Forum Discussion
Your first lab level 9
What was the first level 9 lab you conquered? :).
It does not matter that you will seek advice from other giants, or that you will manage to complete it on your own: share your journey with us!; to get the token or become root on that server.
I start: I think that my first conquest of Lab level 9 is related to debugging ByteCode in Java (and only a few days ago!): my background is Oracle, and from years ago, so imagine how lost I was :).
After loading the project into the IDE (along with the required plugin) I started debugging bit by bit... until one particular string caught my attention; it stood out from the rest!.
And it was the solution :).
Good luck!
12 Replies
I believe my first level 9 lab was 'Pen Test CTFs: Immersive Bakery', given that I just (this weekend) finished the last lab in Cyber Experts and earned my Cyber Experts Badge.
These labs definitely require a lot of research outside of Immersive, reading through CVEs or other guides.- steven
Ambassador
puuuh... according to the report it was an mini CTF lab. I started IL in October 2022 so took me some months to do it. I remember I quite stuck on the LightNeuron and Cereal Killer. Took me months..no weeks to solve it :)
Mini CTFs: MongoDB SQL Injection 2023-03-20 11:57:02 UTC Pen Test CTFs: Immersive Bakery 2023-04-20 15:58:41 UTC Pedro Ribeiro: Cereal Killer 2023-04-24 14:17:13 UTC Linux Stack Overflow: Ep.6 – Demonstrate Your Skills 2024-06-05 12:25:42 UTC Erik McClements: Linux Filesystem Race Conditions 2024-10-22 23:17:07 UTC DFIR CTF: LightNeuron DLL 2024-10-23 11:41:34 UTC Kevin Breen: Java Reverse Engineering 2024-11-06 13:33:06 UTC Pedro Ribeiro: ASLR Bypass 2024-11-07 12:13:28 UTC Pen Test CTFs: Jinja2 Exploitation 2025-01-12 18:03:59 UTC Audio Steganography 2025-01-28 13:43:06 UTC World Cup Special: Immersive Squad 2025-03-14 10:02:12 UTC Hi steven
I recently finished the ‘DFIR CTF: LightNeuron DLL’ lab... I spent so much time going in the wrong direction!. At first, I couldn't even load the exact DLL function correctly in x64dbg... facepalm! :).
But once I got it, and after reading (many times) the excellent 30-page guide on it, it took me very little time to define the necessary breakpoint. And when, reviewing the dump in ASCII, I found the final answer I needed... I even hesitated. But yes, it was that one!.
I like to think that all these labs are a journey that must be taken step by step; that what really matters is not the points, medals, or pats on the back, but the journey itself: learning.
With this one, I've now completed two level 9 labs, step by step! ^^.
Audio Steganography was the first one - although not sure it's still available for me, so the first that's still available would be the MongoDB SQLi
- KieranRowley
Community Manager
What a classic! It's still there: https://immersivelabs.online/labs/audio-steganography
Nice question Bluesman
I have to echo Kieran's sentiment on my ability (I hope to be at level 9 some day!) but it's great to learn about your breakthrough to the most challenging labs! Would love to her from others, too.Anonymous & KieranRowley:
Good night!,
I know I have not been able to complete all the level 9 labs in Immersive, but ... and I'm ‘afraid’ to ask :): have you considered labs level 10?: 'the best of the best', diabolical, convoluted, really complicated, without any hints or clues.
Where certifications and experience count, of course, but those labs also require imagination, lateral thinking and getting out of comfort zones!.
Imagine that we tried those labs, that we got the credentials, that we conquered the CTF ... to find out that those credentials don't work!, and that we have taken the wrong path: quite a humbling experience, isn't it? :).
Laboratories with clues that lead nowhere or with honeypots that make you doubt the path taken and the notes written down; a series of labs that take months to complete and rethink lessons learned.
I throw down the gauntlet: can Immersive make us sweat, but for real? ;).
- KieranRowley
KieranRowley, wicked labs :)!
I'm not as active as I'd like to be when it comes to completing labs or participating in this community; but I've 'done my homework' over the years: with more than 350,000 points behind me! ^^.
Thank you, Kieran & Immersive Labs, for going the extra mile; for making us think, for making us investigate, and for investing time in making us wiser.
Best regards!
- KieranRowley
I'll happily tell the Cyber team to step up the difficulty in the next Season of the Community Challenge.
I'll also try to get a list of labs that the most people struggle with, those must be our most difficult labs.
- KieranRowley
I'm afraid that I am not qualified to commebt on this topic but I would love to hear everybody else's answers!
