Hack The Box Meow Machine: Beginner Ethical Hacking Guide

Welcome to our comprehensive walkthrough of the Meow machine, the perfect starting point for your journey in ethical hacking and cybersecurity on the Hack The Box (HTB) platform.

HTB Starting Point Lab

Figure 1: Setting up your environment for penetration testing.

HTB Starting Point: Essential Tasks

  • Task 1: What does VM stand for? Answer: Virtual Machine
  • Task 2: What tool do we use for the command line? Answer: terminal
  • Task 3: What service forms our VPN connection? Answer: openvpn
  • Task 4: What tool tests network connectivity? Answer: ping
  • Task 5: What is the standard tool for port scanning? Answer: nmap
  • Task 6: What service runs on port 23/tcp? Answer: telnet
  • Task 7: What username grants access with a blank password? Answer: root

Understanding Network Vulnerabilities: Why Telnet is Insecure

In this penetration testing scenario, we identified that port 23 was open, which runs the Telnet service. Telnet is a legacy network protocol used for remote system administration.

Why is this a security risk? Telnet transmits all data in plain text, making it highly vulnerable to interception. In this machine, a simple configuration error allowed us to log in using the root username with a blank password, demonstrating how vulnerability assessment helps identify critical security gaps.

Nmap Port Scan

Figure 2: Identifying vulnerabilities with Nmap.

Step-by-Step Exploitation: How to Solve Meow

  1. Environment Setup: Ensure your HTB VPN or Pwnbox is active. Use ping {TARGET_IP} to confirm your target is reachable.
  2. Enumeration Phase: Run nmap {TARGET_IP} to scan for open services. You will discover that port 23 (Telnet) is open.
  3. Gaining Access: Connect to the machine using telnet {TARGET_IP}. When prompted for credentials, type root and press Enter.
  4. Finding the Flag: Once inside, use ls to list files. You will find flag.txt. Use cat flag.txt to reveal the hash and submit it to the platform.
Capturing the Flag

Figure 3: Locating the flag.txt file.

Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only. All techniques described are intended for use in authorized, isolated, and legal cybersecurity training environments like Hack The Box. The author does not condone or support the use of these techniques against any real-world systems without explicit permission.

Congratulations on completing your first HTB machine and starting your career in cybersecurity!

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