Full Disclosure
I got close to finding the flag here, but never got it across the line. I will note where I got to and what I missed. You can view the official writeup here
The Prompt
[CONNECTION START]
Unknown: "DUDE YOU... [STATIC] BELIEVE WHERE AND WHAT WE ARE TRANSMITTING FROM!"
Walter: "Your connection sounds fuzzy, theres no way you are using an antenna."
Unknown: "WE MADE OUR OWN USING TH... [STATIC]"
Walter: "I'm losing you, what the hell are you talking about?"
Unkown: "THERE IS NEWS REPORTING ABOUT IT, RIT LET US USE... [STATIC] THE ANTENNA."
Walter: "Dog what are you saying, you're on the news? Where are you?!"
Unknown: "YEAH LOOK IT UP, OUR LOCATION IS... [STATIC].[STATIC].[STATIC]"
Walter: "What kind of location uses three words?"
Unknown: "I SEE MUNSON"
Walter: "Wha..."
[CONNECTION TERMINATED]
Walter: "I need to try and find his location and flag him down, that made no sense."
Three Part Location?
That was a great question, what kind of location uses three words? Let’s google it. Oh, what3words is a thing? Neat! That must be it. What else did the prompt tell us?
I SEE MUNSON
I’m starting to this this may make more sense for RIT students, as David Munson is the current President of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The location is probably going to be at the university (which makes sense for a CTF hosted by a university!) Let’s move on.
NEWS
Well, this is where I screwed up. I searched for “RIT antenna news” and landed on an article about a transparent antenna system to provide outdoor WiFi to museum guests. ….this is objectively cool. Props, RIT. I recommend giving it a read. I was sure I found the right thing, but I was wrong. Looking into it more, I found the building it was in and used what3words to get the address and submitted the flag, no dice.
I’m Stuck
I tried a few other locations for RIT, and none of them seemed to work. RIT doesn’t appear to be a small campus (I’ve never been, just looking at maps), so it would have been hard to try all possible locations. This is where I gave up.
Conclusion
I shouldn’t have given up when I did. I have followed the clues correctly, but my search for the antenna overlooked the Hackaday Artile that would have given me the correct location. In the future, when I get stuck on a wrong answer, I should retrace my steps and double check my previous assumptions.
