We were given a file full of random bytes. The flag was in there somewhere. It was too random to be encrypted, there wasn't any structure. `file` didn't return anything, truly just a bag of bytes.
I had decided to install `hexyl` as an alternative option to some of the other hex editors installed o my linux machine. All the bytes were colored grey.
I scrolled the file and noticed a blip of yellow. A random golden `{` amongst all the noise. Weird.
The next colored byte was a `C`, then `T`, `F`.
---
At that time, I was mostly using HexFiend to look at raw files, which didn't have byte coloring. For DEFCON I had decided to drive my linux machine. I had ghex installed, but i had also decided to install and try `hexyl` via cli. So seeing bytes in color was purely by chance that I had installed it. I eventually posted an issue to ghex to add color support. https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/ghex/-/issues/60
We were given a file full of random bytes. The flag was in there somewhere. It was too random to be encrypted, there wasn't any structure. `file` didn't return anything, truly just a bag of bytes.
I had decided to install `hexyl` as an alternative option to some of the other hex editors installed o my linux machine. All the bytes were colored grey.
I scrolled the file and noticed a blip of yellow. A random golden `{` amongst all the noise. Weird.
The next colored byte was a `C`, then `T`, `F`.
---
At that time, I was mostly using HexFiend to look at raw files, which didn't have byte coloring. For DEFCON I had decided to drive my linux machine. I had ghex installed, but i had also decided to install and try `hexyl` via cli. So seeing bytes in color was purely by chance that I had installed it. I eventually posted an issue to ghex to add color support. https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/ghex/-/issues/60
I need to see if I can find the file and post it on that blog post. https://bwiggs.com/posts/2023-08-31-hacking-in-color/