Don't Panic! — HackTheBox

Description

"Don't Panic! You've cut a deal with the Brotherhood; if you can locate and retrieve their stolen weapons cache, they'll provide you with the kerosene needed for your makeshift explosives for the underground tunnel excavation. The team has tracked the unique energy signature of the weapons to a small vault, currently being occupied by a gang of raiders who infiltrated the outpost by impersonating commonwealth traders. Using experimental stealth technology, you've slipped by the guards and arrive at the inner sanctum. Now, you must find a way past the highly sensitive heat-signature detection robot. Can you disable the security robot without setting off the alarm?"

Analysis

Initial Reconnaissance

Downloaded and extracted the challenge file, revealing a Rust ELF 64-bit binary called dontpanic.

$ file dontpanic
dontpanic: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked

String Analysis

Found interesting strings that hint at the challenge theme:

$ strings dontpanic | grep -i rust
RUST_BACH

$ strings dontpanic | grep -i panic
You made me panic!

$ strings dontpanic | grep -i message
Have you got a message for me?

The "RUST_BACH" and panic-related strings confirm this is a Rust binary with custom panic handling.

Symbol Analysis

Using nm to find key functions:

$ nm dontpanic | grep -E "(check|main)"
0000000000009060 t _ZN3src10check_flag17h397d174e03dc8c74E
0000000000009230 t _ZN3src4main17hf9bc229851763ab9E

Key functions identified:

• check_flag at 0x9060 — the flag validation function
• main at 0x9230 — program entry point

Disassembly of check_flag

The check_flag function implements a clever validation scheme:

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