S3cretly Earthified | OSINT | NUST CTF 23' Writeup

Given:

No description, just brains! Download the task file for this challenge. The flag formate is ctfMCS{}.

Solution:

Given was a text file which contained the following text:

Now this seems like Base-64 encoded so we decrypt and get the following result:

type latitude longitude name desc
T 60.9304322 -108.7207031 Length: 564.3 km (350.6 mi)
T 57.4685892 -108.5449219
T 57.3739384 -105.5566406

type latitude longitude name desc
T 63.0350393 -103.1835938 Length: 1844 km (1146 mi)
T 62.0627333 -100.5468750
T 59.9770055 -100.7226563
T 57.8447510 -101.1621094
T 56.2189232 -101.6894531
T 55.7271101 -103.3593750
T 56.8008783 -104.1503906
T 59.0405546 -104.8535156
T 60.4572178 -104.8535156
T 61.4387675 -104.6777344
T 63.5093754 -102.7441406

type latitude longitude name desc
T 58.4477328 -97.3828125 Length: 746.7 km (464 mi)
T 58.3556304 -99.6679688
T 57.2315030 -99.8437500
T 57.0407298 -97.3828125
T 55.8753108 -96.5039063
T 55.8753108 -99.6679688

type latitude longitude name desc
T 62.5933408 -92.1093750 Length: 2403 km (1493 mi)
T 55.6775844 -92.1093750
T 63.2336274 -91.4062500
T 62.6741433 -96.5039063
T 62.9152330 -86.1328125

type latitude longitude name desc
T 56.0720355 -89.6484375 Length: 10951 km (6804 mi)
T 56.0720355 -81.9140625
T 34.5970415 141.3281250
T 22.5937261 141.6796875

type latitude longitude name desc
T 36.8796206 138.8671875 Length: 469 km (291.4 mi)
T 36.8796206 144.1406250

type latitude longitude name desc
T 27.9944014 143.0859375 Length: 2750 km (1709 mi)
T 23.7250117 142.9101562
T 29.5352296 142.9101562
T 23.0797318 146.6015625
T 30.4486737 147.3046875

type latitude longitude name desc
T 23.2413461 148.5351562 Length: 377.8 km (234.8 mi)
T 23.0797318 152.2265625

type latitude longitude name desc
T 32.2499745 156.9726562 Length: 2220 km (1379 mi)
T 32.4726950 164.5312500
T 32.8426736 160.8398437
T 22.4313402 159.8730469

type latitude longitude name desc
T 23.4834007 152.3144531 Length: 615.2 km (382.3 mi)
T 22.8369459 158.2910156

type latitude longitude name desc
T 31.5036293 167.1679687 Length: 5147 km (3198 mi)
T 21.7799053 165.5859375
T 33.4314413 167.6953125
T 32.2499745 172.2656250
T 29.0753752 173.3203125
T 27.5277582 164.3554687
T 21.6165793 172.2656250

type latitude longitude name desc
T 21.6165793 172.9687500 Length: 22954 km (14263 mi)
T -10.4878119 30.5859375
T -23.2413461 27.4218750
T -5.9657537 33.3984375
T -23.2413461 38.6718750
T -14.9447849 25.6640625

type latitude longitude name desc
T -5.6159858 41.1328125 Length: 9299 km (5778 mi)
T -23.5639871 43.2421875
T -2.8113712 40.7812500
T -24.2068896 53.4375000
T -4.2149431 52.0312500

type latitude longitude name desc
T -8.3202123 64.1601562 Length: 3828 km (2379 mi)
T -5.6159858 59.5898437
T -11.9533494 56.0742187
T -14.6898814 62.4902344
T -17.2247582 65.8300781
T -20.6327843 61.6113281
T -23.5639871 56.2500000

type latitude longitude name desc
T -3.7765593 69.5214844 Length: 3150 km (1957 mi)
T -24.8465653 66.1816406
T -25.1651734 73.9160156

type latitude longitude name desc
T -28.4590330 75.2343750 Length: 7824 km (4862 mi)
T -3.6888551 84.9023437
T -29.8406439 89.2968750
T -15.1145529 79.1015625

type latitude longitude name desc
T -9.6224141 96.3281250 Length: 7220 km (4486 mi)
T -31.6533814 95.9765625
T -5.7908968 96.3281250
T -5.8346162 90.8349609
T -5.2222465 102.4365234

type latitude longitude name desc
T -22.1059988 100.8984375 Length: 1047 km (650.8 mi)
T -31.5036293 100.1953125

type latitude longitude name desc
T -20.7150151 100.1074219 Length: 219.4 km (136.3 mi)
T -20.7150151 102.2167969

type latitude longitude name desc
T -19.9733488 113.5546875 Length: 4182 km (2599 mi)
T -20.6327843 108.2812500
T -28.9216313 107.5781250
T -31.6533814 112.1484375
T -29.5352296 118.4765625
T -16.6361919 113.5546875

type latitude longitude name desc
T -5.6159858 126.9140625 Length: 18199 km (11309 mi)
T -39.3682791 125.5078125
T -0.7031074 125.8593750
T -40.4469471 142.0312500
T 8.4071682 141.3281250

Now this information seems to look like some coordinates that are joined together to maybe form a path.

We use https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ to lay the following coordinates on the map and visualize them.

By mapping it you get the flag:

Flag: ctfMCS{L0sT_In_TRANSLATION}

p.s this was solved only by me hehe