Rating:
Category: Misc Description:
I'm lucky to be surrounded by even-minded people from all around. Flag is not in the regular format. Submit flag in darkCTF{flag} format.
From the provided file we have an array of arrays (matrix) and the challenge name points us to Minesweeper (I'm going to assume you know what
this game is, if not please check this out https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/minesweeper-free/9wzdncrdk4km?activetab=pivot:overviewtab ).
I'am lucky to be surrounded by even-minded people from all directions.
Flag is not in the regular format.
array = [[93, 91, 95,... 71], [83, 89, 73, ..., 69], ... ]
So, it's pretty obvious this is not a coincidence, also from the description you read that 'surrounded by even-minded people', this called my attention and my initial though was that this was the 'bomb' condition.
So, I would have to find all cells that are fully surrounded by even numbers? Those then would be converte to ascii and hopefully I get something. This was the thought process, although you'd have to 'guess' the logic, it's kind of obvious in my opinion (save time, agree with me).
I removed all text from minesweeper file and left only the array = [ instruction, that way I can just load that to python (lazy I know, but works)
with open('minesweeper', 'r') as fd:
line = fd.readline()
while line:
exec(line)
line = fd.readline()
arr = []
for x in range(len(array)):
print('Processing row {}'.format(x))
if x == 0 or x == len(array) - 1:
print('Skipping row {}'.format(x))
continue
for y in range(len(array[x])):
print('Processing column {}'.format(y))
if y == 0 or y == len(array[x]) - 1:
print('Skipping cell {},{}'.format(x,y))
continue
up = x - 1
down = x + 1
left = y - 1
right = y + 1
if array[up][y] % 2 == 0 and array[down][y] % 2 == 0 and array[x][left] % 2 == 0 and array[x][right] % 2 == 0 \
and array[up][left] % 2 == 0 and array[up][right] % 2 == 0 and array[down][left] % 2 == 0 and array[down][right] % 2 == 0:
# surrounded by even-minded cells, I must be relevant
arr.append(array[x][y])
print(arr)
... # several debug lines ommitted
Processing column 39
Skipping cell 50,39
Processing row 51
Skipping row 51
FLaGISYOUHaVEOBSERVaTIONaNDPaTIENCE
From the found text the flag was darkCTF{YOUHaVEOBSERVaTIONaNDPaTIENCE}.
