CP

Platform: CUSTOM | Category: Crypto | Type: Challenge | Difficulty: Easy | OS: N/A | **Author: XESXOR Techniques: Detect encoding mismatch from garbled characters, Encode as CP866 then decode as UTF-8

Summary

Walkthrough of the CUSTOM Crypto CP. Task: Russian text garbled by wrong codepage (UTF-8 displayed as CP866). Solution: Encode as CP866 then decode as UTF-8 to reveal the flag as spelled-out Russian numbers.

Description

Russian text garbled by wrong codepage. UTF-8 bytes displayed as CP866.

Solution

text.encode('cp866').decode('utf-8') reveals: три шесть шесть семь ноль два восемь = REDACTED ‍​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​‍

Key Takeaways / Lessons

• Mastering Detect encoding mismatch from garbled characters, Encode as CP866 then decode as UTF-8 was key to this challenge.
• Always check for common misconfigurations and verify assumptions.

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Crafted by XESXOR Research • 2026-03-08 • CUSTOM • CP • Difficulty: Easy