## 5x5 Crypto The main idea finding the flag is by simple pairs. #### Step-1: After reading the given text: `Ever heard of the 5x5 secret message system? If not, basically it's a 5x5 grid with all letters of the alphabet in order, without k because c is represented to make the k sound only. Google it if you need to. A letter is identified by Row-Column. All values are in caps. Try: 1-3,4-4,2-1,{,4-4,2-3,4-5,3-2,1-2,4-3,_,4-5,3-5,}` #### Step-2: So, basically the table is: We can decode the message according to given inputs in message above to get the flag. #### Step-3: Instead I wrote a `Flag.py` script to get the flag. ``` import numpy as np arr = np.arange(65,90).reshape(5, 5) # Array of alphabet arr = np.where(arr <75, arr, arr+1) # Array without 'K' cells = ["1-3","4-4","2-1","{","4-4","2-3","4-5","3-2","1-2","4-3","_","4-5","3-5","}"] for i in cells: if(ord(i[0])>=48 and ord(i[0])<=57): x=int(i[0])-1 y=int(i[2])-1 print(chr(arr[x][y]),end="") else: print(i[0],end="") print("\n") ``` #### Step-4: If we execute this script by `python3 Flag.py`, I got the following output: ``` CTF{THUMBS_UP} ``` #### Step-5: Finally the flag becomes: `CTF{THUMBS_UP}`