Mysteriuos Masquerading Message
We found a file that looks to be like an ssh private key... but it doesn't seem quite right. Maybe you can shed some light on it?
The contents of id_rsa.txt read
tbbq yhpx:)
-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
SWYgeW91IGFyZSByZWFkaW5nIHRoaXMsIHRoZW4geW91IHByb2JhYmx5IGZ
pZ3VyZWQgb3V0IHRoYXQgaXQgd2Fzbid0IGFjdHVhbGx5IGFuIFNTSCBrZX
kgYnV0IGEgZGlzZ3Vpc2UuIFNvIHlvdSBoYXZlIG1hZGUgaXQgdGhpcyBmY
XIgYW5kIGZvciB0aGF0IEkgc2F5IHdlbGwgZG9uZS4gSXQgd2Fzbid0IHZl
cnkgaGFyZCwgdGhhdCBJIGtub3csIGJ1dCBuZXZlcnRoZWxlc3MgeW91IGh
hdmUgc3RpbGwgbWFkZSBpdCBoZXJlIHNvIGNvbmdyYXRzLiBOb3cgeW91IG
FyZSBwcm9iYWJseSByZWFkaW5nIHRoaXMgYW5kIHRoaW5raW5nIGFib3V0I
GFubm95aW5nIHRoZSBwZXJzb24gd2hvIG1hZGUgdGhpcywgYW5kIHlvdSB3
YW50IHRvIHJlYWQgdGhlIHdob2xlIHRoaW5nIHRvIGNoZWNrIGZvciBjbHV
lcywgYnV0IHlvdSBjYW50IGZpbmQgYW55LiBZb3UgYXJlIHN0YXJ0aW5nIH
RvIGdldCBmcnVzdHJhdGVkIGF0IHRoZSBwZXJzb24gd2hvIG1hZGUgdGhpc
yBhcyB0aGV5IHN0aWxsIGhhdmVuJ3QgbWVudGlvbmVkIGFueXRoaW5nIHRv
IGRvIHdpdGggdGhlIGNoYWxsZW5nZSwgZXhjZXB0ICJ3ZWxsIGRvbmUgeW9
1IGhhdmUgZ290IHRoaXMgZmFyIi4gWW91IHN0YXJ0IHNsYW1taW5nIGRlc2
tzLCBhbmQgc29vbiB0aGUgbW9uaXRvciB3aWxsIGZvbGxvdy4gWW91IGFyZ
SB3b25kZXJpbmcgd2hlcmUgdGhpcyBpcyBnb2luZyBhbmQgcmVhbGlzaW5n
IGl0J3MgY29taW5nIHRvIHRoZSBlbmQgb2YgdGhlIHBhcmFncmFwaCwgYW5
kIHlvdSBtaWdodCBub3QgaGF2ZSBzZWVuIGFueXRoaW5nLiBJIGhhdmUgZ2
l2ZW4geW91IHNvbWUgdGhpbmdzLCBhbHRob3VnaCB5b3Ugd2lsbCBuZWVkI
HNvbWV0aGluZyBlbHNlIGFzIHdlbGwgZ29vZCBsdWNrLiAKNjk2ZTY1NjU2
NDc0NmY2ZjcwNjU2ZTZjNmY2MzZiNzMKNjk2ZTY5NzQ2OTYxNmM2OTczNjE
3NDY5NmY2ZTMxMzI=
-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
00111001 00110000 00111001 00111000 00111000 01100011 00111001 01100010
01100101 01100110 01100101 00110101 01100101 01100001 00110011 01100110
00110101 01100001 00111001 00110001 01100101 01100110 01100110 01100101
00110000 00110011 00110000 00110110 00110000 01100001 00111000 00110111
00110001 00110100 01100100 01100110 01100011 00110010 00110000 00110000
00111000 00111000 00110100 00110001 00110101 00110101 00110111 00110000
01100010 00110011 00111001 00110100 01100011 01100101 00111001 01100011
01100100 00110011 00110010 01100010 01100101 00110111 00110001 00111000
Now the contents of proclaimed private key seems weird, I tried giving it a base64 decode
import base64
priv_key = """
SWYgeW91IGFyZSByZWFkaW5nIHRoaXMsIHRoZW4geW91IHByb2JhYmx5IGZ
pZ3VyZWQgb3V0IHRoYXQgaXQgd2Fzbid0IGFjdHVhbGx5IGFuIFNTSCBrZX
kgYnV0IGEgZGlzZ3Vpc2UuIFNvIHlvdSBoYXZlIG1hZGUgaXQgdGhpcyBmY
XIgYW5kIGZvciB0aGF0IEkgc2F5IHdlbGwgZG9uZS4gSXQgd2Fzbid0IHZl
cnkgaGFyZCwgdGhhdCBJIGtub3csIGJ1dCBuZXZlcnRoZWxlc3MgeW91IGh
hdmUgc3RpbGwgbWFkZSBpdCBoZXJlIHNvIGNvbmdyYXRzLiBOb3cgeW91IG
FyZSBwcm9iYWJseSByZWFkaW5nIHRoaXMgYW5kIHRoaW5raW5nIGFib3V0I
GFubm95aW5nIHRoZSBwZXJzb24gd2hvIG1hZGUgdGhpcywgYW5kIHlvdSB3
YW50IHRvIHJlYWQgdGhlIHdob2xlIHRoaW5nIHRvIGNoZWNrIGZvciBjbHV
lcywgYnV0IHlvdSBjYW50IGZpbmQgYW55LiBZb3UgYXJlIHN0YXJ0aW5nIH
RvIGdldCBmcnVzdHJhdGVkIGF0IHRoZSBwZXJzb24gd2hvIG1hZGUgdGhpc
yBhcyB0aGV5IHN0aWxsIGhhdmVuJ3QgbWVudGlvbmVkIGFueXRoaW5nIHRv
IGRvIHdpdGggdGhlIGNoYWxsZW5nZSwgZXhjZXB0ICJ3ZWxsIGRvbmUgeW9
1IGhhdmUgZ290IHRoaXMgZmFyIi4gWW91IHN0YXJ0IHNsYW1taW5nIGRlc2
tzLCBhbmQgc29vbiB0aGUgbW9uaXRvciB3aWxsIGZvbGxvdy4gWW91IGFyZ
SB3b25kZXJpbmcgd2hlcmUgdGhpcyBpcyBnb2luZyBhbmQgcmVhbGlzaW5n
IGl0J3MgY29taW5nIHRvIHRoZSBlbmQgb2YgdGhlIHBhcmFncmFwaCwgYW5
kIHlvdSBtaWdodCBub3QgaGF2ZSBzZWVuIGFueXRoaW5nLiBJIGhhdmUgZ2
