Wargames.MY CTF 2024 — Forensic: Unwanted Meow (328 pts)

Overview

Help me, I just browsing funny cats memes, when I click download cute cat picture, the file that been downloaded seems a little bit weird.

Solution

The file flag.shredded is a JPEG that won’t open normally. Inspecting it in HxD reveals the string "meow" repeated throughout the file — hence the hint: “We don’t want meow here.”

Steps:

1. Open the file in a hex editor
2. Find and remove all instances of "meow"
3. Save as a new .jpg file
4. One section had corrupted bytes — 41 needed to be read as 14

After cleaning, the image opens and displays the flag.

Flag

WGMY{4a4be40c96ac6314e91d93f38043a634}