+++
title = "CTF Write Up: Serendipity Edition"
date = 2026-01-22
+++

MetaCTF was the event, rather short we only had 3 hours. 
I managed to not to fumble the apportioned iota of time, here's the result.
I did a forensics problem, the prompt was minimal, they us a .g file and a silly pun.

## What to do with that Weird, Quirky, Bodacious File?

Upon seeing this unfamiliar file extension I did whats natural and googled it.
The first answer I got was "BRL-CAD geometry file", so in turn I tried to download "BRL-CAD" to
open this file. 
This might have been a good idea but the damn program crashed on startup and I didn't have enough time to
troubleshoot this bullshit (its a 3 hour CTF remember).
 
Now for new approach, the prompt was very fixated on the letter G so my mind came to g-code,
a language used to command CNC machines and 3D printers.
I opened Orca Slicer to see what I could do with the file.
Orca Slicer is a 3D printing slicer which is a type of software that converts your nice 3D models into
g-code, hence me using it.
Here is where the serendipity manifests itself, first option I saw was to convert an binary g-code file into ascii.
When I did that I found a series of comments (didn't know that g-code had comments) that spelled out the flag.