Summary / Vulnerability in one line

The application builds a secure_cookie by applying PHP's crypt() (DES variant) to 8-byte chunks of the string user:USER_AGENT:ENC_SECRET_KEY, concatenating the outputs. Because DES crypt() operates on 8-byte blocks with a short (2-character) salt, you can align attacker-controlled bytes (via User-Agent) so that a single unknown byte of the ENC_SECRET_KEY is isolated in one 8-byte block and brute-forced by comparing crypt() outputs. Once the ENC key is recovered, forge a secure_cookie for user=admin and read the web flag.

Environment & prerequisites

  • TryHackMe attacking VM (or local Linux box)

  • Network access to the target (replace 10.10.122.185 with your box IP)

  • Tools installed:

    • php-cli and php-curl

    • curl

    • awk, sed, tr, grep

    • nano/vim (optional)

Install (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php-cli php-curl curl

First, request the web root and inspect Set-Cookie headers:

curl -s -D - -A 'testUA' http://10.10.122.185/ -o /dev/null | grep -i '^Set-Cookie'

You should see at least two cookies:

  • user (defaults to guest on the target)

  • secure_cookie (a concatenation of crypt() outputs; the first two characters represent the 2-char salt)

Extract the secure_cookie string and the salt (first two characters):

SEC=$(curl -s -D - -A 'testUA' http://10.10.122.185/ -o /dev/null \
      | awk -F'Set-Cookie: ' '/secure_cookie/ {print $2}' \
      | sed 's/;.*//' | tr -d '\r\n')

echo "secure_cookie from server: $SEC"

# first two chars are salt
SALT=${SEC:0:2}
echo "detected salt: $SALT"
❝

Note: Some servers URL-encode cookie values in the header (you may see %2F etc.). Work with the raw cookie string returned above for extracting salt.

Recovering ENC_SECRET_KEY (automation)

Concept: craft User-Agent strings with lengths that align the unknown bytes of ENC_SECRET_KEY into a single 8-byte block within the plaintext user:USER_AGENT:ENC_SECRET_KEY. For each alignment, try all printable characters and compare the single-block crypt() output with the corresponding substring in secure_cookie until you find a match. Iterate byte-by-byte.

Below is a ready-to-run PHP script (save as recover_key.php). It is derived from the approach used in public writeups and tailored for this room. It does not contain any flags — run it against the target to recover the ENC key.

<?php
// recover_key.php
// USAGE: edit $url and $start_len then run: php recover_key.php

$url = "http://10.10.122.185/";   // <-- target
$start_len = 176;                   // adjust if needed (multiple of 8 start)

// candidate plaintext characters (printable ASCII)
$payload = " !\"#\$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~";
$parts_payload = str_split($payload,1);

function get_cookie_from_url($url, $user_agent){
    $ch = curl_init($url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $user_agent);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    if ($response === false) {
        fwrite(STDERR, "curl error: " . curl_error($ch) . "\n");
        curl_close($ch);
        return null;
    }
    curl_close($ch);
    preg_match_all('/^Set-Cookie:\s*(.*)$/mi', $response, $matches);
    $cookie_array = [];
    if (!empty($matches[1])) {
        foreach ($matches[1] as $cookie) {
            $cookieParts = explode('=', $cookie, 2);
            $cookieValue = explode(';', $cookieParts[1])[0];
            $cookie_array[trim($cookieParts[0])] = trim($cookieValue);
        }
    }
    return $cookie_array;
}

$ENC_SECRET_KEY = "";
for ($i = $start_len; $i > 0; $i--) {
    if (substr($ENC_SECRET_KEY, -1) == "}") {
        break;
    }

    $user_agent = str_repeat("i", $i);
    $cookie_array = get_cookie_from_url($url, $user_agent);
    if (!$cookie_array) { fwrite(STDERR, "No cookie returned for UA length $i\n"); continue; }

    if (!isset($cookie_array['secure_cookie']) || !isset($cookie_array['user'])) {
        fwrite(STDERR, "secure_cookie or user cookie not found for UA length $i\n");
        continue;
    }

    $s_cookie = urldecode($cookie_array['secure_cookie']);
    $username = $cookie_array['user'];
    $c_string = $username . ":" . $user_agent . ":" . $ENC_SECRET_KEY;
    $c_octet_len = count(str_split($c_string,8));
    $parts_of_scookie = str_split($s_cookie,13);
    $hash = substr($s_cookie, 0, 2);

    if (strlen($c_string) % 8 == 7) {
        $last7 = substr($c_string, -7);
    } else {
        $last7 = substr($c_string, -7);
    }

    $found = false;
    foreach ($parts_payload as $p) {
        $trial = crypt($last7 . $p, $hash);
        if ($parts_of_scookie[$c_octet_len - 1] === $trial) {
            echo "Found next character: '$p' (UA length $i)\n";
            $ENC_SECRET_KEY .= $p;
            $found = true;
            break;
        }
    }
}

echo "\nRecovered ENC_SECRET_KEY (partial/complete): " . $ENC_SECRET_KEY . "\n";
?>

Run:

php recover_key.php

Notes:

  • If the script doesn't find characters, adjust $start_len (increase or decrease) and re-run.

