> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://pwning-wargames.gitbook.io/readme/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://pwning-wargames.gitbook.io/readme/preface/why-bad-bank-exists.md).

# Why the E. Corp Shop exists

To the unsuspecting user the **E. Corp Shop** just looks like a small online shop which sells - *surprise!* - consumer junk. Except for the entirely overrated payment and delivery aspect of the e-commerce business, the **E. Corp Shop** is fully functional. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The **E. Corp Shop** contains  challenges of varying difficulty where you are supposed to exploit underlying security vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities were intentionally planted in the application for exactly that purpose, but in a way that actually happens in "real-life" web development as well!

Your hacking progress is tracked by the application using immediate push notifications for successful exploits as well as a score board for progress overview. Finding this score board is actually one of the (easiest) challenges! The idea behind this is to utilize [gamification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification) techniques to motivate you to get as many challenges solved as possible - similar to unlocking achievements in many modern video games.

Apart from the hacker and awareness training use case, penetration testing tools and automated security scanners are invited to use **E. Corp Shop** as a sort of guinea pig-application to check how well their products cope with JavaScript-heavy application frontends and REST APIs.

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