CTF Forensics & Blockchain

Quick reference for forensics challenges. For detailed techniques, see supporting files.

Additional Resources

3d-printing.md - 3D printing forensics (PrusaSlicer binary G-code, QOIF, heatshrink)
windows.md - Windows forensics (registry, SAM, event logs, recycle bin)
network.md - Network forensics (PCAP, SMB3, WordPress, credentials)

Quick Start Commands

# File analysis
file suspicious_file
exiftool suspicious_file     # Metadata
binwalk suspicious_file      # Embedded files
strings -n 8 suspicious_file
hexdump -C suspicious_file | head  # Check magic bytes

# Disk forensics
sudo mount -o loop,ro image.dd /mnt/evidence
fls -r image.dd              # List files
photorec image.dd            # Carve deleted files

# Memory forensics (Volatility 3)
vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.info
vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.pslist
vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.filescan

Log Analysis

# Search for flag fragments
grep -iE "(flag|part|piece|fragment)" server.log

# Reconstruct fragmented flags
grep "FLAGPART" server.log | sed 's/.*FLAGPART: //' | uniq | tr -d '\n'

# Find anomalies
sort logfile.log | uniq -c | sort -rn | head

Windows Event Logs (.evtx)

Key Event IDs:

1001 - Bugcheck/reboot
1102 - Audit log cleared
4720 - User account created
4781 - Account renamed

RDP Session IDs (TerminalServices-LocalSessionManager):

21 - Session logon succeeded
24 - Session disconnected
1149 - RDP auth succeeded (RemoteConnectionManager, has source IP)

import Evtx.Evtx as evtx
with evtx.Evtx("Security.evtx") as log:
    for record in log.records():
        print(record.xml())

When Logs Are Cleared

If attacker cleared event logs, use these alternative sources:

USN Journal ($J) - File operations timeline (MFT ref, timestamps, reasons)
SAM registry - Account creation from key last_modified timestamps
PowerShell history - ConsoleHost_history.txt (USN DATA_EXTEND = command timing)
Defender MPLog - Separate log with threat detections and ASR events
Prefetch - Program execution evidence
User profile creation - First login time (profile dir in USN journal)

Steganography

steghide extract -sf image.jpg
zsteg image.png              # PNG/BMP analysis
stegsolve                    # Visual analysis

PDF Analysis

exiftool document.pdf        # Metadata (often hides flags!)
pdftotext document.pdf -     # Extract text
strings document.pdf | grep -i flag
binwalk document.pdf         # Embedded files

Memory Forensics

vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.info
vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.pslist
vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.cmdline
vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.netscan
vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.dumpfiles --physaddr <addr>

Disk Image Analysis

# Mount
sudo mount -o loop,ro image.dd /mnt/evidence

# Autopsy / Sleuth Kit
fls -r image.dd              # List files
icat image.dd <inode>        # Extract by inode

# Carving
photorec image.dd
foremost -i image.dd

VM Forensics (OVA/VMDK)

# OVA = TAR archive
tar -xvf machine.ova

# 7z reads VMDK directly
7z l disk.vmdk | head -100
7z x disk.vmdk -oextracted "Windows/System32/config/SAM" -r

Windows Password Hashes

from impacket.examples.secretsdump import LocalOperations, SAMHashes

localOps = LocalOperations('SYSTEM')
bootKey = localOps.getBootKey()
sam = SAMHashes('SAM', bootKey)
sam.dump()  # username:RID:LM:NTLM:::

# Crack with hashcat
hashcat -m 1000 hashes.txt wordlist.txt

Bitcoin Tracing

Use mempool.space API: https://mempool.space/api/tx/<TXID>
Peel chain: ALWAYS follow LARGER output
Look for consolidation transactions
Round amounts (5.0, 23.0 BTC) indicate peels

Coredump Analysis

gdb -c core.dump
(gdb) info registers
(gdb) x/100x $rsp
(gdb) find 0x0, 0xffffffff, "flag"

Uncommon File Magic Bytes

Magic	Format	Extension	Notes
`OggS`	Ogg container	`.ogg`	Audio/video
`RIFF`	RIFF container	`.wav`,`.avi`	Check subformat
`%PDF`	PDF	`.pdf`	Check metadata & embedded objects
`GCDE`	PrusaSlicer binary G-code	`.g`, `.bgcode`	See 3d-printing.md

Common Flag Locations

PDF metadata fields (Author, Title, Keywords)
Image EXIF data
Deleted files (Recycle Bin $R files)
Registry values
Browser history
Log file fragments
Memory strings

VMware Snapshot Forensics

Converting VMware snapshots to memory dumps:

# .vmss (suspended state) + .vmem (memory) → memory.dmp
vmss2core -W path/to/snapshot.vmss path/to/snapshot.vmem
# Output: memory.dmp (analyzable with Volatility/MemprocFS)

Malware hunting in snapshots (Armorless):

Check Amcache for executed binaries near encryption timestamp
Look for deceptive names (Unicode lookalikes: ṙ instead of r)
Dump suspicious executables from memory
If PyInstaller-packed: pyinstxtractor → decompile .pyc
If PyArmor-protected: use PyArmor-Unpacker

Ransomware key recovery via MFT:

Even if original files deleted, MFT preserves modification timestamps
Seed-based encryption: recover mtime → derive key

vol3 -f memory.dmp windows.mftparser | grep flag
# mtime as Unix epoch → seed for PRNG → derive encryption key

TFTP Netascii Decoding

Problem: TFTP netascii mode corrupts binary transfers; Wireshark doesn't auto-decode.

