OverTheWire Bandit: The Linux Fundamental Behind Each Level
Notes on what each level is really testing (paths, special filenames, dotfiles), plus a tmux workflow. No passwords.
How I'm doing it
On the ThinkPad, in tmux, with nvim for notes. One rule: no level writeups with passwords. Notes record the concept and the command pattern only, per OverTheWire's request.
Level 1 — a file named -
I cd'd into /home (wrong place: you start in your own home directory) and then tried to cd into a file. - means stdin to most tools, so you read it by path:
cat ./-Concept: working directory, files vs directories, and how - gets parsed.
Level 3 — the hidden file
ls shows nothing; ls -la shows ...Hiding-From-You. Read it from inside the directory with a relative path:
cd inhere && cat ./...Hiding-From-YouConcept: dotfiles, and cat ./ vs cat <file>.
Side quest — tmux
"sessions should not be nested": I ran tmux new inside tmux. Check with echo $TMUX. My workflow: prefix Ctrl-A, split horizontally or vertically, one pane for the SSH session and one for notes.
Template for future levels
Level N: goal → what I tried → what it was testing → the command pattern → the man page I should have read first.
Sources: OverTheWire Bandit Help (12 Apr 2026), Bandit on OverTheWire Guide (17 May 2026)