P4. Hints

Points: 100
Level: Not as Difficult
Category: Tutorial

Description

Some challenges have hints that you can unlock if you’re feeling stuck. Be warned: they do cost points! We’ve tried to design the challenge in such a way that you’ll never be able to go negative, but if you somehow find yourself in this situation please sign up for office hours and we’ll try to help out. If you’re shooting for the top, use hints sparingly. Even if you’re just in it for the challenge, then still give everything a good try before resorting to the hints, as it’ll be more rewarding, and you might retain more if you figure it out yourself.

Objective

Unlock all the hints to find the flag! In this challenge, you must unlock them in order. If you’re not prompted to spend points, then you haven’t met the unlock requirements of the hint.

Tools Used

Cognitive tools: CEO of the brain, working memory, selective attention, decoding

Methodology

I unlocked the first hint which cost 10 points of the challenge’s value, and this action unlocked the next hint. I then unlocked the second hint which cost 20 points and opened the final hint. I opened the last hint that cost 60 points, and it was the walkthrough of the challenge. Altogether, it cost me 90 points, ouch! But the hints helped to solve the objective. In this challenge, I learned to follow instructions, remain humble, put egos aside and seek help, and to recognize that points is just a material thing. Keep the eye on the prize. Losing a couple of points is necessary to move on with the challenge and obtain the most important thing—capturing the flag. The flag was made up of all the bold letters in the hint.

Flag

not again

MITRE ATT&CK

(Suggested)