Decode a binary frame
Expert 30 ptsGoal: Read the ASCII secret out of a raw binary WebSocket frame.
Capture it yourself — real traffic
- Open Wireshark on your active interface and start a capture. Display filter for this level:
websocket. No GUI?sudo tcpdump -i any -w cap.pcap port 9080. - Open the plaintext lab and click Generate traffic once.
- Stop the capture. The secret is in a binary (opcode 2) WebSocket frame on
/ws. Wireshark shows this frame as hex, not text. Decode the hex bytes to ASCII (bytes pane, or CyberChef → From Hex) to read the token.
Open the plaintext lab (:9080) →
Genuinely unencrypted — the secret exists only on the wire, never on the page.
Hints
Open in order — they nudge, not solve.
Hint 1
Still websocket. One frame is a binary frame (opcode 2) — Wireshark shows hex bytes, not text.
Hint 2
Those bytes are ASCII. Decode the hex: Wireshark's bytes pane, or paste the hex into CyberChef → From Hex.
Hint 3
It decodes to the BINARY-WS-… token — that's the answer.