> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://0xb0b.gitbook.io/writeups/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://0xb0b.gitbook.io/writeups/tryhackme/2025/light.md). # Light Welcome to the Light database application! - by hadrian3689 {% embed url="" %} The following post by 0xb0b is licensed under [CC BY 4.0

](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/?ref=chooser-v1) *** For this challenge, we will skip the Nmap scan. The room description already asks us to connect to port `1337`. We also get a user to start with. The service on `1337` could be the aforementioned database application called Light.

Since this is a database challenge, we try the simplest SQL Injection payload `'`. And we get an error returned. The service might be vulnerable to SQL Injection. The error message tells us about an unrecognized token in `''' LIMIT 30"`. We may have broken the enclosed string by `'`, which led to this error.

Now, let's try to get more information using a UNION SELECT injection. But it errors with our comment we used. ``` ' UNION SELECT 1 -- - ```

Alternately, we use `#` to comment, and do not receive a similar error as before. But there are words that get blocked. It might be UNION and SELECT. ``` ' UNION SELECT 1 # ```

We switch between capitalized and non capitalized characters. But still get an error. Might be the SELECT statement too. ``` ' UniOn SELECT 1 # ```

After applying the same technique to the SELECT statement, we now get a different error. The token `#` is not recognized. ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt 1 # ```

We URL encode the `#` character, but that does not help either. But we receive another error regarding the `'` character. ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt 1 %23 ```

So maybe there is a statement like this, that gets broken with inserting a `'`: ``` SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '{user_input}' LIMIT 30; ``` Leading to: ``` SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ''' LIMIT 30; ``` We close our statement with another `'`, and now have a successful UNION based injection. ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt 1 ' ```

Next, we query for the version, to determine which DBMS is used to craft the payloads to retreive the data from the database. It is a SQLite Database version 3.31.1. ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt @@version ' ' UniOn SeLeCt version() ' ' UniOn SeLeCt sqlite_version() ' ```

{% embed url="" %} Next we query from the `sqlite_master` to get the database structure. There is a `admintable` and a `usertable`. ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt group_concat(sql) FROM sqlite_master ' ```

We query username and password from the `usertable`, but do not find the asked information: ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt group_concat(username) FROM usertable ' ``` ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt group_concat(password) FROM usertable ' ```

Next, we query for the username and password from the `admintable` and do find the username, password and the asked flag. ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt group_concat(username) FROM admintable ' ``` ``` ' UniOn SeLeCt group_concat(password) FROM admintable ' ```