmN8
@%`j
,       ^,
e&xvN2
_cKn
.c|0
)|hd&
hl(p
fEr:
OdBb
?OsP
dnN9
J7e(
JL6(
wI;%vz
apPD
a5qi
|otr
4TTm
toyi
*f|F
.%J`t

Among the junk data, there's a recognizable pattern:

\nh1hnDPHpydEjoEN

All previous passwords in this challenge series have been 15 characters long, so removing the initial \n gives:

h1hnDPHpydEjoEN

With that password, the next SSH login works:

ssh maia@venus.hackmyvm.eu -p 5000

Retrieving the flag confirms the progression:

maia@venus:~$ cat flagz.txt 
8===nu8IDScKFAXVcnFutKtG===D~~

🚩Flag

8===nu8IDScKFAXVcnFutKtG===D~~