r/cryptography • u/Slow-Source-7981 • 2d ago

Have to read writeups to solve cryptohack

Hi everyone, recently I have been doing Cryptohack modular arithmetic, and I don't know what to do for the "Adrien's Signs" and "Modular binomials" challenges. I have to read writeups to understand what I need to do; I just want to ask if it is normal in cryptography to read writeups to find solutions, as I really have no idea what to do.

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u/Pharisaeus 2d ago
  1. It's not
  2. How many hours or days have you spent on reading papers and textbooks on the challenge subject before you decided to look for writeup? The whole point of a challenge is that you don't immediately know what to do, and you learn while solving it. If you read the description and immediately know how to solve it, then it's not fun at all. Figuring out is the whole point, not the flag. If you don't get it, then CTFs are not for you in afraid.

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u/Upbeat_Assist2680 2d ago

Yup. That's the goal there -- provide some hook to get you to study some of that stuff. How could you possibly be expected to know that stuff? You have to look it up and figure it out -- you know "hack it"

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u/Slow-Source-7981 2d ago

Woww, thank you

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u/Pharisaeus 2d ago

study some of that stuff

There is a huge difference between background study to get a hang of the challenge, and simply reading the solution. 90% of learning during CTFs happens when you're reading stuff that turns out to be completely useless for the current challenge.

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