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Point: 100
Point: 100
This challenge is consist of "geogussing". Geoguessing is a type of OSINT challenge where player had to guess their exact coordinates, or place. You need to understand the atmosphere around it.
This challenge is consist of "geogussing". Geoguessing is a type of OSINT challenge where player had to guess their exact coordinates, or place. You need to understand the atmosphere around it.
What do you need to know to solve this challenge?
- Understanding the atmosphere
- Learn their important signs or differences used in each country such as Road Signs, Law Signs, Road, Painted road quality/ how was the road look like
- Building placement and object placement
Location Guessing?
Location Guessing?
From the detail I'm looking, it seems to be a country of native Chinese speaking community. I know that there are alot of country in Asia that spoken in "Chinese". But this country specifically from Asia and speaks Chinese (I'm ain't racsit, I had no word to describe and how to tell in detail. So yeah..).
What are some of the country this could be? It could be China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao and Korea.
But we'll exclude Korea, because their charecters aren't alike to what we're looking here. From what you see in this picture, the charecters are made of "Hanzi" charecter (chinese charecter). So, we're left with China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan (Because of Kanji charecter) and Macao.
What are Hanzi Charecters?
Hanzi charecter is made of stroke charecters that attempt to represent a meaning behind the chinese charecters.
What are Kanji Charecters?
Kanji charecter is made of strokes but a borrowing charecters from chinese hanzi charecters. This charecter represent interjection meaning behind the charecters (emotion, a word that means something to relate back with the actual sentence. Think of it as synomyms/interjaction vocabulary such as "Beautiful", "Cold", "Fast" and ect..).
What are Hiragana?
Hiragana is- wait.. WAIT A MINUTE- THIS IS A SOLUTION TO FIND THE FLAG. NOT A HISTORY LECTIRURER LESSON. NO. I CAN TELL THIS PERSONALLY. DOWAN TO WASTE UR TIME. SO.. LET'S GET TO THE SOLUTION SHALL WE? (Hahaha, sorry for the caps. I'm just adding it to add little humour, get it? Uhh- nvm, let's just go).
Clue 1: Road Signs
Clue 1: Road Signs
Important things to always lookup for is the Road Signs and flooring details of the road and so on.
As you can see from the first image. This sign is written in Hanzi (Chinese charecter) and translation to it if I'm not wrong it's "probhidden" (Not allow). And it seems to say "No car speed up to 110", right? Because of the "110" at the bottom.
And when you look down abit, you can see a subcharecters to help people read an alternative charecter to refer the same meaning above. It looks like hiragana from what I could make up. So, hiragana charecters are basically a japanese charecter like: あ 、 い 、 う 、 え 、 お (vowel) か、 き、 く、 け、 こ (K-row). I can't really read entire hiragana. But I definitely know my hiragana very well.
So, from here, I would know that this country is an "traditional" chinese language/spoken country. I mean, China still a country mostly spoken in chinese. But in this case, traditional chinese country (traditional chinese charecter refer one Hanzi charecter with 1 expression. While simplified chinese, two or more charecter can mean the same thing. Don't scold me. Scold google. I google it).
Also, the 2nd image shows that China uses this charecter to tell people it means "stop" as in a "stop" sign. Looks like China could also be our potential key to this challenge, heh?
Hong Kong (Picture 3):
As you can see the image. It seems abit similar. But I see an english translation ontop. So, I may keep this in mind. Not enough to cancel the country from this challenge.
Taiwan (picture 4):
As you can see the image. It seems like it's a match. And it's also a charecter that means prohibidden. And the same exact thing we're looking for. Taiwan could be our potential lookup during the geogussing here.
source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taiwan_road_sign_%E7%A6%81-25.svg
source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macau_road_sign_21c.svg
Clue 2: Billboard & Commercial billboard/poster/sign
Clue 2: Billboard & Commercial billboard/poster/sign
Another important thing to lookup for is "Billboard & Commercial billboard/poster/sign", and yes. Sometime could be useful on some cases.
Another important thing to lookup for is "Billboard & Commercial billboard/poster/sign", and yes. Sometime could be useful on some cases.
