What I did first was simply type “Evil Corp LLC” into Google:
Click on the LinkedIn profile and you will see something that looks like the flag right away:
It couldn’t be that simple though, right? As I suspected, the flag did not work when I tried to submit it.
I then put that code in a cipher identifier and saw that it was Base64. I decoded it to find a motivational message:
After that, I opened the company website in another tab for now, and then tried looking through all the employees listed on LinkedIn. I was able to click on a few profiles and saw one guy who seems to like posting a bunch of motivational stuff just like our decoded message, but it seemed like that wasn’t connected.
I decided to go back to the main website:
A lot of stuff here, but no links actually lead anywhere.
I went back to my Google search and saw this promising profile on Twitter:
Her most recent post mentions HTB:
Her next post alludes to the crest being the key:
I saved both those photos and used some of my basic Steganography techniques on them. I noticed that when I manipulated the contrast, the warlock symbol stood out very clearly on this one, which looked kinda cool, but was not really helpful. I did try to use HTB{warlock} (and all the other classes) to no avail.
I also used exiftool and strings on each of them, but then I figured that since this was not actually a Steganography challenge, I was probably wasting my time here.
I went back to my initial Google search. The next result was an Instagram profile from someone named Eryn McMahon. I recognized her profile picture from the list of employees on Evil Corp LLC’s LinkedIn page:
I scanned through her photos, of which there are only a few. I saw a picture of a laptop with an E Corp name badge! I did have to login to Instagram in order to get a closer look though, so you may have to create an account if you don’t have one.
There are some people in the comments posting spoilers, which I appreciated, since the flag text is VERY tiny and hard to see on the bottom of the name badge:
Also, her other posts are a bit…off.
OK, Eryn.
Well, this one took me down some rabbit holes and I was definitely over thinking a few areas. Overall it was a good time!
Happy Hacking! ❤
