Starting my Capture the Flag Journey

So...I decided to start a thing.   I begun the journey of going through picoCTF challenges.  I am enjoying the learning experience.  Since I am new to CTF I have had to start at the beginning.

Most of the very early challenges are about getting the flag string by opening (not executing; not running) the program and looking for the flag string.

Some have you running netcat and sending either specific or arbitrary characters or strings to provide the flag to output.

Others have you simply doing hex, Dec, ASCII, text conversions.  Or hashing.

At this moment, I am working through some python syntax and array loop challenges.  I have seen and have coded C++.  But NEVER python.  This is definitely a crash course, but I'm up for the challenge.

I can't wait until I can start putting Ghidra to use.  Reminds me of my Ollydbg,Cheat Engine days. 

This is the way.

Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 12

Windows 11 Pro

WSL with Kali Linux