Ghost Track - Lvl 23: Graduation

This is the final run. You've got three shards and you need to feed them to a gatekeeper on port 31339.

When you see multiple weird files like this, don't panic. Just do some "triage." Look at the file extensions and pick the tool that fits the format.

Shard 1 (relic.bin): It's a .bin file. If you cat it, your terminal will probably freak out and show you a bunch of weird symbols. That's because it's binary data. To find human-readable text inside that mess, use strings. It just scans the file for sequences of characters that look like actual words.

strings relic.bin | grep "SHARD"

Result: REDACTED

Shard 2 (scroll.b64): The .b64 is a dead giveaway. It's just Base64 encoding. This isn't encryption—it's just a way to represent data. You can reverse it instantly:

base64 -d scroll.b64

Result: REDACTED

Shard 3 (The SUID Helper): Now you're out of files in your home folder. Now you ask: Is there any tool on this whole system that has more power than I do?

Search for SUID binaries. These are special files that run with the permissions of the owner (root), no matter who starts them. It's a classic way to escalate privileges.

find / -perm -4000 2>/dev/null | grep ghost22

I found /usr/local/bin/ghost-archivist. Since it's SUID and called an "archivist," it's probably designed to access archived secrets. Just execute it:

/usr/local/bin/ghost-archivist

Result: REDACTED

The Finish Line: Now just pipe them all together using nc (netcat) in the exact format the BRIEFING asked for. If you get a "Connection refused" or similar, make sure you're hitting the right port.

nc localhost 31339
# Then send: SHARD1:REDACTED|SHARD2:REDACTED|SHARD3:REDACTED

Graduation Flag: REDACTED

TL;DR: .bin $\rightarrow$ strings, .b64 $\rightarrow$ base64, and if you're stuck $\rightarrow$ find / -perm -4000 to find some SUID magic.