Puzzles of An Altered History - CTF Challenge Writeup

Challenge: Puzzles of An Altered History
Points: 150
Category: Wireless Networking

Objective

The objective of the “Puzzles of An Altered History” challenge is to crack the password for a given wireless network, which is stored in a provided pcap (packet capture) file. You will need to use a tool called “aircrack-ng” to successfully recover the network’s password.

Solution

To solve the “Puzzles of An Altered History” challenge, follow these steps:

1. Download and Open the pcap File:

   • Begin by downloading the provided pcap file, which contains the network traffic data.
   • Open the pcap file using a network analysis tool like Wireshark.

2. Cracking the Password:

   • Use the “aircrack-ng” tool to attempt to crack the wireless network’s password.
   • The basic command structure for “aircrack-ng” is as follows:

     1	aircrack-ng <pcap file> -w <wordlist>

     • <pcap file>: Replace this with the name of the pcap file you are analyzing.
     • <wordlist>: Specify the path to a wordlist file that “aircrack-ng” will use to attempt password combinations.

3. Wordlist Selection:

   • For the wordlist, you can use a common password dictionary like “rockyou.txt,” which is available in various locations. You should specify the full path to the wordlist file.

4. Run aircrack-ng:

   • Execute the “aircrack-ng” command in your terminal, providing the pcap file and wordlist as arguments. For example:

     1	aircrack-ng ctfwifi.cap -w /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt

5. Password Recovery:

   • “aircrack-ng” will attempt to recover the password by iHack Prelim 2024 combinations from the wordlist.
   • When aircrack-ng successfully finds the correct password, it will display the password in the terminal.

6. Flag Retrieval:

   • The cracked password will resemble the format specified in the challenge. Retrieve and present it as the flag to complete the challenge.

By following these steps and using “aircrack-ng,” you can successfully crack the password for the wireless network captured in the pcap file and obtain the flag.

Flag

The flag for this challenge is in the format: petgrad2023{XXXXXXXXXX}.

In the “Puzzles of An Altered History” challenge, your goal is to utilize network analysis tools to crack the wireless network’s password, revealing the flag upon successful recovery.