Challenge
I Ire given a single JPEG file named MOOOO.jpeg along with a short description.
The title and description hinted at something related to the word MOO
Step 1 --- Initial Analysis
Starting with a quick metadata and structure inspection:
file MOOOO.jpeg
exiftool MOOOO.jpeg
strings MOOOO.jpeg | less
binwalk MOOOO.jpeg
exiftool and strings revealed an unusual Comment field filled with long repeating MOO, moO, and similar patterns, clearly not human text. The content looked identical to source code in the COW esolang, which uses only variations of the word "moo" for instructions.
Step 2 --- Digging Deeper
Since the JPEG comment looked like COW code, I ran it through an online COW interpreter (any standard COW interpreter or online tool would do). When executed, the output was:
thismaybeapasswordbutwhoreallyknowsimjustmessginitisapassword
That output was a steganography password.
Next, I tried extracting hidden data from the JPEG using steghide:
steghide extract -sf MOOOO.jpeg -p 'thismaybeapasswordbutwhoreallyknowsimjustmessginitisapassword'
The extraction succeeded, producing a ZIP archive named secret.zip.
Step 3 --- Exploit / Solution
After unzipping secret.zip, I found two files: extract.txt and TRYYY.txt.
extract.txt just said:
TRY HARDERRR
which served as a hint to dig deeper.
The second file, TRYYY.txt, contained only spaces and tabs which is a strong indicator of whitespace steganography.
To confirm, I used stegsnow:
sudo apt install -y stegsnow
stegsnow -C TRYYY.txt
That command revealed the final flag:
v1t{D0wn_Th3_St3gN0_R4bb1t_H0l3}
Flag
v1t{D0wn_Th3_St3gN0_R4bb1t_H0l3}
Notes
The challenge combined esoteric language decoding (COW) with classic image steganography (steghide) and whitespace stego (SNOW).