OverTheWire Maze Level 8 → 9 tutorial!!

Login

You finish this level using the maze8 account (from the previous post). There’s no new binary to exploit.

ssh maze8@maze.labs.overthewire.org -p <PORT>
# password: jopieyahng

On the server you won’t find a /maze/maze9 binary. Level 9 is just the epilogue page.

Task

There isn’t an exploitable program for Level 9. The official page simply congratulates you for completing Maze.

A little bit of Theory

Nothing to reverse here — Level 9 serves as a wrap-up checkpoint. If you made it through Level 8 (format-string → GOT overwrite → shellcode), you’ve already covered the core ideas the series wanted to teach:

• Classic overflows (stack, struct/offsets)
• Env-backed shellcode & NOP sleds
• Race conditions and ELF header games
• Shared-memory / self-modifying code quirks
• Format-string primitives (%x, %n, %hn) and GOT hijack

That’s basically the “swimming in memory” the epilogue hints at.

Solution

1. Confirm completion Visit the official Level 9 page (link in the nav above). You’ll see the “Well done!” message — there’s no additional credential to fetch and no binary to run.

2. Clean up (optional) Remove any temp files or symlinks you created during prior levels under /tmp, and unset your helper environment vars:

   unset SC
   

3. Archive your notes & payloads Keep your one-liners, PoCs, and payload generators; they’re great references for future pwnables.

Troubleshooting quick tips

• If you’re expecting a /maze/maze9 binary: there isn’t one. Level 8 was the last technical challenge.
• If you kept background listeners or symlink spammers running from older levels, kill them to avoid noise while exploring other games.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap for Maze 🎉

You just practiced a compact tour of foundational pwn techniques: controlled reads/writes, shellcode staging, GOT/PLT hijacking, ELF trickery, and more. These skills transfer directly to a ton of CTFs and beginner/intermediate exploit labs.

Next adventures:

• Narnia — more binary exploitation
• Utumno — trickier race conditions & memory games
• Labs: TryHackMe / Hack The Box

Thanks for reading!

Until next time — Otsumachi!! 💖☄️✨