Automata

Description

I found a broken old machine in my basement. Can you help me reassemble it? 100Pts

Question

Take a look at these odd parts and see if you can make sense of them.

Solution

First, I downloaded the file to a virtual machine. The file was a Zip file. When I extracted the zip file, three files came up.

Files what was in zip file

1. automation_matrix
2. clunky_gizmo
3. long_apparatus

I took a look at the contents of the files and found that they appear to be base64 encoded text. I tried to compile one file directly from the base64 code back, but as a single file the content didn't make sense.

Since the assignment says to look at these file parts I chained the files together with the command cat automation_matrix clunky_gizmo long_apparatus | base64 -d > file1 . I looked at the file that came from these, but with this combination the file didn't make sense. I cycled through the different sequences until I found the right one. cat long_apparatus automation_matrix clunky_gizmo | base64 -d > file3.

The file became an executable data file that told a story when run, but didn't give a flag. I then used the command strings file3 | grep ctf and got the flag.

Tools

• unzip
• cat
• grep
• base64
• file

Flag

ctftech{now-i-listen}

Links

• Back to CTF Challenges page