I Thought I Knew Linux. This Lab Proved Me Wrong.

I've been using Linux for a while. Commands like useradd , chmod , grep — I knew them. I could navigate the terminal without panicking. So when I started my first assignment in the ParoCyber DevSecOps Bootcamp, I figured it would be straightforward. It wasn't. And I mean that in the best way possible. What the Assignment Was About The lab had two scenarios. The first was a password state investigation — find users on a system with no passwords set, understand where Linux stores that information, and remediate it. The second was a full onboarding simulation: create users, assign them to department groups, configure a CI/CD service account, manage sudo access, and safely offboard a user. On paper, it sounds like basic sysadmin work. In practice, it forced me to think like a security engineer — and that changed everything. The Moment That Reframed Everything In Scenario 1, the task said: "You are not told where Linux stores password state. Finding it is part of the task." I knew about /et