Cryptography CTF Challenge Writeup

Challenge Information

• Name: KeepJohn
• Points: 1
• Category: Cryptography

Solution

1. Initially, I thought to use keepass2john and then crack the password using John the Ripper, but none of the passwords in the provided wordlist matched.

   • Even after trying the entire rockyou wordlist, it didn’t work.

2. Upon re-reading the challenge description, I realized it mentioned variations of commonly used passwords.

3. Remembering John Hammond’s video on a tool that generates variations of passwords, I used Munge (a tool designed for this purpose): Munge GitHub.

   • Maybe the John in the challenge refers to John Hammond? John Hammond Video

4. I generated a list of passwords using Munge, and this helped me find the correct password.

   

5. After opening the kdbx file with the found password, I retrieved the flag.

   

Flag

FSIIECTF{XXXXXXXXXX}