If you could not find any road sign. Or even a floor, it's very important to lookup at the atmosphere around you. Don't care if it's billboard, safe sign, or whatever. Remember, this is geoguessing. And your job is to find the location.
If you could not find any road sign. Or even a floor, it's very important to lookup at the atmosphere around you. Don't care if it's billboard, safe sign, or whatever. Remember, this is geoguessing. And your job is to find the location.
As you can see here. It seems to be a chinese insurance company, National Health Insurance. Looks like this 7/11 is near this insuranceM, heh. (Oh- Oh- Oh- specifically HEALTH INSURANCE. DONCHU THINK TO SUE A GOVERMENT. IF YOU'RE A BRAT CUSTOMER, THEN THIS IS ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE COMPANY TO TRY TO SUE THEM FOR MONEY. NO LONGER WANNA CALL KAREN ORADI. TOO OLD, LOL)
Clue 3: Small detail/simple detail (small detail that most people wouldn't care to know at all)
Clue 3: Small detail/simple detail (small detail that most people wouldn't care to know at all)
Sometime, we had to go in-depth of the atmosphere detail. Because, if I would want to know more about the place and the countr in this case (the part of being able to find the coord).
As you can see a poster hanging around the shop? In this case, we can't really see the exact detail or any useful detail. But in some cases, you may need this detail to find the country. Could be an asset of the country that we could use to find the place, as close as the place we could get in this case.
I know that this has nothing to do with our clues, or in fact the flag.
But hey, now you see the position on how they place it and how like we can see. This could help us to find the detail as close as possible.
In this case, 7/11 board is our most important thing to take note. Nothing else could retain our memory. So, don't focus too much you're too stressed. Just see the baord you see. If really cannot, just take time to absorb where the things are.
Clue 4:
Clue 4:
Guessing coord
Guessing coord
After you Analyze the entire atomsphere.
Now check your background. Sometime, after you checked everything, you don't have the idea where to start. So, when analyzing the building at the current photo taken and a background building, you'll be able to make a smart guess to find the coordination.
As you can see at this image, you can see a building looks like an apartment. and a few more building besides it.
Now, let's use a tool like google earth. Google Earth is good because the satalite graphic, you could see an actual image/object around it. This makes our OSINT challenge here much easier. You can try to use other satalites and experiment with it.
Oh wait, what if the place you're looking at not familiar to you?
Well, since google earth has a feature where it understand on what we're lookup for. Just dump the keyword that we're looking for. In this case "7/11" as we could see it emphasizing to us.
As you can see on my left. I tried all the chinese country. And yes, not all images are displayed.
But that's the idea on what we're looking for.
Since we understand where object are place like building and ect. We can just look up and see if we could get as close as what we're looking for.
Simplified:
After absorbing the distance between the building and atmosphere of the background. You could try to make a guess where the object/building are placed. Don't focus like vehicles, peoples, animals and things are not visible to the satalites. But just remember, sometime it could happen. In this case, we're focusing on how the artitechture are being place. Anything else are not important.
BONUS RESOURCES!
BONUS RESOURCES!
Study the signs of each country
Study the signs of each country
Geoguessing tools
Geoguessing tools
BLOOPERS! (SPOILER ALERT!!)
BLOOPERS! (SPOILER ALERT!!)
what goes wrong?
what goes wrong?
I actually forgot about BlahajCTF I registered. And at that day, my mental wellbeing wasn't in a stable mode. It was because the previous day, I was playing so much CTF and even going out of my skillset and try to learn something that really makes me unable to understand.
I actually forgot about BlahajCTF I registered. And at that day, my mental wellbeing wasn't in a stable mode. It was because the previous day, I was playing so much CTF and even going out of my skillset and try to learn something that really makes me unable to understand.
What did you do?
What did you do?
I panicked upon not realizing it. Because at that day, I was forced to follow my parent to Malaysia. And upon notice, I actually get abit anxious and stressed out. Because I feel bad for my teammates for pushing me. Normally I would push other and always never let them push me during a group CTF or even hackerthon. I belived that I would make their life more irritated and uncomfortable. I'm also afraid of being judge as Spectra Secondary School boy playing a fool with the community.
