Флаги (Flags)

Platform: hackerlab | Category: Crypto | Type: Challenge | Difficulty: Easy | OS: NA | Author: XESXOR | Date: 2025-12-25 | Status: Solved Techniques: Country flag emoji substitution cipher, First letter extraction from country names

Summary

An image task.jpg is attached showing a messenger conversation containing country flags.

Флаги (Flags) — Hackerlab

Description

Помоги разгадать шифр, а то похоже с другом больше никогда не увижусь :) Формат флага: CODEBY{flag}

An image task.jpg is attached showing a messenger conversation containing country flags.

Analysis

The image shows a chat where one person sends a message with country flag emojis:

🇨🇾🇴🇲🇩🇪🇪🇬🇧🇷🇾🇪{🇮🇩🇳🇱🇦🇹🇺🇬_🇦🇱🇷🇴🇪🇬_🇮🇳🇳🇱🇻🇳🇪🇬🇳🇱🇹🇭🇮🇳🇻🇳🇪🇬}

The second person asks "What is this?", and the first one explains they're on codeby.games and asks for help deciphering the code. ‍​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​‍

Key observation: Each country flag represents the first letter of that country's name in English.

Solution

Flag Decryption

Before the brackets (CODEBY):

Inside the brackets (REDACTED):

First part before _:

Note: A variation is used here - possibly Yemen (Y), Oman (O), Uganda (U)

Second part after _:

Third part after _:

Final Decryption

CODEBY{REDACTED}

Notes

• Country Flag Cipher — a simple substitution cipher
• Each flag = first letter of the country name in English
• Some letters can be encoded by different countries:
  • E: Egypt, Estonia, Ecuador, Ethiopia
  • I: India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy
  • N: Netherlands, Norway, Nigeria
  • V: Vietnam, Venezuela
• For the letter D, Germany (Deutschland in German) is often used ‍​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​‍