: Opening the first archive ( part2_0.7z ) in a hex editor revealed a PNG header ( 89 50 4E 47 ) and an IHDR chunk buried within the file structure itself, rather than in the extracted contents. The Pattern :
The challenge provided a set of 376 individual 7zip archives (e.g., part2_0.7z through part2_375.7z ). Inside these archives were multiple "junk" files (e.g., junk_0.bin ), which initially appeared to be the primary data for extraction. Analysis & Solution Parade_Buster-Final.7z
The file Parade_Buster-Final.7z was the concluding challenge in the series from TastelessCTF 2020 . This write-up details the process of identifying a hidden PNG file embedded across hundreds of separate archives. Challenge Overview : Opening the first archive ( part2_0
The PNG file was striped and hidden in the trailing bytes of the 7z archives, just before the footer. Analysis & Solution The file Parade_Buster-Final