  • The script uses printable ASCII as a candidate set; if the key contains non-printables, expand the payload accordingly.

Goal: Build secure_cookie for user=admin that matches the server's verification, then visit the site as admin to reveal the web flag.

Steps

  1. Choose an 8-character User-Agent (we use AAAAAAAA in examples). It must match in both the cookie-building step and the final request.

  2. Extract the server salt from a real cookie (see Recon section). Use it to compute crypt() outputs.

  3. Build the plaintext input used by the server for cookie generation:

UA='AAAAAAAA'
ENC_KEY='REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_RECOVERED_KEY'
TEXT="admin:${UA}:${ENC_KEY}"

  1. Generate the forged secure_cookie using the server salt (example code uses the salt previously extracted into $SALT):

export TEXT SALT
FORGED=$(php -r '
$text = getenv("TEXT");
$salt = getenv("SALT");
$cookie = "";
foreach (str_split($text, 8) as $el) {
    $cookie .= crypt($el, $salt);
}
echo $cookie;
')

echo "forged secure_cookie: $FORGED"

  1. Send a request as admin with the forged cookie and the same UA:

curl -s -A "$UA" -H "Cookie: user=admin; secure_cookie=${FORGED}" http://10.10.122.185/ | sed -n '1,200p'

Expected: The site should respond with a successful page that contains the web flag (masked in this writeup). Example (masked):

congrats: THM{ok_you_f0und_w3b_fl4g_********}. Now I want the key.
❝

Important: If the server regenerates a new salt on each request, ensure you fetch the cookie / salt immediately before forging and reuse that same salt to compute the forged cookie.

Submission formats (how TryHackMe expects you to submit)

  • What is the value of the web flag?

    • Format: THM{**_***_*****_***_****_*******}

    • Example (masked): THM{ok_you_f0und_w3b_fl4g_********}

  • What is the encryption key?

    • Format: THM{...} (longer).

    • Example (masked): THM{Tradit*****_Own_Cryp*****_..._********}

❝

Do not paste full flags in public or shared writeups. When sharing, mask most of the flag as shown above.

Troubleshooting & common pitfalls

  • You are not logged in after forging

    • Ensure you used the exact same UA when generating the forged cookie and when sending the request.

    • Ensure $SALT matches the server's cookie salt (first two characters of the secure_cookie the server issued).

    • Check whether the server URL-encodes the cookie value — if so, URL-encode your forged cookie before sending.

    • Confirm ENC_KEY is exact and contains no trailing newlines or extra quotes.

  • crypt() variant mismatch

    • The writeup targets DES crypt(); if the target uses a different crypt() variant (rare here), the output lengths/format differ. Adjust parsing split sizes accordingly.

  • Timing / rate limits

    • Brute-force loops may be slow. If the server rate-limits, slow down the loop or run the script from a place that avoids triggering rate limits.

Appendix — Quick commands reference

# show Set-Cookie headers
curl -s -D - -A 'testUA' http://10.10.122.185/ -o /dev/null | grep -i '^Set-Cookie'

# extract server secure_cookie and salt
SEC=$(curl -s -D - -A 'testUA' http://10.10.122.185/ -o /dev/null \
      | awk -F'Set-Cookie: ' '/secure_cookie/ {print $2}' \
      | sed 's/;.*//' | tr -d '\r\n')
SALT=${SEC:0:2}

# run the key recovery script
php recover_key.php

# generate forged cookie (after setting TEXT and SALT)
export TEXT SALT
php -r '
$text = getenv("TEXT");
$salt = getenv("SALT");
$cookie = "";
foreach (str_split($text, 8) as $el) { $cookie .= crypt($el, $salt); }
echo $cookie;
'

# final request with forged cookie
curl -s -A "AAAAAAAA" -H "Cookie: user=admin; secure_cookie=${FORGED}" http://10.10.122.185/ | sed -n '1,200p'

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