Today, I was messing around with a CTF challenge and stumbled upon something called “elsebaby”. I had no clue what it was, so I decided to dive in and figure it out. Here’s how it went down.
Getting Started
First things first, I needed to understand the basic setup. I got this file, probably a binary or something, I needed to examine. I fired up my trusty terminal, ready to poke around.
Digging In
I started by running the file, you know, just to see what happens. No surprise, it asked for some input. I typed in some random gibberish, and predictably, it didn’t like that. Time to get serious.
Next up, I opened the file in a disassembler. Ghidra is what i used for this. I needed to see what’s going on under the hood. After staring at the assembly code for a while, I started to see some patterns. There was a bunch of comparisons and jumps, and crucially, an “else” statement that seemed interesting.
Finding the Clue
The key was figuring out what input would lead me to that “else” block. I traced the code, looking at the conditions that needed to be met. It looked like some kind of specific input string was required. I’m not gonna lie, it took some trial and error. I tried different combinations of characters, numbers, whatever I could think of.
The “Aha!” Moment
Finally, after a bunch of attempts, I hit the jackpot! I found the right input that steered the program execution right into that “else” block. And boom! It worked!
Wrapping Up
It was a cool little challenge, and it felt good to finally crack it. This “elsebaby” thing taught me to pay close attention to those “else” branches in the code – sometimes, they hold the key to the whole puzzle. It’s a reminder that even the seemingly less important parts of a program can be crucial.
