Join the Discord
Before proceeding further, we recommend joining our Discord community.
NOTE: To join our discord you must have a lancs.ac.uk or a lancaster.ac.uk email address.
Explore Challenges
If you're eager to take on some exciting challenges, you can start with these:
Lab Access Instructions
To access our lab machines, which are hosted within a VPN , follow these instructions:
- Most of our lab machines will be accessible via a VPN. To get VPN access, install Tailscale on your computer by visiting Tailscale Download.
- Set up your own Tailscale account. Please note, do not use email addresses ending with
@lancaster.ac.ukor@lancs.ac.ukas they will not work. - After installing Tailscale, you can use the
/infra joincommands in the#bot-commandschannel on the Discord server to generate invite links to our lab machines.
- Once the machine is in your Tailscale network, you can connect to it from your computer running Tailscale using the IP address displayed on the dashboard. The open ports on the machine will vary depending on the LUHack session it's intended for. You can use tools like nmap to explore available ports.
Some machines are not targets for hacking but rather provide services, such as the VM services. These give you remote access to a Kali Linux VM, which can only access other lab machines. - You don't necessarily need a dedicated Kali Linux VM; you can install Tailscale on a regular Windows, Mac, or Linux machine and use our web-based Kali VMs. But, if you do want to create your own Kali VM you can find an easy to understand guide here. If you encounter issues joining machine 0 or experience poor performance, consider joining one of the other available machines. Please avoid joining additional machines if you're not facing any issues, as Tailscale has a cap of 10 shares per machine.
