UTCTF 19' Write-up / [basics] crypto

This time I took part in UTCTF. This is my approach.

binary.txt

When I open the file, it has a binary string so I made a small code to figure out what messages in it

a = "01010101 01101000 ...... " (Copy from the file)

a = a.split(" ")

d = ""

for i in range(len(a)):

  d += chr(int("0b" + a[i], 2))

After that, I found below message, especially the encoding part.

Uh-oh, looks like we have another block of text, with some sort of special encoding. Can youfigure out what this encoding is? (hint: if you look carefully, you'll notice that there only characters present are A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and sometimes / and +. See if you can find an encoding that looks like this one.)

TmV3IGNoYWxsZW5nZSEgQ2FuIHlvdSBmaWd1cmUgb3V0IHdoYXQncyBnb2luZyBvbiBoZXJlPyBJdCBsb29rcyBsaWtlIHRo

ZSBsZXR0ZXJzIGFyZSBzaGlmdGVkIGJ5IHNvbWUgY29uc3RhbnQuIChoaW50OiB5b3UgbWlnaHQgd2FudCB0byBzdGFydC

Bsb29raW5nIHVwIFJvbWFuIHBlb3BsZSkuCmt2YnNxcmQsIGl5ZSdibyBrdnd5Y2QgZHJvYm8hIFh5ZyBweWIgZHJvIHBze

Gt2IChreG4gd2tpbG8gZHJvIHJrYm5vY2QuLi4pIHprYmQ6IGsgY2VsY2RzZGVkc3l4IG1zenJvYi4gU3ggZHJvIHB5dnZ5Z3N

4cSBkb2hkLCBTJ2ZvIGRrdW94IHdpIHdvY2NrcW8ga3huIGJvenZrbW9uIG9mb2JpIGt2enJrbG9kc20gbXJrYmttZG9iIGd

zZHIgayBteWJib2N6eXhub3htbyBkeSBrIG5zcHBvYm94ZCBtcmtia21kb2IgLSB1eHlneCBrYyBrIGNlbGNkc2RlZHN5eCBtc3p

yb2IuIE1reCBpeWUgcHN4biBkcm8gcHN4a3YgcHZrcT8gcnN4ZDogR28gdXh5ZyBkcmtkIGRybyBwdmtxIHNjIHF5c3hxIGR5

IGxvIHlwIGRybyBweWJ3a2QgZWRwdmtxey4uLn0gLSBncnNtciB3b2t4YyBkcmtkIHNwIGl5ZSBjb28gZHJrZCB6a2Rkb2J4L

CBpeWUgdXh5ZyBncmtkIGRybyBteWJib2N6eXhub3htb2MgcHliIGUsIGQsIHAsIHYgaywga3huIHEga2JvLiBJeWUgbWt4I

HpieWxrbHZpIGd5YnUgeWVkIGRybyBib3drc3hzeHEgbXJrYmttZG9iYyBsaSBib3p2a21zeHEgZHJvdyBreG4gc3hwb2Jic3hx

IG15d3d5eCBneWJuYyBzeCBkcm8gT3hxdnNjciB2a3hxZWtxby4gS3h5ZHJvYiBxYm9rZCB3b2RyeW4gc2MgZHkgZWNvIHB

ib2Flb3htaSBreGt2aWNzYzogZ28gdXh5ZyBkcmtkICdvJyBjcnlnYyBleiB3eWNkIHlwZG94IHN4IGRybyBrdnpya2xvZCwgY3k

gZHJrZCdjIHpieWxrbHZpIGRybyB3eWNkIG15d3d5eCBtcmtia21kb2Igc3ggZHJvIGRvaGQsIHB5dnZ5Z29uIGxpICdkJywga

3huIGN5IHl4LiBZeG1vIGl5ZSB1eHlnIGsgcG9nIG1ya2JrbWRvYmMsIGl5ZSBta3ggc3hwb2IgZHJvIGJvY2QgeXAgZHJvIGd

5Ym5jIGxrY29uIHl4IG15d3d5eCBneWJuYyBkcmtkIGNyeWcgZXogc3ggZHJvIE94cXZzY3Igdmt4cWVrcW8uCnJnaG54c2R

meXNkdGdodSEgcWdmIGlzYWsgY3RodHVpa2UgZGlrIHprbnRoaGt4IHJ4cWxkZ254c2xpcSByaXN5eWtobmsuIGlreGsgdHU

gcyBjeXNuIGNneCBzeXkgcWdmeCBpc3hlIGtjY2d4ZHU6IGZkY3lzbnszaHJ4cWxkMTBoXzE1X3IwMHl9LiBxZ2YgdnR5eSBj

dGhlIGRpc2QgcyB5Z2QgZ2MgcnhxbGRnbnhzbGlxIHR1IHBmdWQgemZ0eWV0aG4gZ2NjIGRpdHUgdWd4ZCBnYyB6c3V0ci

BiaGd2eWtlbmssIHNoZSB0ZCB4a3N5eXEgdHUgaGdkIHVnIHpzZSBzY2RreCBzeXkuIGlnbGsgcWdmIGtocGdxa2UgZGlrIHJ

pc3l5a2huayE=

Simply, I used the website tool and I found another message in it. (https://www.base64decode.org)

