ESPILON-CTF-2026-Writeups/IoT/Lain_Br34kC0r3/README.md

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# Lain_Br34kC0r3
| Field | Value |
|-------|-------|
| Category | IoT |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Points | 500 |
| Author | neverhack |
| CTF | Espilon 2026 |
---
## Description
This challenge emulates a UART interface on a Lain router.
Open both connections, interact as if it was real hardware.
- **TX**: Read only
- **RX**: Write only
Maybe Lain can help you?
---
## TL;DR
Connect to the split UART interface. Use `settings` to get the XOR key, `dump_bin` to get
the obfuscated firmware, de-obfuscate to extract the AES key and IV from `.rodata`, then
use `flag` to get the ciphertext and AES-CBC decrypt it to recover the flag.
---
## Tools
| Tool | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| `nc` | Split UART connection |
| Python 3 + `pycryptodome` | XOR decoding and AES-CBC decryption |
| `strings` / Ghidra | Static analysis of deobfuscated firmware |
---
## Solution
### Step 1 — Connect
```bash
# Terminal 1 — TX (read output)
nc <host> 1111
# Terminal 2 — RX (send commands)
nc <host> 2222
```
> 📸 `[screenshot: both terminals open, TX showing the device banner]`
### Step 2 — List available commands
```text
help
```
Commands available: `help`, `flag`, `dump_bin`, `settings`, `whoami`, `show config`
### Step 3 — Get the XOR key
```text
settings
```
Returns the XOR key used to obfuscate the firmware dump.
> 📸 `[screenshot: settings command returning the XOR key]`
### Step 4 — Dump and deobfuscate the firmware
```text
dump_bin
```
Save the hex output from TX, then deobfuscate:
```python
key = bytes.fromhex("<key_from_settings>")
firmware_enc = bytes.fromhex("<dump_from_dump_bin>")
firmware = bytes(b ^ key[i % len(key)] for i, b in enumerate(firmware_enc))
with open("firmware.bin", "wb") as f:
f.write(firmware)
```
### Step 5 — Extract AES key and IV from firmware
Quick method:
```bash
strings -n 10 firmware.bin | grep -iE "key|iv|aes|lain"
```
Or open in Ghidra with Xtensa architecture, navigate to `app_main()` → AES setup
functions → locate `therapy_aes_key` and associated IV in `.rodata`.
> 📸 `[screenshot: strings output showing the AES key and IV]`
### Step 6 — Get the encrypted flag
```text
flag
```
Returns the ciphertext as a hex string on TX.
### Step 7 — Decrypt the flag
```python
from Crypto.Cipher import AES
from Crypto.Util.Padding import unpad
key = b"<key_from_firmware>" # 16 or 32 bytes
iv = b"<iv_from_firmware>" # 16 bytes
ciphertext = bytes.fromhex("<hex_from_flag_command>")
cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
plaintext = unpad(cipher.decrypt(ciphertext), AES.block_size)
print(plaintext.decode())
```
> 📸 `[screenshot: Python script printing the decrypted flag]`
---
## Flag
`ECW{LAIN_Br34k_CryPT0}`