CTF-Writeups

A Lone Love - Write-up

Flag format: nexus{surname_day_month_year}

Summary

The challenge is OSINT: identify the only survivor from a WWII photo roster (August 1942) and the date he was listed missing, then format as a flag.

1) Find the source (“history” content)

The task text (Russian, August 1942, “twelve officers and a Red Army man”) is distinctive. Searching unique strings (e.g., Август 1942 года + “двенадцать офицеров”) leads to a PDF from the Всероссийский литературный конкурс «Герои Великой Победы» that contains the exact story and roster.

2) Locate the relevant passage

In the PDF:

• Use Ctrl+F for Август 1942 года.
• This jumps to the story describing a photo and listing the people on it.

CLI alternative:

pdftotext book.pdf - | grep -n "Август 1942 года"

3) Extract the roster (12 people)

The article lists the people on the back of the photo, including Богатырев among the twelve.

4) Identify the lone survivor

Later, the author describes searching archival portals and highlights Николай Иванович Богатырев as:

• “пропавший без вести” (missing),
• but survived and made it to the end (“выживший и дошедший до конца”).

This matches the challenge clue: the only unexpected survivor.

5) Get the “missing” date

In the same section, the author quotes the loss report line:

• Пропал без вести 04.11.1944 ...

So the missing date is 04.11.1944 (4 Nov 1944).

6) Build the flag

• surname: bogatyrev
• day: four
• month: nov
• year: fortyfour

Flag: nexus{bogatyrev_four_nov_fortyfour}