I panicked upon not realizing it. Because at that day, I was forced to follow my parent to Malaysia. And upon notice, I actually get abit anxious and stressed out. Because I feel bad for my teammates for pushing me. Normally I would push other and always never let them push me during a group CTF or even hackerthon. I belived that I would make their life more irritated and uncomfortable. I'm also afraid of being judge as Spectra Secondary School boy playing a fool with the community.
So, instead of not doing anything. While at custom checkpoint, I open up my mobile phone and try to tackle OSINT challenge. Because I know that I'm very strong at OSINT. But I because I was stressed out and couldn't calm down inside a car. I ended up overthink the challenge and couldn't even tackle one challenge.
So, instead of not doing anything. While at custom checkpoint, I open up my mobile phone and try to tackle OSINT challenge. Because I know that I'm very strong at OSINT. But I because I was stressed out and couldn't calm down inside a car. I ended up overthink the challenge and couldn't even tackle one challenge.
Upon reaching Malaysia, I began to have seizure inside the car. Because I was so stressed and I'm doing a challenge inside the car + wearing mask. I really felt brainless after a full shopping at Malaysia. And no. We didn't even bring back anything. Actually, I couldn't remember either. When we're about to head home. I actually began to panic even more. Because, if I couldn't tackle 1 challenge without success, then I forever regretted. Actually, I had no choice to do a write-up on what I'm able to do. So, this was the only challenge that I was being engross into. I can't do other challenges. Because most of them require a computer. And only OSINT usually don't require a computer. I wanna do Web Exploit. But because my phone wasn't setup for that case. I can't do anything but to tackle OSINT as much as I could.
Upon reaching Malaysia, I began to have seizure inside the car. Because I was so stressed and I'm doing a challenge inside the car + wearing mask. I really felt brainless after a full shopping at Malaysia. And no. We didn't even bring back anything. Actually, I couldn't remember either. When we're about to head home. I actually began to panic even more. Because, if I couldn't tackle 1 challenge without success, then I forever regretted. Actually, I had no choice to do a write-up on what I'm able to do. So, this was the only challenge that I was being engross into. I can't do other challenges. Because most of them require a computer. And only OSINT usually don't require a computer. I wanna do Web Exploit. But because my phone wasn't setup for that case. I can't do anything but to tackle OSINT as much as I could.
What goes well?
What goes well?
Realizing that the competiton was today (2nd dec 2023) when I checked my discord at custom. I manage to contribute by trying my best effort to show that I could be in a major STEM field. And I learn quick alot along the way while doing the CTF. I learn that Macao was a country and it was indeed exist. Sorry Macao locals! I'm deeply sorry if I made any of you upset when reading this write-up. But I learn from every CTF I participated in. Despite losing. I learn to appriciate myself before I love my interest. Because, today I learn to be more effective. My OSINT Skill also power up while doing the challenge. Lastly, I get to write about this challenge makes me more calm. Because I won't feel that regretful for not contributing my team for points. But atleast I show what I was thinking behind the process is one of the most important and valuable lesson for this CTF, In fact all CTF is contributing my understanding. Waste my time playing video games for 6 years. I could have realize that my potential began when I was a little boy. The oy who likes to hack games and more.
Realizing that the competiton was today (2nd dec 2023) when I checked my discord at custom. I manage to contribute by trying my best effort to show that I could be in a major STEM field. And I learn quick alot along the way while doing the CTF. I learn that Macao was a country and it was indeed exist. Sorry Macao locals! I'm deeply sorry if I made any of you upset when reading this write-up. But I learn from every CTF I participated in. Despite losing. I learn to appriciate myself before I love my interest. Because, today I learn to be more effective. My OSINT Skill also power up while doing the challenge. Lastly, I get to write about this challenge makes me more calm. Because I won't feel that regretful for not contributing my team for points. But atleast I show what I was thinking behind the process is one of the most important and valuable lesson for this CTF, In fact all CTF is contributing my understanding. Waste my time playing video games for 6 years. I could have realize that my potential began when I was a little boy. The oy who likes to hack games and more.
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