SINCON Reloaded Badge Writeup
About 2 years ago I volunteered for SINCON Reloaded and got a free badge, but at that point I couldn't solve a single CTF Challenge (or maybe the intro challenge).Now, after being 2 years the wiser and having made my own badges, I figured its time to solve some CTF Challenges! (or pretend like I solve them)
Information on the badge - TLDR you solder LEDs with colours that you want, and then solve challenges to make it light up,
- https://www.hackster.io/HacksFromPanda/the-khong-guan-building-ctf-badge-sincon-a62671
- https://www.hackerwares.in/sincon
I tried the 1st floor, gave up, and was inspired to solve the remaining challenges after Div0's BadgeCon (on 2nd August). This was my experience solving my 1st hardware badge that I received, and walking through my journey, where I got it (yay), where I got stuck and have up (shags)
I did use this writeup as reference when I got stuck for too long and I marked the parts where I got stuck as (Hint Used).
Intro challenge
To interface with the badge, connect to it with a serial monitor with a baud rate of 9600 and enter ***.
I think i skipped the intro challenge? But either way seeing that its some braille thing its probably something on the lanyard (which has braille thing)
I think I solved it during the conference so that's a yay??? Though I think I got the solution from somewhere else so welp.
Floor 1
Description
Type in 1 to select the 1st floor
Ting! Select your floor.
(1)(2)
(3)(4)
(5)(6)
The lift doors open to a mesmerising aroma of coffee and biscuits. You find
neatly stacked shelves of cookies. And then some on the counter along with a
trail. A cookie crumbs trail that looks mysteriously organised...
:-+++====-:. :-=++===+=:.
=*+*+====*==== =*+-*====*+==:
-++=====*=--==+: :++---===*+=-
:++===+==--+=-=== :++=--+=*+=: .-. .
++**-==+==-=-===+: =+**===+--=. -... .-
+++---=+=====++++. =++====+=-==- -.- .
:*+--**+==+==*++= .**+++*----==:. -..
.+**+++++*++++- .+**+++--*+++=
:========-. :-=======-..
Ting! Select your floor.
(1)(2)
(3)(4)
(5)(6)
Success! The floor is unlocked.
Solution
We notice some codes on the right.
.-. .
-... .-
-.- .
-..
On passing it into ChatGPT it suggests that it could be morse code.
So I manually compared it to the morse code table I googled online
.-. r
. e
-... b
.- a
-.- k
. e
-.. d
That gives the flag
Passcode
rebaked
I solved this right before DSTA CDDC 2025 Finals so I guess it was a good break. I took some time to look at the other challenges but I got stuck.
Floor 5
Description
The lift opens to a mysterious painting. At first, perplexing and yet in
some way weirdly organised. On the side is a note with gibberish
written on it that says
"aGFja2Vyd2FyZXMgaW4gc2luaXN0ZXI="
What this could be?
Attempt
When "aGFja2Vyd2FyZXMgaW4gc2luaXN0ZXI=" is Base64 decoded, it translates to:
"hackerwares in sinister"
I tried entering it and it's not a passcode
Solution (with guidance)
On referencing the writeup (Hint Used), I realised the intended solution was to guess a url and enumerate possible URLs.
Afterwards I then passed the Image into Aperisolve
Zsteg reveals some interesting results
This text (without quotes) solves that level on the badge
The lift opens to a mysterious painting. At first, perplexing and yet in
some way weirdly organised. On the side is a note with gibberish
written on it that says
"aGFja2Vyd2FyZXMgaW4gc2luaXN0ZXI="
What this could be?
Invalid passcode. Please try again
Success! The floor is unlocked.
Ting! Select your floor.
(1)(2)
(3)(4)
(5)(6)
Passcode
leavening user agent
Floor 3
Description
Floor 3 opens to a room full of documents and some photographs. And a note
asking to upload and share the documents and pictures on social media. But
there are no social media histories in the computer browser you tried on floor 2.
You give documents an overview and they seem to hold the email ID :
sincon@hackerwares.in in their signature. Would it be possible to locate this social
media handle?
Attempt
I tried searching based on the email and I got nowhere.
Solution (with guidance)
Honestly I got a bit spoiled on this challenge, and I got the tag (Hint Used). But I was thinking on how I can get it without help.
So I would think someone who search the various social media platforms on SINCON to get the flag. Platforms like Twitter (now called X), Instagram etc.
Searching Twitter and scrolling a fair bit reveals a special account.
Floor 3 opens to a room full of documents and some photographs. And a note
asking to upload and share the documents and pictures on social media. But
there are no social media histories in the computer browser you tried on floor 2.
You give documents an overview and they seem to hold the email ID :
sincon@hackerwares.in in their signature. Would it be possible to locate this social
media handle?
Success! The floor is unlocked.
Ting! Select your floor.
