Cat Pictures — TryHackMe WalkThrough

📰 Medium · Cybersecurity

Learn how to compromise a target machine using multiple techniques like port knocking and binary exploitation in the TryHackMe Cat Pictures room

intermediate Published 25 Apr 2026

Action Steps

Run a full port scan using nmap to identify open and filtered services
Use anonymous FTP access to gather information about the target machine
Exploit a hidden internal shell service to gain initial access
Use binary exploitation to escalate privileges
Extract SSH keys to gain remote access
Abuse cron jobs to achieve full root access

Who Needs to Know This

This walkthrough is beneficial for security professionals and penetration testers who want to improve their skills in exploiting vulnerabilities and gaining root access to a system. It can also be useful for system administrators who want to learn how to identify and fix security weaknesses in their systems.

Key Insight

💡 Chaining multiple techniques can lead to a complete system takeover, highlighting the importance of securing all services and configurations

Key Takeaways

Learn how to compromise a target machine using multiple techniques like port knocking and binary exploitation in the TryHackMe Cat Pictures room

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Title: Cat Pictures — TryHackMe WalkThrough

URL Source: https://medium.com/@rayenhafsawy/cat-pictures-tryhackme-walkthrough-ace4a608f068?source=rss------cybersecurity-5

Published Time: 2026-04-25T08:55:17Z

Markdown Content:
# Cat Pictures — TryHackMe WalkThrough | by Rayenhafsawy | Apr, 2026 | Medium

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# Cat Pictures — TryHackMe WalkThrough

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**Date: 15/04/2026**

**Room Link:**[**https://tryhackme.com/room/catpictures**](https://tryhackme.com/room/catpictures)

**My Profile:**[**https://tryhackme.com/p/RayenHafsawy**](https://tryhackme.com/p/RayenHafsawy)

## 🧭 Introduction

In this write-up, I demonstrate how I compromised a target machine by chaining multiple techniques — including port knocking, anonymous FTP access, a hidden internal shell service, binary exploitation, SSH key extraction, and cron job abuse — to achieve full root access.

This lab is a perfect example of how security through obscurity, weak service configurations, and writable scheduled scripts can combine into a complete system takeover.

## 🔍 1. Initial Reconnaissance

I started with a full port scan to identify all open and filtered services:

nmap -p 1-10000 -T4 10.113.179.22

![Image 4](https://miro.medium.com/

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Cat Pictures — TryHackMe WalkThrough

Key Takeaways

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