password cracking, encryption, network vulnerabilities.
web application security, SQL injection, and network analysis. CVE's
reverse engineering, advanced cryptography, and sophisticated penetration testing.
Beginner level challenges: This category of challenges has been meticulously
crafted for those with limited to no prior experience. These challenges will be
based on the fundamentals of cybersecurity, know-how of fundamental tools and
techniques-
Intermediate level challenges: This set of challenges has been designed to test
your problem-solving abilities and creative thinking. As you tackle these
challenges, you will have to demonstrate your knowledge of advanced cybersecurity
tools and methodologies. The challenges include more advanced topics (not
necessarily limited to) such as -
Expert level challenges: This set of challenges has been categorically created to
push you to the limits of knowledge and ingenuity. These challenges will demand
resourcefulness, deep understanding of cybersecurity principles, and the ability to
think out of the box. Attempting these would require a comprehensive understanding
of multiple cybersecurity domains. The challenges are complex and may involve
topics (not necessarily limited to) like -
Approach (Step by Step):
1. Getting this challenge and opening the “Download Me” button redirected to an
amazonaws[.]com link where it seemed to be a brute-force attack more likely a
password spray attack.
2. So at first I searched for the ‘flag’ as the search filter, but the password
was already ‘whereistheflag’
3. Change of motive here, I then searched for the status code 200 since most
response was in 400 NOT FOUND.
4. And to my surprise, found the above flag scattered in multiple requests as
the user names having status code 200.
5. I copied the 200 response status portion and sorted the texts around the
provided flag and built the above flag as a normal string.
Approach (Step by Step):
1. This was a docker file analysis challenge, where I had to find where could be
the flag hiding in different layers of the provided file.
2. Upon downloading the file provided by “Download Me” and extracting the zip
archive, I saw a ‘repositories’ file within the FindFlag.tar file which mention
{"findflag":
{"latest":"d7f7f554120492d8765bdb55c27a52742af8be8f95489cd575047767ec522b49"}}
3. And upon checking the same directory we get a hidden file .WhatsInside.txt
under the nested compressed layer.tar under the same directory.
4. The above hidden .txt file contained a caesar cipher - UD7{q0g_q0g_q0px3e}
and upon brute-forcing the decryption with https://www.dcode.fr/caesar-cipher , I
found the shift was of 13 and hence got the above flag.
Approach (Step by Step):
1. Got a python compiled file “Tokyo+RE.pyc” from this Reverse Engineering
challenge
2. Decompiled the .pyc using online tool - https://www.toolnb.com/tools-lang-
en/pyc.html
3. Got the resultant script -
4. Wrote the reverse program for the above script and with the provided bytecode
got the flag- HQ7{}
Approach (Step by Step):
1. Upon accessing the challenge and hitting the “Download Me” button, it
redirected to an amazonaws[.]com link where the flag was again hidden in plain
sight.
2. I searched for the ‘}’ symbol as it would signify the end of the flag and
waited to get the whole response.
3. As soon as I got the response, copied the whole contents in a notepad .txt
and sorted the whole response omitting the garbage values hiding the actual flag.
4. After sorting the whole thing got the flag - HQ7{}
Approach (Step by Step):
1. Downloaded the challenge file and got that this was a macro enabled document.
2. I opened the file with the macro analysis tool “olevba” on Kali which
assessed the vba script present and got a whole load of ascii characters as a
Char(XX) under the hackquest() function.
3. Copied the ascii characters and converted them to texts and ran
https://www.dcode.fr/base-64-encoding and as suspected, it was base64 encoded so
decoded and got the result.
4.
5. Found out that it was a powershell scipt or say expression that made a zip
file – flag.zip under the local directory. But it was protected with a password.
6. Then ran brute-force on the protected zip to crack open it using
www.lostmypass.com, the password was admin.
7. Opened the flag.txt and got the flag
Approach (Step by Step):
7
1. Got another .pyc python compiled file from this Reverse Engineering challenge
2. Decompiled the .pyc using online tool - https://www.toolnb.com/tools-lang-
en/pyc.html
3. Got the resultant program script and wrote a reverse program for the script
and with the provided bytecode in the challenge.
4. Got the flag- HQ7{}
6. Then I submitted the flag I got.
