The PNG file was striped and hidden in the trailing bytes of the 7z archives, just before the footer.
The first file contained the start of the PNG, while the last file ( part2_375.7z ) contained the .
: Opening the first archive ( part2_0.7z ) in a hex editor revealed a PNG header ( 89 50 4E 47 ) and an IHDR chunk buried within the file structure itself, rather than in the extracted contents. The Pattern : Parade_Buster-Final.7z
: Standard extraction and concatenation of the junk files failed to yield a valid binary.
The file Parade_Buster-Final.7z was the concluding challenge in the series from TastelessCTF 2020 . This write-up details the process of identifying a hidden PNG file embedded across hundreds of separate archives. Challenge Overview The PNG file was striped and hidden in
Concatenating these extracted bytes from all files produced a final, valid image file named , which contained the flag for the challenge. CTFtime.org / TastelessCTF 2020 / 7/12 / Writeup
: To solve this, a script was used to loop through all 376 files, extract a specific block of bytes (typically 0x11 bytes) from each, and concatenate them. Final Result The Pattern : : Standard extraction and concatenation
The challenge provided a set of 376 individual 7zip archives (e.g., part2_0.7z through part2_375.7z ). Inside these archives were multiple "junk" files (e.g., junk_0.bin ), which initially appeared to be the primary data for extraction. Analysis & Solution