Fix exported files:

# Replace netascii sequences:
# 0d 0a → 0a (CRLF → LF)
# 0d 00 → 0d (escaped CR)
with open('file_raw', 'rb') as f:
    data = f.read()
data = data.replace(b'\r\n', b'\n').replace(b'\r\x00', b'\r')
with open('file_fixed', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(data)

TLS Traffic Decryption via Weak RSA

Pattern (Tampered Seal): TLS 1.2 with TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA (no PFS).

Attack flow:

Extract server certificate from Server Hello packet (Export Packet Bytes → public.der)
Get modulus: openssl x509 -in public.der -inform DER -noout -modulus
Factor weak modulus (dCode, factordb.com, yafu)
Generate private key: rsatool -p P -q Q -o private.pem
Add to Wireshark: Edit → Preferences → TLS → RSA keys list

After decryption:

Follow TLS streams to see HTTP traffic
Export objects (File → Export Objects → HTTP)
Look for downloaded executables, API calls

Browser Credential Decryption

Chrome/Edge Login Data decryption (requires master_key.txt):

from Crypto.Cipher import AES
import sqlite3, json, base64

# Load master key (from Local State file, DPAPI-protected)
with open('master_key.txt', 'rb') as f:
    master_key = f.read()

conn = sqlite3.connect('Login Data')
cursor = conn.cursor()
cursor.execute('SELECT origin_url, username_value, password_value FROM logins')
for url, user, encrypted_pw in cursor.fetchall():
    # v10/v11 prefix = AES-GCM encrypted
    nonce = encrypted_pw[3:15]
    ciphertext = encrypted_pw[15:-16]
    tag = encrypted_pw[-16:]
    cipher = AES.new(master_key, AES.MODE_GCM, nonce=nonce)
    password = cipher.decrypt_and_verify(ciphertext, tag)
    print(f"{url}: {user}:{password.decode()}")

Common Encodings

echo "base64string" | base64 -d
echo "hexstring" | xxd -r -p
# ROT13: tr 'A-Za-z' 'N-ZA-Mn-za-m'

WMI Persistence Analysis

Pattern (Backchimney): Malware uses WMI event subscriptions for persistence (MITRE T1546.003).

Analysis tool:

# PyWMIPersistenceFinder on OBJECTS.DATA file
python PyWMIPersistenceFinder.py OBJECTS.DATA

What to look for:

FilterToConsumerBindings with CommandLineEventConsumer
Base64-encoded PowerShell in consumer commands
Event filters triggered on system events (logon, timer)

Deleted Partition Recovery

Pattern (Till Delete Do Us Part): USB image with deleted partition table.

Recovery workflow:

# Check for partitions
fdisk -l image.img              # Shows no partitions

# Recover partition table
testdisk image.img              # Interactive recovery

# Or use kpartx to map partitions
kpartx -av image.img            # Maps as /dev/mapper/loop0p1

# Mount recovered partition
mount /dev/mapper/loop0p1 /mnt/evidence

# Check for hidden directories
ls -la /mnt/evidence            # Look for .dotfolders
find /mnt/evidence -name ".*"   # Find hidden files

Flag hiding: Path components as flag chars (e.g., /.Meta/CTF/{f/l/a/g})

USB Audio Extraction from PCAP

Pattern (Talk To Me): USB isochronous transfers contain audio data.

Extraction workflow:

# Export ISO data with tshark
tshark -r capture.pcap -T fields -e usb.iso.data > audio_data.txt

# Convert to raw audio and import into Audacity
# Settings: signed 16-bit PCM, mono, appropriate sample rate
# Listen for spoken flag characters

Identification: USB transfer type URB_ISOCHRONOUS = real-time audio/video

PowerShell Ransomware Analysis

Pattern (Email From Krampus): PowerShell memory dump + network capture.

Analysis workflow:

Extract script blocks from minidump:

python power_dump.py powershell.DMP
# Or: strings powershell.DMP | grep -A5 "function\|Invoke-"

Identify encryption (typically AES-CBC with SHA-256 key derivation)
Extract encrypted attachment from PCAP:

# Filter SMTP traffic in Wireshark
# Export attachment, base64 decode

Find encryption key in memory dump:

# Key often generated with Get-Random, regex search:
strings powershell.DMP | grep -E '^[A-Za-z0-9]{24}$' | sort | head

Find archive password similarly, decrypt layers

Linux Attack Chain Forensics

Pattern (Making the Naughty List): Full attack timeline from logs + PCAP + malware.

Evidence sources:

# SSH session commands
grep -A2 "session opened" /var/log/auth.log

# User command history
cat /home/*/.bash_history

# Downloaded malware
find /usr/bin -newer /var/log/auth.log -name "ms*"

# Network exfiltration
tshark -r capture.pcap -Y "tftp" -T fields -e tftp.source_file

Common malware pattern: AES-ECB encrypt + XOR with same key, save as .enc

Firefox Browser History (places.sqlite)

Pattern (Browser Wowser): Flag hidden in browser history URLs.

# Quick method
strings places.sqlite | grep -i "flag\|MetaCTF"

# Proper forensic method
sqlite3 places.sqlite "SELECT url FROM moz_places WHERE url LIKE '%flag%'"

Key tables: moz_places (URLs), moz_bookmarks, moz_cookies

DTMF Audio Decoding

Pattern (Phone Home): Audio file contains phone dialing tones encoding data.

# Decode DTMF tones
sox phonehome.wav -t raw -r 22050 -e signed-integer -b 16 -c 1 - | \
    multimon-ng -t raw -a DTMF -

Post-processing: Phone number may contain octal-encoded ASCII after delimiter (#):

# Convert octal groups to ASCII
octal_groups = ["115", "145", "164", "141"]  # M, e, t, a
flag = ''.join(chr(int(g, 8)) for g in octal_groups)

ctf-forensics