interencdec

Published: April 3, 2024Updated: December 9, 2025

Description

Can you get the real meaning from this file. Download the file here.

Local decode

Download the enc_flag file from the challenge artifacts.

Work locally; no remote service is needed once you have the blob.

wget https://artifacts.picoctf.net/c_titan/3/enc_flag && \ cat enc_flag

Solution

  1. Step 1Read the initial Base64
    cat enc_flag prints a long Base64 string ending in ==. Decode it once to reveal a Python byte literal (b'...').
    cat enc_flag | base64 -d
  2. Step 2Strip quotes and decode again
    Remove the leading b' and trailing ' (cut -d "'" -f2 works nicely), then Base64-decode the inner string to obtain a Caesar-shifted message.
    cat enc_flag | base64 -d | cut -d "'" -f2 | base64 -d
  3. Step 3Apply ROT13 / Caesar
    The result resembles a flag but with letters rotated. Run it through caesar (from bsdgames) or CyberChef's ROT13 to finish the decode.
    cat enc_flag | base64 -d | cut -d "'" -f2 | base64 -d | caesar
    If caesar isn't installed, use CyberChef's ROT13 recipe instead.

Flag

picoCTF{caesar_d3cr9pt3d_b20...}

Two Base64 layers plus a Caesar shift are all that stand between you and the flag.