Phenominal-Photo

Forensics/Steganography

Simon was spotted dwelling under the clock-tower yet again, this time taking pictures. He seems to have captured a strange object in the far far distance going left, right, up, and down seemingly lost or out of control. There is a strange aura radiating from the photo, pulsations even, like an SOS. Can you figure out this strange phenomenon??

Author: WillyMcX

Given a single image, I tried using binwalk to find hidden files in the image but there was nothing:

$ binwalk boo.jpg

DECIMAL       HEXADECIMAL     DESCRIPTION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0             0x0             JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01

So, I tried using steganography to find the hidden files inside the image, and was given a zip file.

$ steghide extract -sf boo.jpg
Enter passphrase:
wrote extracted data to "Ship#1.zip".

Inside the zip there was gps.zip and Map.txt. The zip file was locked with a password, and this time I couldn't brute force it using john. Looking into the plaintext file, oh my god

β‹”βƒβŒΏ: βŒ°βŸ’βŽŽβ, ⎍⌿, βŽ…βœβ™β‹, βŒ°βŸ’βŽŽβ, βŽ…βœβ™β‹, β€βŸŸβ˜ŒβŠ‘β, β€βŸŸβ˜ŒβŠ‘β, βŽ…βœβ™β‹, βŒ°βŸ’βŽŽβ, ⎍⌿, βŒ°βŸ’βŽŽβ, β€βŸŸβ˜ŒβŠ‘β, ⎍⌿

β€βŸ’β‹”βŸŸβ‹βŽ…βŸ’β€ ββŠ‘βƒβ βœβŽβ€ β˜ŒβŒΏβŒ‡ βŸŸβŒ‡ ⏃ βŒ°βŸŸβββŒ°βŸ’ βŽŽβŽβ‹β˜βŠ¬, ⟟⏁ βœβ‹βŒ°βŠ¬ ββƒβ˜βŸ’βŒ‡ ββŠ‘βŸ’ βŽŽβŸŸβ€βŒ‡β βŒ°βŸ’βββŸ’β€ ⍜⎎ βŸ’βƒβ˜ŠβŠ‘ βŽ…βŸŸβ€βŸ’β˜ŠββŸŸβœβ‹ β™βŸ’ ⍙⏃⋏⏁ ⏁⍜ ☌⍜ (βŒ‡ββŽβŒΏβŸŸβŽ… β‹”βŸ’β‹”βœβ€βŠ¬ β‹”βƒβ‹βƒβ˜ŒβŸ’β‹”βŸ’β‹β)

After some searching with the help of a friend I discovered the existence of an Alien Language translator to decode this message:

Using LUDLDRRDLULRU to open the zip, I was given another message to decode, and with the given message, the flag was found!

$ cat myrequest.txt
β‹βŸŸβ˜Šβ˜Š{βŠ‘βŸ’βŒ°βŒΏ_β‹”βŸ’_βŽŽβŸŸβ‹βŽ…_ββŠ‘βŸ’_βŒΏβŒ°βƒβ‹βŸ’β_⏚0⍜}

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