Dear Diary, My Flare-On 11

This year it was no different. I’ll be writing down a short blog about my experience tackling this years challenges.

Timeline

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1. September 27th 2024 at 6:30 AM

   Starting of Flare-on
2. September 27th, 5:09:55 PM

   Solved Challenge 1 - frog
3. October 1st, 4:46:42 AM

   Solved Challenge 2 - checksum
4. November 1st, 9:23:14 AM

   Solved Challenge 3 - aray
5. November 6th, 6:07:38 AM

   Solved Challenge 4 - Meme Maker 3000
6. November 8th 2024 at 8pm

   Ending of Flare-on

Challenge 1 - frog

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We were given a game written in python using the pygames library.

The logic of the game and the encryption was simple to understand and didn’t take me much to get the flag.

Challenge 2 - checksum

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For me this was the most chellenging one out of all the challenges I solved. We had to reverse an executable written in Go.

The first step was to reverse engineer the hash used to solve the checksum, and the second step involved finding the path where the flag image was generated.

Challenge 3 - aray

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We had to deal with yara rule constraints into solving the challenge through patience and scripting. At the end of solving, my script turned out to be of 407 lines.

Challenge 4 - Meme Maker 3000

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Last of the challenge that I managed to solve was Meme Maker 300 which was a Javascript Obfuscattion challenge.

I quickly deobfuscated and clened up the code as I began to understand the logic. After playing with the browser counsole couple to times, I managed to understand the logic for the required conditions and got the flag.

Goodbye

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That wraps up my journey, having solved 4 out of 10 challenges.

I might have solved more if I had been consistent but I’m happy with my performance this year improving over my last years results. Along the way, I got the chance to learn and explore new techniques growing as a reverse engineer.

So, this is a seeya and not a goodbye. Will come back stronger and better next year.

:)