No external program?

It depends on what you call “external”, but yes, it is possible. The question is, why restrict yourself like that?

I do not know, maybe curiosity. I am in there for a short time, but for me it seems like everything in there can be passed “manually”.

I am also kind of person who like to solve problems from root/source. If I use something external, programmed by anyone else so I do not know the functionality, I will actually learn nothing, it is more like to tell someone “hey, complete it for me”.

Is there any hint, where to start? I believe the browser is way not enough, so I will have to use cmd or something, but I am quite lost in there. Too low experience in this area (ports, server configs, and so on)

Unless you want to make hand-crafted packet to scan, you will have to use nmap :)

There are many many ways. Not all manual or nmap.

Also, not all challenges can be solved without “external” tools. However, most things can be solved by making your own tools, which I highly recommend.

True…
Making your own stuff will make you really understand how something works and you’ll understand everything you do, +1 for the good advice !

Yes, I like the idea of creating my own tool, but I have no idea of where to start. Any links/hints (if the hint would be too “spoilering”, you can also PM me)

1. Learn a “good” programming language for CTF’s things like python
2. Understand what you have to do there
3. Code something / search on google what library to use / import

I have used nmap as recomended, but I have probably missed, how to recognize the port running suspicious service? NetCat did not work at all (maybe problem between computer and chair, but you know :D any alternatives or idea how to make it work?)

And maybe a bit offtopic, but as we were talking about it, anyone knows about good practic web that explains python? Everything I have found was too theoretic for me (lot of text, little examples).

Hope this post is not too “spoilering”, but everything mentioned in there is also mentioned in other posts, just rewritten)

Python2.7 (which I would recommend using instead of 3.4) has a built in compiled HTML doc if you go to Saved Directory/Python27/Doc.

From there you should have everything you need to get started.

Good luck!

You just need to find precise option while running your scan
That not really really hard, just check zenmap or the nmap :)

Hmm, I would advice you to learn python from text, and do some ‘stupid’ things using python
By ‘stupid’ things, I meant things you’ll actually do manually, like connecting to hackthis :)
Or even download all picture in webpage….
That’s how you’ll understand how to work with this great language
( You can practice by doing CTFs too :) )

If you have any other question + you don’t want to spoil, just PM me, I’ll answer back :)