Level goal: The password for the next level is stored in a file called readme located in the home directory. Use this password to log into bandit1 using SSH. Whenever you find a password for a level, use SSH to log into that level and continue the game.

This level is a simple giveaway too. Simply run ls to view the current directory as instructed by the level’s hint, and then cat the readme file to view its content.

bandit0@melinda:~$ ls
readme
bandit0@melinda:~$ cat readme
boJ9jbbUNNfktd78OOpsqOltutMc3MY1

The password to level 1 environment is boJ9jbbUNNfktd78OOpsqOltutMc3MY1

Definitely, level 0 is a giveaway to get you started with the actual challenges.

Level 0 goal: The goal of this level is for you to log into the game using SSH. The host to which you need to connect is bandit.labs.overthewire.org. The username is bandit0 and the password is bandit0. Once logged in, go to the Level 1 page to find out how to beat Level 1.

Firstly, you should know how to connect to the bandit.labs.overthewire.org server via secure shell (SSH) protocol. If you are using Kali Linux, you can directly run an SSH command to connect to the server. However, if you are using Windows, there is no SSH client installed by default.

While there are many very good SSH clients in the market that were designed for Windows environment usages, personally, I would prefer PuTTY as it is easy to setup and pretty lightweight.

Once you are done, press “Open” and you should be able to gain access to the bandit0 box.