Ever wanted to try reverse engineering something a tad different? Granted, you’re probably not likely to run across anything like this in the wild, but this challenge will hopefully cause some musing to stimulate the brain cells.
Basically, your challenge is to figure out what the challenge file does (without running it). It is not malicious. It is something that I created some years ago now just to see if it was possible, even though it is of little practical use — I do that sometimes…
A couple of the more basic static analysis methods could be of use, namely:
- Identify what type of file it is.
- Look for strings. There are two strings that may give you a bit of a clue (once you’ve identified what type of file it is).
I’m thinking if you want to comment with your answer (I’m also interested in your methodology/thoughts), then Base64 (or Rot13) encode it (‘cat <file_with_answer_in> | openssl base64 -e’ on a UNIX box with OpenSSL installed), and post the Base64 (or Rot13) encoded answer as a comment. That way other people wanting to do the challenge won’t accidentally see the answer.
If you don’t have openssl, or some other means of Base64 encoding, you can use one of:
Have fun!
This is obviously a new definition of fun which I haven’t come across before!
This is obviously a definition of fun I haven’t come across before!