A MESSAGE FROM HELL
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — HACKTORIA CTF WALKTHROUGH
Get ready for a CTF challenge that’s simple, but one that’ll have you scratching your head for a bit — perfect for those who love a good puzzle! You’re presented with an image, and at first glance, it shows a strange script. Your mission? Decipher it.
Step 1: The First Clue — The Script
The script looks bizarre, right? Well, a reverse image search comes in handy here. After running the image through Google Lens, it turns out the script is Old Persian, a language used around 300 BCE. Old Persian? Cool, but there’s a catch. Information about this ancient language is pretty limited, and most modern tools don’t exactly support it, especially for text extraction.
No problem! Time to roll up our sleeves and dive into manual deciphering.
Step 2: OCR — Not as Easy as it Sounds
Naturally, you’d think an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool could do the heavy lifting for you. But here’s where things get tricky: most OCR tools today don’t support Old Persian. While you could look around for an OCR that does (like the one in development by Melanee on GitHub — check out this link), it’s not fully developed yet. So what’s the backup plan? Manual transcription!
Step 3: Finding the Right Font
Alright, so to manually type out the text, we need a font that looks like the script in the image. After a little digging, you’ll find a fantastic website called Fontspace(link). This site offers tons of fonts, many of which are free. Among them is “Behistun,” a font that closely resembles Old Persian script.
How to install Behistun:
- Download the ZIP file from Fontspace.
- Extract it, then open the
.ttffile. - Follow the prompts to install the font on your system.
Boom! You’re ready to start deciphering.
Step 4: Typing the Script
Now it’s time for some hands-on work. Open up Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer — a great open-source alternative for all the tech rebels out there who love freedom! 😉 LibreOffice Writer is completely free to use and has the added bonus of being community-driven. Let’s give open-source some love!
You’ll see a PDF in the Behistun/misc folder that maps out the keyboard layout, which will show you which keys correspond to which Old Persian characters. Keep the image handy and start typing away. It’s like putting together the pieces of an ancient puzzle.
Once you’ve finished typing everything out, select the entire text and switch the font back to something readable like Arial or Times New Roman. And guess what? It’s not just random text anymore — it’s a Portuguese poem!
Step 5: The Final Twist — Finding the Flag
You’ve made it this far, but here’s where it gets interesting. Translating the poem from Portuguese (Google Translate will be your friend here), everything seems to make sense until the last two verses , which looks a little… odd. Here’s the trick: read the last sentence backwards.
Now the reverse reading gives the text “this is the flag Without spaces”. I know you have guessed the flag “thisistheflag”. Voilà! You’ve got your flag.
A Fun Ride Through Time
This challenge isn’t just about deciphering an ancient script; it’s about using modern tools, creativity, and a bit of trial and error to unlock something mysterious. Whether you follow this path or come up with your own, that’s the beauty of these kinds of challenges. So, gear up, stay curious, and embrace the adventure! 🏴☠️
P.S. : You can see Behistun file of this script and portuguese version also the english translation in my github page(link)
If you have any doubts or know any different way to solve this challenge, please feel free to contact me at intelbadger@proton.me or through Discord @intelbadger
