Skip to main content

019

  • Description: Flag inside the file.

🔎 Solution​

After opening the file, the content looked unusual - block-like characters with varying heights. Every few characters there was a period separating groups of symbols.

> cat 019.txt 
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄  ▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄.█ ▄▄▄ █ ▄▀▄ █ █ ▄▄▄ █.█ ███ █ █▄▄█  █ ███ █.█▄▄▄▄▄█ ▄ ▄ ▄ █▄▄▄▄▄█.▄▄▄▄  ▄ ▄▀█▄▄▄  ▄▄▄ ▄.▀▄▀ ▄ ▄ ▄█▄▀ ▄██▀▀ ▄▄. █▄██▄▄███▀▄▄ ▄█ █▄▀▄.▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▀▄█▄▀  ▄█ ▄ ▀.█ ▄▄▄ █  ▄▄ ▀▀  ▀▀█▄▀.█ ███ █ █▀▄███ ▀ ▄▀▀ .█▄▄▄▄▄█ █▀ ▀▀▀█▀▄ ▄ ▀

Since the dots appeared to act like separators, I replaced them with line breaks using tr to see if the structure revealed anything meaningful.

> cat 019.txt | tr "." "\n"
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄  ▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
█ ▄▄▄ █ ▄▀▄ █ █ ▄▄▄ █
█ ███ █ █▄▄█  █ ███ █
█▄▄▄▄▄█ ▄ ▄ ▄ █▄▄▄▄▄█
▄▄▄▄  ▄ ▄▀█▄▄▄  ▄▄▄ ▄
▀▄▀ ▄ ▄ ▄█▄▀ ▄██▀▀ ▄▄
 █▄██▄▄███▀▄▄ ▄█ █▄▀▄
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▀▄█▄▀  ▄█ ▄ ▀
█ ▄▄▄ █  ▄▄ ▀▀  ▀▀█▄▀
█ ███ █ █▀▄███ ▀ ▄▀▀ 
█▄▄▄▄▄█ █▀ ▀▀▀█▀▄ ▄ ▀

Once formatted, the output clearly resembled a QR code. Scanning it revealed the final flag.

🚩Flag​

HMV{asciiartt}