🔓 CTF Write-up: A Little Something to Get You Started (Hacker101)
Beginner-Level Room | 1 Flag | Hacker101 CTF Walkthrough
🧭 Room Overview
“A little something to get you started” is a beginner-friendly CTF challenge from Hacker101 CTF, created for those taking their first step into Capture The Flag puzzles. The difficulty is trivial, making it an ideal starting point for sharpening your observation and web inspection skills.
After launching the room, we land on a welcome page that simply says:
"Welcome to level 0. Enjoy your stay."
🔍 Initial Recon
As with any CTF room, the first step is viewing the page source. By pressing Shift + I (or right-click → Inspect), we can peek into the HTML.
Inside the <style> tags, we notice a reference to background.png — suspicious and definitely worth investigating further.
🏁 Finding the Flag
Opening background.png in a new tab reveals the flag embedded in the image — mission accomplished!
📽️ Video Walkthrough
🐍 Python Code to Automate Flag Extraction
from requests import get as get_request
# Getting CTF ID from User
ctf_id = input("[1] Enter your ctf id: ")
# Handling Exceptions
try:
# Getting Flag from CTF
response = get_request("https://" + ctf_id + ".ctf.hacker101.com/background.png")
if response.status_code == 200:
print(f"\033[32m[2] Your flag is: {response.text}\033[0m")
else:
print("\033[33m[2] Wrong ctf id check and try again.\033[0m")
except Exception as e:
# Printing Exception
print(f"\033[32m[2] {str(e)}\033[0m")
📌 Key Takeaways
- Always inspect the page source for clues — comments, hidden links, or style references often hide flags.
- Simple recon like checking image URLs can lead directly to flags.
- Beginner rooms are about developing investigative instincts, not technical complexity.
📣 Tags
#Hacker101CTF #CTFWriteup #EthicalHacking #WebSecurity #CyberSecurity #Skillshetra #InfoSec #CaptureTheFlag #PythonCTF