l2ZW4geW91IHNvbWUgdGhpbmdzLCBhbHRob3VnaCB5b3Ugd2lsbCBuZWVkI
HNvbWV0aGluZyBlbHNlIGFzIHdlbGwgZ29vZCBsdWNrLiAKNjk2ZTY1NjU2
NDc0NmY2ZjcwNjU2ZTZjNmY2MzZiNzMKNjk2ZTY5NzQ2OTYxNmM2OTczNjE
3NDY5NmY2ZTMxMzI=
"""
decoded_priv_key = base64.b64decode("".join(priv_key.split()))
print(decoded_priv_key.decode())
Voila! It reads
If you are reading this, then you probably figured out that it wasn't actually an SSH key but a disguise.
So you have made it this far and for that I say well done. It wasn't very hard, that I know, but nevertheless
you have still made it here so congrats. Now you are probably reading this and thinking about annoying the
person who made this, and you want to read the whole thing to check for clues, but you cant find any. You
are starting to get frustrated at the person who made this as they still haven't mentioned anything to do
with the challenge, except "well done you have got this far". You start slamming desks, and soon the monitor
will follow. You are wondering where this is going and realising it's coming to the end of the paragraph,
and you might not have seen anything. I have given you some things, although you will need something else
as well good luck.
696e656564746f6f70656e6c6f636b73
696e697469616c69736174696f6e3132
trying out hex decoding the last two strings
part_1 = "696e656564746f6f70656e6c6f636b73"
part_2 = "696e697469616c69736174696f6e3132"
p1 = bytes.fromhex(part_1)
p2 = bytes.fromhex(part_2)
p3 = bytes.fromhex(bin_decoded_m2)
print(p1.decode())
print(p2.decode())
ineedtoopenlocks
initialisation12
hmm, no hint whats going on.
Lets try decoding the binary data at the end of the private key
m2 = """
00111001 00110000 00111001 00111000 00111000 01100011 00111001 01100010
01100101 01100110 01100101 00110101 01100101 01100001 00110011 01100110
00110101 01100001 00111001 00110001 01100101 01100110 01100110 01100101
00110000 00110011 00110000 00110110 00110000 01100001 00111000 00110111
00110001 00110100 01100100 01100110 01100011 00110010 00110000 00110000
00111000 00111000 00110100 00110001 00110101 00110101 00110111 00110000
01100010 00110011 00111001 00110100 01100011 01100101 00111001 01100011
01100100 00110011 00110010 01100010 01100101 00110111 00110001 00111000
"""
bin_decoded_m2 = "".join( chr(int(i,2)) for i in m2.split())
print(bin_decoded_m2)
Producing the hex string
90988c9befe5ea3f5a91effe03060a8714dfc20088415570b394ce9cd32be718
Now this got confusing at this point of time. I got 3 strings and not knowing what to do with them. I failed so many times XORing the strings creatively LOL.
Later did I realise the ineedtoopenlocks is a hint to KEY
And initialisation12 is a huge hint to IV
And the third string could be our ciphertext. By this time one would consider it to be AES encrypted.
Which mode?
The mode which has IV and should be easy to guess :- CBC
from Crypto.Cipher import AES
part_1 = "696e656564746f6f70656e6c6f636b73"
part_2 = "696e697469616c69736174696f6e3132"
bin_decoded_m2 = "90988c9befe5ea3f5a91effe03060a8714dfc20088415570b394ce9cd32be718"
p1 = bytes.fromhex(part_1)
p2 = bytes.fromhex(part_2)
p3 = bytes.fromhex(bin_decoded_m2)
cipher = AES.new(p1, AES.MODE_CBC, IV=p2)
flag = cipher.decrypt(p3)
print(flag.decode())
ractf{3Asy_F1aG_0n_aEs_rAcTf} and we get our flag sans padding!
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