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Labs / Log Hunter

  • Daily Challenge
  • Released 22 Jul 2025
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Daily Challenge

Log Hunter - Web Server Log Analysis Challenge

Challenge Overview

You've been given access to a web server's access log file containing suspicious activity. Your mission is to analyze the log entries, identify patterns, and extract the hidden flag from the recorded traffic. This challenge simulates real-world incident response scenarios where security analysts must examine log files to detect and investigate security breaches.

Learning Objectives

  • Master web server log analysis techniques
  • Learn to identify suspicious patterns in HTTP traffic
  • Practice extracting hidden data from log entries
  • Understand common attack vectors found in logs
  • Develop real-world incident response skills
  • Recognize data encoding techniques used by attackers

Challenge Details

The access log file contains a mix of legitimate traffic and suspicious activity. Attackers often hide data within seemingly normal HTTP requests using various encoding techniques. Your task is to analyze each log entry carefully and identify where the flag has been hidden within the traffic patterns.

Log Format Information

The log follows the Apache Combined Log Format:

IP - - [timestamp] "method /path HTTP/1.1" status size "referer" "user-agent"

Pay special attention to unusual URL parameters, suspicious user agents, error status codes, and requests to non-existent files.