Real 8

I brute forced for the password and I found a match. When I used it the next day it mysteriously didn't work anymore. I scanned again with the same "source" and to my surprise, it did NOT find a match. I took a new source and scanned again and it didn't find a match. I spend about 42 hours on brute force scanning :| About to give up… This challenge broken ?

There are 2 ways to pass this challenge, one using the admin password, and the other via an overflow.  Since the challenge is linked to your ip/session, you probably triggered the latter, and that's why the password appeared to work, as you were already logged in via the overflow.

Triggering it takes about 6 seconds using two fingers and a keyboard.

42 hours clearly proves that brute forcing shit should only be considered as a last resort, and not as your first choice option.

You could always have looked for articles or checked the forum. https://www.hellboundhackers.org/articles/read-article.php?article_id=352