Ghost Track - Lvl 3: In The Shadows

This level is all about "hidden" files. In Linux, any file or folder that starts with a dot (.) is hidden from a standard ls command.

First, check the home directory:

ls -a

The -a flag tells ls to "show all," including the hidden ones. You'll see a .memo file. Reading it gives you a hint: "The work happens off the main paths."

Now head into the investigation folder:

cd investigation
ls -la

Again, use -a to see the hidden folders. You'll find a folder called .leads. Dive in:

cd .leads
ls -a

Inside .leads, you'll find more hidden files like .source_alpha, .source_beta, etc. Since they all look similar, you can just cat all of them at once using a wildcard:

cat .*

Result: REDACTED

TL;DR: If you don't see anything in a folder, always use ls -a. Secrets are almost always hidden in dot-files (.secret) or dot-directories (.hidden/).