PlaidCTF

Story

Having had enough with animals, crossing, and those pesky racoons, you go back out into the strip and look for something else to suit your fancy. At the end of the line, you see a rather disappointing one. It doesn’t even stretch up to your knees. The wood around the edges is painted nicely, but the interior looks like pure sand. There are a couple of kids fooling around within the interior. They’re filling up buckets, making castles, dumping sand on each others’ heads. It looks like they’re having a grand old time.

You call out to them, “Hey! Are you guys having fun?”

They kids don’t respond to you, but freeze at your suggestion. Slowly, they turn to face you, their eyes wide. You walk forward, concerned. As you move closer, the kids start sinking into the sand. You get even more concerned, and start running towards the sandy box. How could someone put quicksand into a sandbox? You look around, frantically, if there’s anything you could throw them. Nobody seems to be paying attention to you, and you don’t have anything suitable available.

So, you decide to dive into the sandbox. You remember that keeping your body flat, as if you were floating on water, can help you not sink into quicksand. As you pass the edge of the box, the kids vanish. The last glimpse of them before you tumble, falling, shows you a wicked smile on one of their faces. You land face-down in a heap. You spit out a huge mouthful of sand, tasting the grit on your teeth. “Bleh! Ptoowie!”

Looking around your new surroundings, you’re in a tiny space with sand all around. You try to shake open your HUD, but it doesn’t work. With not much else you can do, you start digging your way out.

Only use flagCheck if you get a different flag than pwn.college{.....}, in which you input the flag you get from the challenge to get the actual flag

Use sudo ./sandybox to run the challenge

Author: Plaid Parliament of Pwning

Ready to go shopping?

Use flagCheck to input the flag you get from the challenge to get the actual flag

Author: Plaid Parliament of Pwning

Story

Maybe looking at the user-facing parts of the HQB Multimedia Library was your mistake all along. You glance furtively around, seeing nobody paying attention to you, and slip through a heavy door marked “Librarians only”. A long hallway leads to a room with way more color than you were expecting. A sign above the entrance to the room reads DB. No other explanation. Inside the room, post-its are everywhere with cute animals, cute faces, and cute flags on them. Is this how they keep track of the collection? You think there has to be some problem with this system. Maybe even a problem that tells you about a flag.

Use flagCheck to input the flag you get from the challenge to get the actual flag

Author: Plaid Parliament of Pwning

It's late. You finally made it to town after a long day, and you decide to stop at the saloon before calling it a night. You start toward the bar, but suddenly you hear a crash from one of the rooms off to the side. The door is slightly cracked open, and a sliver of light is poking out. You hear the sound of people yelling from behind it. The arguing gets louder as you approach. Just as you peak inside, the door slams open. A man walks out. The room gets quiet. You see a table with money and dice. And now there's an empty seat. Care to make a bet?

Use flagCheck to input the flag you get from the challenge to get the actual flag

Author: Plaid Parliament of Pwning

Some days I want to do string manipulation. And I want to do it fast! This guy is optimal up to log factors.

Author: Plaid Parliament of Pwning

Author: Plaid Parliament of Pwning

Story

Tired from all of the craziness in the Inner Sanctum, you decide to venture out to the beach to relax. You doze off in the sand only to be awoken by the loud “reee” of an osprey. A shell falls out of its talons and lands right where your head was a moment ago. No rest for the weary, huh? It looks a little funny, so you pick it up and realize that it’s backwards. I guess you’ll have to reverse it.

Use flagCheck to input the flag you get from the challenge to get the actual flag

Author: Plaid Parliament of Pwning