Skip to content
ctfpal
Every CTF
2023picoctfsolutions.compicoCTF

picoCTF 2023

100 challenges with 414 published solutions between them. Each challenge leads with its worked solution on picoctfsolutions.com - one per challenge, rather than an aggregate of other people’s posts - and lists under it whatever the repository and blog harvests found written about the same challenge.

Every writeup on picoctfsolutions.com

Uncategorised41

The upstream scoreboard did not say, so neither do we.

Solve it with:Cipher identifier and automatic decoderLearn: Recognising encodings

Reverse engineering14

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

Forensics11

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

Cryptography10

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 exploitation10

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

Web8

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

Misc6

Everything that fits no other box: esolangs, puzzles, scripting exercises, and the jail escapes that have not yet earned their own category.

Solve it with:Brainfuck and esolang decoderCipher identifier and automatic decoderRegex tester with match offsets and capture groupsLearn: Recognising encodings

Other 2023 events