New challenge! Can you figure out what's going on here? It looks like the letters are shifted by some constant. (hint: you might want to start looking up Roman people).

kvbsqrd, iye'bo kvwycd drobo! Xyg pyb dro psxkv (kxn wkilo dro rkbnocd...) zkbd: k celcdsdedsyx mszrob. Sx dro pyvvygsxq dohd, S'fo dkuox wi wocckqo kxn bozvkmon ofobi kvzrklodsm mrkbkmdob gsdr k mybboczyxnoxmo dy k nsppoboxd mrkbkmdob - uxygx kc k celcdsdedsyx mszrob. Mkx iye psxn dro psxkv pvkq? rsxd: Go uxyg drkd dro pvkq sc qysxq dy lo yp dro pybwkd edpvkq{...} - grsmr wokxc drkd sp iye coo drkd zkddobx, iye uxyg grkd dro mybboczyxnoxmoc pyb e, d, p, v k, kxn q kbo. Iye mkx zbylklvi gybu yed dro bowksxsxq mrkbkmdobc li bozvkmsxq drow kxn sxpobbsxq mywwyx gybnc sx dro Oxqvscr vkxqekqo. Kxydrob qbokd wodryn sc dy eco pboaeoxmi kxkvicsc: go uxyg drkd 'o' crygc ez wycd ypdox sx dro kvzrklod, cy drkd'c zbylklvi dro wycd mywwyx mrkbkmdob sx dro dohd, pyvvygon li 'd', kxn cy yx. Yxmo iye uxyg k pog mrkbkmdobc, iye mkx sxpob dro bocd yp dro gybnc lkcon yx mywwyx gybnc drkd cryg ez sx dro Oxqvscr vkxqekqo.

rghnxsdfysdtghu! qgf isak cthtuike dik zknthhkx rxqldgnxsliq risyykhnk. ikxk tu s cysn cgx syy qgfx isxe kccgxdu: fdcysn{3hrxqld10h_15_r00y}. qgf vtyy cthe disd s ygd gc rxqldgnxsliq tu pfud zftyethn gcc ditu ugxd gc zsutr bhgvykenk, she td xksyyq tu hgd ug zse scdkx syy. iglk qgf khpgqke dik risyykhnk!

I focused on Roman people so I googled it. I found Caesar cipher. Simply I used web-based tool for decoding.

I used  https://cryptii.com/pipes/caesar-cipher and I got below message.

alright, you're almost there! Xow for the final (and maybe the hardest...) part: a substitution cipher. Sn the following text, S've taken my message and replaced every alphabetic character with a correspondence to a different character - known as a substitution cipher. Man you find the final flag? hint: Ge know that the flag is going to be of the format utflag{...} - which means that if you see that pattern, you know what the correspondences for u, t, f, l a, and g are. Iou can probably work out the remaining characters by replacing them and inferring common words in the Onglish language. Knother great method is to use frequency analysis: we know that 'e' shows up most often in the alphabet, so that's probably the most common character in the text, followed by 't', and so on. Ynce you know a few characters, you can infer the rest of the words based on common words that show up in the Onglish language.

hwxdnitvoitjwxk! gwv yiqa sjxjkyau tya padjxxan hngbtwdnibyg hyiooaxda. yana jk i soid swn ioo gwvn yinu asswntk: vtsoid{3xhngbt10x_15_h00o}. gwv ljoo sjxu tyit i owt ws hngbtwdnibyg jk fvkt pvjoujxd wss tyjk kwnt ws pikjh rxwloauda, ixu jt naioog jk xwt kw piu istan ioo. ywba gwv axfwgau tya hyiooaxda

I simply made a code to decode rest of gibberish message using the hint in the first paragraph.

dict = {'v': 'u', 't': 't', 's': 'f', 'o': 'l', 'i': 'a', 'd': 'g', 'g': 'y',

        'w': 'o', 'a': 'e', 'h': 'c', 'y': 'h', 'x': 'n', 'k': 's', 'j': 'i',

        'n': 'r', 'q': 'v', 'u': 'd', 'p': 'b', 'b': 'p', 'l': 'w', 'r': 'k',

        'f': 'j'

}

a = "hwxdnitvoitjwxk! gwv yiqa sjxjkyau tya padjxxan hngbtwdnibyg hyiooaxda.

yana jk i soid swn ioo gwvn yinu asswntk: vtsoid{3xhngbt10x_15_h00o}.

gwv ljoo sjxu tyit i owt ws hngbtwdnibyg jk fvkt pvjoujxd wss tyjk kwnt ws pikjh rxwloauda,

ixu jt naioog jk xwt kw piu istan ioo. ywba gwv axfwgau tya hyiooaxda"

b = ""

for i in range(len(a)):

  if a[i] in dict:

    b += dict[a[i]]

  else:

    b += a[i]

print(b)

Finally, I solved the crypto basic problem.

congratulations! you have finished the beginner cryptography challenge. here is a flag for all your hard efforts: utflag{3ncrypt10n_15_c00l}. you will find that a lot of cryptography is just building off this sort of basic knowledge, and it really is not so bad after all. hope you enjoyed the challenge

Flag : utflag{3ncrypt10n_15_c00l}

Reference site : https://utctf.live/challenges#[basics]%20crypto