(1)(2)
(3)(4)
(5)(6)
Passcode
sinconnoisseurs
It unlocks a floor
Floor 4
Description
The document retrieved on the third floor talks about a particular social media
post of a hacker eating a cookie in an AESthetic way. It'd be interesting to dig
deeper into what's going on.
Solution (with guidance)
I was partially spoiled on read that there's an instagram account (Hint Used), and that you can find a image of a hacker eating a cookie. There's some text there which I would suspect is somehow AES coded.
Maybe there are more accounts besides the twitter and the instagram. (Hint Used)
So I checked the facebook, and woah, there's another thing
I put it into CyberChef and Experimented around with various AES Encryption options. After a while I got something useful
https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/#recipe=AES_Decrypt({'option':'UTF8','string':'sinconfectionery'},{'option':'UTF8','string':'sinconfectionery'},'ECB','Hex','Raw',{'option':'Hex','string':''},{'option':'Hex','string':''})&input=NGQ2YmFlYmI4MjI3MjQ4ZDJlMWE1ZWI3YzZmYTg0NDJiYzZlMmVkYzgwZjRjMjk3YTMzMjliOWE0NmJhOTU1YzA1ZDUxNmI3OWE5NjViZGZlZDNmMTE2YzcwZjY1MWIw
The document retrieved on the third floor talks about a particular social media
post of a hacker eating a cookie in an AESthetic way. It'd be interesting to dig
deeper into what's going on.
Success! The floor is unlocked.
Ting! Select your floor.
(1)(2)
(3)(4)
(5)(6)
Passcode
cookie sniffing
Floor 6
Description
Floor 6 opens to photographs of a masked attacker in the wild.
You wonder where this picture is taken. It'd be great if you can
pinpoint the location name.
++++++++++[>+>+++>+++++++>++++++++++<<<<-]>>>>+++++++++++++++.----------.++++
+.-------.+++++.-------.+++++++++++++++.-----.-.
Solution
The code is in Brainf**k and running it gives singleton
Following the hint from Floor 5, I guessed that you can enumerate an image also on the website. You can guess hackerwares.in/singleton.png
Putting that into Aperisolve https://www.aperisolve.com/93fe8e3d2c3bceba2005e7a3e2305b40 doesn't really appear to give much, but you can find the location data tagged to the image.
I looked up on Google Maps and tried a few combinations but that didn't work
Solution (with guidance)
So on looking at the writeup (Because I think I was at a dead end) appparently its supposed to be on Google Maps? I'm not sure if they changed it in the end. (Hint Used)
Image from the writeup
I tried tirjup hut and it works
Passcode
tirjup hut
Floor 2
Description
Floor 2 is an office. A row of computers sitting idle except one
that keeps flickering, asking for a password. You take the seat.
Making the best of your social engineering guesses about the
password. You try and find out it's clearly not the employee's
name. Nor the top 10 most used passwords. What could it be?
Perplexed, you look outside the window. There's a building right
opposite with a big sign on it. It doesn't hurt to try and so you do?..
Attempt
Given that the badge is the Khong Guan Building, my instinct is to use Google Maps to find nearby locations.
However, I looked around and couldn't really find anything
Solution (with guidance)
I gave up and look at the writeup and apparently the building is there? (Hint Used) I just didn't notice it. I think I was looking too much at the left that I didn't look at the right....
Honestly I'm like wtf but I guess I just suck at OSINT
-=+++==--===++=---
.-----==+++==========:-===-----.
:=: .:+++==========::=-. :=:
.=- =+++========-:-=: -=.
:=: -+++========-:-= :=:
:=: .+++========-:=- :=:
.-=:..=+*========:-=:.:=-.
.:-==++======-:-=-:.
:=+====--:
-+===-
:+=:
.+-.
-+=:
.=+==-:.
:-**+===++==-:
+#+-SINCON-+#+
+# CTF NINJA +
+#*+++++++++++
:***********+++-
Send screenshot of this screen along with your name and
contact details to sincon@hackerwares.in
Passcode
trivex
Learning Points
So I only managed to solve other challenges due to BadgeCon, where I found the writeup links. In hindsight I should be more active on discord and source out hints/ past writeups...
I'll say that a lot of the challenges are OSINT challenges, and that was really something I struggled with, but it still was a good experience and kinda fun. Not really hardwarey though, as what I've heard. Some OSINT challenges I was afraid would be ruined by time, and I was kinda right, such as Floor 6 (what happened to the entry?)
BadgeCon itself was rather chill place, I liked having time to force myself to do challenges, and hopefully one day I can host a similar session (maybe in NUS Greyhats) where I can do something like that and explore Hardware Security!
Maybe when I'm free I'll look at more hardwarey challenges? I do have some of circuitboardartist badges and I'm definitely going to look into those (no existing writeup available online too!!!)
Other Writeups
- https://github.com/TTTaus/SINCONReloadedHWCTF
- https://github.com/4nndorphin/writeups/blob/main/sincon-ctf-badge.md
At the very least, I've achieved my goal of lighting up the badge 2 years after I 1st got it :)