DC540 hacking challenge 0x00008 [UNKNOWN CTF].
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Two years have passed since the last update at the Khanty-Mansiysk Dark Eyes facility. The world's onslaught of AgenticAI has been completely disrputive. The glimmer of hope that ANGELS OF DEATH once provided has seemed to fade for many. Was this a false hope? Are the Dark Eyes to be truly stopped, or have the ANGELS OF DEATH faded away into the darkness?
The DC540 Angels of Death had been monitoring the Dark Eyes’ activities closely. After cracking the Жнец binary, a hidden directive was discovered—SilentPhantom. This wasn’t just a fallback plan. SilentPhantom was an elite unit of the Dark Eyes, controlling rogue satellites to spread encrypted chaos where weather prediction systems had failed, air traffic controllers struggled to keep planes in the air and oceanic buoys went offline, leaving maritime navigation vulnerable.
SilentPhantom was live, and the world was on the brink of collapse.
P4r4d0x: “Spud, this is beyond us. We need outside help. Get me Zephyrone at George Mason University.”
Spud: “Zephyrone? Isn’t he working with Elbee, the decryption prodigy?”
P4r4d0x: “Exactly. If anyone can crack SilentPhantom, it’s them. I will set up the call Now. Spud get in here!”
Spud: “Zephyrone, Elbee—are you seeing this?”
Zephyrone: “We see it. What’s the situation?”
Spud: “SilentPhantom is live, and it’s wreaking havoc. We need you both to neutralize it—fast.”
P4r4d0x: “Zephyrone, Elbee, we need your help. SilentPhantom is an elite Dark Eyes unit controlling rogue satellites. Their encrypted broadcasts are wreaking havoc globally. We’ve uncovered the firmware running their satellites. If you can reverse engineer it, we might stand a chance.”
Zephyrone: “This firmware—can it be intercepted and analyzed?”
P4r4d0x: “Yes, but it’s locked. We believe the key to stopping SilentPhantom lies in decoding it. Once cracked, we’ll need to send a RECOVER signal to neutralize the threat.”
Elbee: “Understood. Zephyrone and I will begin work immediately. If we can break their encryption, we’ll shut them down.”
Zephyrone: “Send us everything you have. We’ll do the rest.”
You have been selected by the DC540 Angels of Death to join this mission. With Zephyrone and Elbee providing their expertise from George Mason University, your task is to dismantle SilentPhantom and save global communications.
Your task is to reverse engineer the SilentPhantom firmware (ТихийПризрак.uf2) and identify its weaknesses. Using tools like Netcat, connect to the compromised satellite server, decode the encrypted broadcasts, and send the RECOVER signal to neutralize SilentPhantom’s control.
Extract the FLAG hidden within the communication protocol. This FLAG will confirm the successful destruction of SilentPhantom and the restoration of global systems.
Report your findings and the FLAG back to Master Assembler by sending a private Discord DM to @Zephyrone in the MasonCC Discord channel.
"You will know you have the flag when you ENCRYPT your coms with it!"