Free

Challenge: The Base(64)ics

Threat actors commonly use legitimate tools in nefarious ways. As a CTF player, you’ll need to find creative ways to uncover these types of tactics. While evaluating a recent alert in your EDR, you’ve come across a weird string at the end of a powershell command. Can you help figure out what it’s trying to say?
0
30
M
Time
beginner
difficulty
1
ceu/cpe

Course Content

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Course Description

Base64, base32, and base16... Oh my!

In this challenge, you lean over to your colleague Alice, and she recommends taking a look at a tool called [CyberChef](https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/). It is an open-sourced web application developed by GCHQ for analyzing and decoding data. Spin it up, and let's learn some basics around Base64.

> 1. What character pads the end of base64 encoded strings? > 2. The base32 alphabet is made up of only __ characters. > 3. Base16 is the same as: > 4. The final flag is: ___ > 5. The string on the course card looks interesting... May need further investigation... Type "Easter Egg" to complete this challenge.

![CySeeker Peculiar](//images.ctfassets.net/kvf8rpi09wgk/qbEzmd4efRzpA1lBEW8vZ/9fb4bc97f855861107cfa48daf666920/CySeeker_Peculiar.png)

Who is this for?

> Early career practitioners. Individuals new to cybersecurity may be challenged but the difficulty rating on this challenge is relatively low.

What resources are available to help solve this challenge?

> Online search, Discord community, colleagues or fellow practitioners.

Are write ups permitted?

> Yes, write ups are permitted; however, please do not post answers directly. All write ups should include an appropriate link back to Cybrary and the Cybrary Course.

This course is part of a Career Path:
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Instructed by

Senior Instructor
Matthew Mullins

Matt has led multiple Red Team engagements, ranging from a few weeks to a year and covering multiple security domains. Outside of Red Teaming, Matt is also a seasoned penetration tester with interests in: AppSec, OSINT, Hardware, Wifi, Social Engineering, and Physical Security. Matt has a Master's degree in Information Assurance and an exhaustive number of certifications ranging from frameworks, management, and hands-on hacking. Matt is a Technical SME at Cybrary, focusing on Adversarial Emulation and Red Teaming for course content.

Provider
Cybrary Logo
Certification Body
Certificate of Completion

Complete this entire course to earn a Challenge: The Base(64)ics Certificate of Completion

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Purpose Statement

Cybrary Career Paths are comprehensive training programs designed to prepare you for the most in-demand roles in the cybersecurity workforce. Each path follows a Learn, Practice, Prove model and includes different activity types aligned to key topics within the path’s security domain. As you progress through the path, your progress will be measured in real time using Experience Points (XP) that serve as a comprehensive capability score for each topic. Upon completing all of the requirements for a path, you will be rewarded with a shareable digital badge via Credly.
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Overview

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Frequently Asked Questions
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What Will I Learn?
Foundations
Focused on the core IT competencies that cybersecurity professionals need to succeed in any career path.
Defensive Security
Focused on trying to find the bad guys. Topics such as threat intelligence, threat hunting, network monitoring, incident response. Defensive security is a reactive measure taken once a vulnerability is found through prevention, detection, and response.
Engineering and Operations
Focused on building and operating information systems.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance
Focused on the core IT competencies that cybersecurity professionals need to succeed in any career path.
Leadership and Management
Focused on program design and oversight. Covers project and program management.
Offensive Security
Focused on validating security controls by trying to break them (i.e. penetration testing or ethical hacking). Topics such as Kali Linux, metasploit, scanning, and privilege escalation. Offensive security seeks out the problem or vulnerability through ethical hacking and finds a solution to disable the operation.
Offensive Security
Focused on the core IT competencies that cybersecurity professionals need to succeed in any career path.
Path Outline

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Course Outline

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