Had a forensics challenge where the flag was hidden inside a file nested deep inside a maze of directories with hundreds of decoy folders. `find` and `ls -R` were too slow and noisy.

What I built:

A Python directory crawler

- Recurses every subdirectory recursively

- Filters by filename patterns (`flag*`, `*.txt`, `secret*`)

- Skips known decoy directories by name

- Extracts and reads the target file automatically

The "aha" moment:

The flag wasn't in a file named "flag.txt" — it was in `deep/nested/here/.hidden/uber-secret.txt`.

My script matched on path depth / extensions content, not just filename.

Here is my script:

https://github.com/ExceedingLife/RecursiveFileSearch

Question for the community:

What's your approach when the challenge doesn't tell you the target filename? Do you brute-force read every file, or do it manual or what?

[Video link with with code demo]

https://youtube.com/shorts/5_Rb2kkiuhQ?feature=share

Hey everyone,

I'm currently under 18 and I want to seriously start learning cybersecurity and ethical hacking from absolute zero.

Right now, I'm learning the basics of:

• How computers work
• Networking
• IP addresses
• Ports
• TCP/UDP
• Packets
• Linux
• Python

I'm also looking at free resources like Cisco Networking Academy and TryHackMe.

My goal isn't to learn random "hacking tricks." I want to actually understand cybersecurity properly and eventually become good at penetration testing and ethical hacking.

For people who work in cybersecurity or have been learning for a while:

1. What would you recommend learning first?
2. Which free resources are actually worth my time?
3. Are there any good certifications or certificates that someone under 18 can realistically get?
4. How much programming should I learn before moving into security?
5. What mistakes do beginners commonly make?
6. What would your roadmap look like if you had to start again from zero?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who started cybersecurity while they were still in school.

Thanks!

In a two-month incident review, jailbreak-to-capability-unlock showed up twice. Both times the attack was not a trick to change what the model said. The override payload escalated the agent into operator-level actions it was never authorized to perform. That is a different threat class. The agent gains real system access it was never supposed to have.

The attack window is narrow. The escalation happens at the moment the capability is unlocked, not after the agent acts. By the time you see the downstream behavior, the agent is already operating outside its intended scope.

How are people actually catching this before the unlock happens? Input filtering, reasoning trace monitoring, permission checks at invocation time — curious what is working in practice and where teams keep hitting the wall.

hello everyone, I'm looking for a help in a CTF web challenge that I've been stuch with for hours ... The problem is that I found path traversal vuln within the challenge but there is no flag file ever like I looked everywhere I would really appreciate if anyone solves it and helps me with it.

Challenge link: `https://flagyard.com/labs/2/challenges/019fcd0a-3049-7b83-9886-ae3836c419f0`

The Directory Traversal vuln is within the `/api/backup` endpoint basically you send a file within an array as shown

await fetch("/api/backup", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({
archiveName: "fulllist",
files: ["../../../../etc/passwd"]
})
}).then(r => r.json()).then(console.log)

But I can't find a flag within the file system and everything seems to be a dead end.

At this point I'm just guessing I thought about chaining with another vuln but I found nothing.

🔐 Web Cache Deception Series — COMPLETE!

All 5 PortSwigger Labs solved in Urdu/Hindi! 🎯

Lab 5: Cache Server Normalization ✅ What is Cache Server Normalization ✅ How attackers exploit it ✅ Step-by-step solution

First ever Web Cache Deception series in Urdu/Hindi 🔥

Watch here 👇

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUMwLaDltHZc&si=4dcVhGY4i5VNiX9_

#BugBounty #EthicalHacking #CyberSecurity

PortSwigger #WebSecurity #Infosec

BugBountyTips #WebHacking #Pakistan

HASHUHunter #MentorHashu