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Every CTF
2023weight 11.23GDSCVIT

DeconstruCT.F 2023

21 challenges with 51 published community solutions between them. Solution links go to CTFtime’s task page, which aggregates every writeup for a challenge - individual blog posts rot, the aggregator does not.

Full task list on CTFtime

Forensics9

Recover something from a file, a capture, or a disk image - often from a part of it the format says is unused.

Solve it with:File type identifier by magic bytesMagic byte and file signature tablePCAP analyzer for CTF network forensicsEXIF metadata viewerLearn: File forensics and carvingLearn: Network forensics

Web5

Reach data or functionality the application meant to keep from you - through its inputs, its tokens, or its trust in the client.

Solve it with:JWT decoder and signature verifierJWT alg=none bypass generatorWeb attack payload catalogJWT secret brute forceLearn: Sessions, tokens and access control

OSINT2

Answer a question about the real world from public sources. The work is pivoting between identifiers, not exploiting anything.

Solve it with:EXIF metadata viewerQR code decoder

Cryptography2

Recover a plaintext or a key from something that was supposed to protect it. In practice: identify the scheme, find the parameter the author got wrong, exploit it.

Solve it with:Cipher identifier and automatic decoderVigenere cipher solver with automatic key recoveryRSA decryption and attack runnerWiener’s attack on small RSA private exponentsIn-browser hash cracker with rule transformsLearn: Classical ciphers and frequency analysisLearn: RSA and the parameters that break it

Binary exploitation1

Turn a memory-safety bug in a native binary into control of execution. Usually a stack overflow, a format string, or a heap primitive.

Solve it with:ROP gadget finderShellcode assembler and libraryCyclic pattern generator and offset finderFormat string exploit builderLearn: Binary exploitation

Reverse engineering1

Work out what a compiled program does without its source, then work backwards from the check to the input that passes it.

Solve it with:Strings extractor for binaries and blobsWebAssembly disassemblerJava .class disassemblerPython .pyc bytecode disassemblerLearn: Binary exploitation

Steganography1

Find the payload hidden inside a carrier that looks ordinary. Bit planes, appended data, metadata, and audio spectrograms.

Solve it with:LSB steganography extractorPNG chunk analyzerAudio spectrogram and SSTV decoderZero-width character and text steganography decoderLearn: Steganography

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