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Author : mindFlayer02  
[source.sage](https://github.com/Nightxade/ctf-writeups/blob/master/assets/CTFs/0xL4ugh-CTF-2024/source.sage)  [out.txt](https://github.com/Nightxade/ctf-writeups/blob/master/assets/CTFs/0xL4ugh-CTF-2024/out.txt)  
---
We are provided a sage source file and an output file. Here's the source:  
```pyfrom random import *  from Crypto.Util.number import * flag = b'REDACTED'#DEFINITIONK = GF(0xfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffeffffffffffffffff);a = K(0xfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffefffffffffffffffc);b = K(0x64210519e59c80e70fa7e9ab72243049feb8deecc146b9b1)E = EllipticCurve(K, (a, b))G = E(0x188da80eb03090f67cbf20eb43a18800f4ff0afd82ff1012, 0x07192b95ffc8da78631011ed6b24cdd573f977a11e794811)
#DAMAGE def poison(val,index): 	val = list(val)	if val[index] == '1': 		val[index] = '0'	else: 		val[index] = '1'	return ''.join(val)
my_priv = bin(bytes_to_long(flag))[2:]ms = []C1s = []C2s = []decs = []
count = 0 
while count < len(my_priv):	try: 		k = randint(2, G.order()-2)		Q = int(my_priv,2)*G		M = randint(2,G.order()-2)		M = E.lift_x(Integer(M));ms.append((M[0],M[1])) 		C1 = k*G;C1s.append((C1[0],C1[1]))		C2 = M + k*Q;C2s.append((C2[0],C2[1]))
		ind = len(my_priv)-1-count		new_priv = poison(my_priv,ind)		new_priv = int(new_priv,2)		dec = (C2 - (new_priv)*C1);decs.append((dec[0],dec[1]))		count +=1 	except: 		pass
with open('out.txt','w') as f: 	f.write(f'ms={ms}\n')	f.write(f'C1s={C1s}\n')	f.write(f'C2s={C2s}\n')	f.write(f'decs={decs}')```
This challenge looks intimidating (I was actually quite unsure at first if I could solve this), but I personally found it to be easier than I expected.  
Let's first go through what's happening step-by-step.  
First, some parameters are given, in which an elliptic curve is constructed and a generator point `G` is defined. Then, there is a `poison()` function, which seems to flip the bit at a certain position in a string.  
`my_priv` is set to the binary representation of the flag. We then enter a while loop, that iterates through `my_priv`.  
Two random integers are generated, `k` and `M`. Scalar multiplication of `G` by the integer representation of the flag produces point `Q`. Meanwhile, after looking up `lift_x()` in SageMath's documentation, I realized that it just found a y-value corresponding to the x-value of `M`. `M` thus becomes a point on the elliptic curve with the random value initially stored in `M` as its x-coordinate.  
Now, `C1` is produced via scalar multiplication of `k` and `G`. `C2` is produced via `M + kQ`, i.e. the scalar multiplication of `k` and `Q` and the point addition of the resultant point with `M`.  
`ind` seems to be controlling the index of the bit of `my_priv` we're accessing in the while loop, with the loop appearing to iterate through `my_priv` backwards. Additionally, `new_priv` is set to the result of the `poison()` function being called on `my_priv` and `ind`. If you refer back to what's happening in the `poison()` function, it seems that, in `new_priv`, the bit at position `ind` in `my_priv` will be flipped, and the rest stays the same. Notably, `my_priv` also stays the same across all iterations. The above two conclusions can easily be confirmed with some added print statements in the source file.  Finally, `dec` is set to `C2 - (new_priv)*C1`.  
On a sidenote, it may be helpful for those of you that are not knowledgeable regarding elliptic curve cryptography to read up on it. I suggest CryptoHack as a great introduction! Reason being that you may not exactly understand what's going on with the scalar multiplication and point addition, even though you technically don't really need to.  
This problem comes down to a bunch of equations that actually turn out quite nicely. We can write the following:  
$$Q = pG$$  $$C_1 = kG$$  $$C_2 = M + kQ = M + pkG$$  $$p_m = new_priv$$  $$dec = C_2 - p_m*C1 = M + pkG - p_m*kG = M + kG(p - p_m) = M + C1(p - p_m)$$  
It is known that  $$p - p_m = 2^i$$  or  $$p - p_m = -2^i$$  since the bit at the index changes from 0 to 1 or 1 to 0, and we change the smallest bits first and the largest bits last. Note that changing the bit from 0 to 1 would make $$p - p_m$$ negative, and changing the bit from 1 to 0 would make it positive. Therefore, based on the result of the subtraction, we know whether or not the original bit was 0 or 1.  
Once we know that, it is trivial to simply write a short sage script to check if the bit changed from 0 to 1 or 1 to 0. Here it is:  
```pyfrom Crypto.Util.number import * 
# out.txt not included here for readability
K = GF(0xfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffeffffffffffffffff);a = K(0xfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffefffffffffffffffc);b = K(0x64210519e59c80e70fa7e9ab72243049feb8deecc146b9b1)E = EllipticCurve(K, (a, b))G = E(0x188da80eb03090f67cbf20eb43a18800f4ff0afd82ff1012, 0x07192b95ffc8da78631011ed6b24cdd573f977a11e794811)
binstr = ''for i in range(len(ms)):    # Make each point a point on the elliptic curve    M = E(ms[i])    C1 = E(C1s[i])    C2 = E(C2s[i])    dec = E(decs[i])
    dec = dec - M
    res0 = -1 * (1<