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Red (picoCTF)

Digital Forensics Report– picoCTF Challenge “RED”

Author: Shuailin Pan (LeConjuror)

Investigator: Abdelwahab Shandy

Date: August 23, 2025

  1. Identification

  2. Suspicious file: red.png

  3. Initial description: A plain red image.

  4. Hints:

  5. "The picture seems pure, but is it true?" → The image isn't just red.

  6. "Red? Ged? Bed? Aed?" → Indicates possible alteration or encryption.

  7. "Check whatever Facebook is called now" → Possibly refers to hidden data such as metadata.

Conclusion: The file likely contains steganography (data hidden within the image).

  1. Acquisition

The file was downloaded from the official challenge server:

wget https://challenge-files.picoctf.net/c_verbal_sleep/831307718b34193b288dde31e557484876fb84978b5818e2627e453a54aa9ba6/red.png

File integrity check:

sha256sum red.png

  1. Preservation

  2. A duplicate copy named RED.png was created to protect the original.

  3. All analysis was performed on the copy.

  1. Analysis Steps:

Select the file type:

file RED.png

→ Its type is a regular PNG image.

Metadata check:

exiftool RED.png

→ No important data appeared, except for a very strange poem.

Using binwalk to extract hidden data:

binwalk -e RED.png

A file named 11C was extracted.

This file was compressed using zlib.

zlib-flate -uncompress < 11C.zlib > output.txt

→ It produced an output.txt file but it wasn't clear or useful.

Trying to display the data as a RAW image:

display -size 128x128 -depth 8 rgb:output.txt

→ Nothing clear appears

Using the zsteg tool:

Explanation of the zsteg tool:

  • zsteg is a specialized tool for analyzing PNG and BMP images to detect steganography.

  • The idea: Images store color data (RGB or RGBA). Each color consists of several bits.

  • Sometimes the least significant bit (LSB) is exploited to hide text or binary data without the human eye being affected.

  • zsteg examines these layers or bits across all channels (R, G, B, Alpha) and detects whether there is hidden text or files.

Execute the commands:

 zsteg -a RED.png

The important result was:

b1,rgba,lsb,xy .. text: "cGljb0NURntyM2RfMXNfdGgzX3VsdDFtNHQzX2N1cjNfZjByXzU0ZG4zNTVffQ=="

This is the Base64 encoded text.

Base64 decoding:

echo "cGljb0NURntyM2RfMXNfdGgzX3VsdDFtNHQzX2N1cjNfZjByXzU0ZG4zNTVffQ==" | base64 -d

Result:

picoCTF{r3d_1s_th3_ult1m4t3_cur3_f0r_54dn355_}

  1. Reporting - Report

Results:

  • The red.png file contained hidden data using Steganography in the least significant bit (LSB) on the RGBA channels.

  • The hidden text was detected using the zsteg tool.

  • The text was Base64 encoded and decoded to obtain the flag.

Final flag:

picoCTF{r3d_1s_th3_ult1m4t3_cur3_f0r_54dn355_}

💬 "Control the code, and you control the world." 🔐 From wiping metadata to gaining root access — every step is documented and my goal is to deeply understand the system, not just hack!

Abdelwahab Shandy

Linkedin

GitHub

See You Soon

AS Cyber “)).