Tags: cryptography crypto

Rating:

# Down the Wrong Path (10 points)
Flag format: flag{...}
## Challenge
One of our operatives took a photo of a notebook belonging to Donnell. We think it's a message intended for another member of DEADFACE. Can you decipher the message and tell us who it's intended for?

![](https://cyberhacktics.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/crypto/crypto02/crypto02.png)
## Solution
The original text was encrypted using **Transposition Cipher** technique, specifically **Route Cipher**. In **Transposition cipher**, the letters are reordered in some way according to a given rule which is called *key*. In a **Route Cipher** technique plaintext is written in a grid of given dimensions. One dimension is determined by the *key* and the second depends on the data size. The plaintext is then read off following the *route* to create a ciphertext, for example *zigzagging up and down*, *spiral inwards clockwise starting from the top right*, etc.

Based on the image, the message is already constructed in a grid, so there is no need to rearrange different possible grids.The name of the challenge might be a hint(Down the Wrong Path), so one of the possible ways of reading is *down of the grid*. Next was to select between reading *to the right* or *to the left*. The route was discovered and message is deciphered:

| R M T L O B B T E R A U X T
| E B O L O O O H W G O R T A
| M E T S K I U E T E F N A C
v E R E P Y A T N A T O E T K


The flag is flag{SPOOKYBOI}