Rating: 5.0
For this challenge, and also crccalc1, we are given the output from [crccalc](https://crccalc.com/) with 9 32-bit CRCs given for some unknown input. From the amount of dots in the input, and the filename being "crccalc-24.png", it's fair to assume that the input this time is 24 characters. I solved this challenge in the exact same way as crccalc1, only changing the target CRCs and expected length.
From Balsn CTF 2019, there was a challenge that very much resembled this challenge. There, CRC calculation was a tiny step on the way to the final decryption code, and included CRCs of multiple bit lengths. The challenge is called [collision](https://ctftime.org/task/9374), and I heavily borrowed code from [team hxp's solution](https://hxp.io/blog/61/Balsn-CTF-2019-writeups/) for this one.
The main takeaway, is that CRCs are not cryptographically secure, but actually affine functions over GF(2). Generally speaking, CRCs are just polynomial division, but in order to gain certain properties, they have mutated slightly from that description. This makes it very hard to solve them with a CRT-like approach, since the input might be XORed with something before and/or after the division - and sometimes even done in reverse (as that's faster in some scenarios, especially in embedded).
The most important property, is that `CRC(x⊕y) ⊕ CRC(0) = CRC(x) ⊕ CRC(y)`. We can use this to set up a system of equations in matrix form, where we concatenate all the CRCs into a single function. Instead of repeating more of what's already been said, go check out the previous write-up by hxp, linked above.
Sage code for solving below. To solve crccalc1, just replace the `l` variable and the `target` dict to match that challenge. The code finds two solutions, where one is just gibberish, and the other is the flag: `ALLES{cycl1c_r3dund4ncy}` The `_crc_definitions_table` is lifted from the module `crcmod`, which can be found on PyPi.
```python
from Crypto.Util.number import bytes_to_long, long_to_bytes
# Length of the target input and its CRCs
l = 24
target = {\
'crc-32': 0xB60C1196,
'crc-32-bzip2': 0x540FB6E5,
'crc-32c': 0x0472FC19,
'crc-32d': 0xCD3BFFA5,
'crc-32-mpeg': 0xABF0491A,
'posix': 0xAFA3CADF,
'crc-32q': 0xC4B409AD,
'jamcrc': 0x49F3EE69,
'xfer': 0x0B91E517,
}
REVERSE = True
NON_REVERSE = False
_crc_definitions_table = [
[ 'crc-32', 'Crc32', 0x104C11DB7, REVERSE, 0x00000000, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xCBF43926, ],
[ 'crc-32-bzip2', 'Crc32Bzip2', 0x104C11DB7, NON_REVERSE, 0x00000000, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFC891918, ],
[ 'crc-32c', 'Crc32C', 0x11EDC6F41, REVERSE, 0x00000000, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xE3069283, ],
[ 'crc-32d', 'Crc32D', 0x1A833982B, REVERSE, 0x00000000, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0x87315576, ],
[ 'crc-32-mpeg', 'Crc32Mpeg', 0x104C11DB7, NON_REVERSE, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0x00000000, 0x0376E6E7, ],
[ 'posix', 'CrcPosix', 0x104C11DB7, NON_REVERSE, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0x765E7680, ],
[ 'crc-32q', 'Crc32Q', 0x1814141AB, NON_REVERSE, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x3010BF7F, ],
[ 'jamcrc', 'CrcJamCrc', 0x104C11DB7, REVERSE, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0x00000000, 0x340BC6D9, ],
[ 'xfer', 'CrcXfer', 0x1000000AF, NON_REVERSE, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0xBD0BE338, ],
]
R.<x> = GF(2)[]
num2poly = lambda n: sum(((n >> i) & 1) * x**i for i in range(int(n).bit_length()+5))
poly2num = lambda f: f.change_ring(ZZ)(2)
num2vec = lambda l,n: vector(GF(2), [(n >> i) & 1 for i in range(l)])
crcs = dict()
for name,_,poly,rev,ixor,oxor,chk in _crc_definitions_table:
crcs[name] = {
'poly': num2poly(poly),
'bits': int(num2poly(poly).degree()),
'rev': rev,
'ixor': ZZ(ixor),
'oxor': ZZ(oxor),
'chk': chk,
}
del name,poly,rev,ixor,oxor,chk
def mycrc(name, bs):
data = crcs[name]
poly, bits, rev, ixor, oxor = data['poly'], data['bits'], data['rev'], data['ixor'], data['oxor']
if rev:
#bs = ''.join(chr(int('{:08b}'.format(ord(x))[::-1],2)) for x in bs)
bs = b''.join(bytes([(int('{:08b}'.format(x)[::-1],2))]) for x in bs)
res = 0
res = num2poly(ixor ^^ oxor)
if rev:
res = R(x**(bits-1) * res(1/x))
res *= x**(8*len(bs))
res += x**bits * num2poly(bytes_to_long(bs))
res %= poly
if rev:
res = R(x**(bits-1) * res(1/x))
res += num2poly(oxor)
return poly2num(res)
names = list(sorted(crcs.keys()))
def allcrcs(bs):
v = matrix(GF(2),1,0)
for name in names:
v = v.augment(num2vec(crcs[name]['bits'], mycrc(name, bs)).row())
return v
v0 = allcrcs(b'\0'*l)
t = matrix(GF(2),1,0)
for name in names:
t = t.augment(num2vec(crcs[name]['bits'], target[name]).row())
mat = matrix(GF(2), 0, sum(crcs[name]['bits'] for name in names))
for i in range(8*l):
row = allcrcs(long_to_bytes(2**i).rjust(l,b'\0'))
mat = mat.stack(row - v0)
sol = vector(mat.solve_left(t - v0))
for kervec in mat.left_kernel():
res = long_to_bytes(sum(ZZ(s) << i for i,s in enumerate((sol + kervec).list())))
print([res])
```