1. Overview The challenge provides a Windows‑style archive (e.g., a ZIP or 7z file) that is password‑protected. The file name hints that the password is related to KMSAuto , a well‑known (but unofficial) Windows activation utility. The goal is to recover the password and extract the contents of the archive. 2. Initial Information Gathering | Step | Action | Rationale | |------|--------|-----------| | 2.1 | Identify the archive type ( file command or opening in a GUI archive manager). | Determines which tools can be used for extraction. | | 2.2 | Note the exact file name: kmsauto password for archive - windows.txt . | The title may contain clues (e.g., “windows.txt” could be a hint that the password is stored inside a text file). | | 2.3 | Check the archive size and any visible metadata. | Small archives are often simple password‑protected containers, while large ones may contain multiple files that need further analysis. |
KMSAuto KMSAuto2020 KMSAuto2021 KMSAuto2022 KMSAuto2023 KMSAuto!2022 KMSAuto#2022 kmsauto2022 kmsauto2022! Tool: 7z (or unzip for ZIP files) supports password attempts via a loop. A quick Bash script was used:
7z x -pKMSAuto2022 kmsauto_password_for_archive.zip -oextracted The extracted directory now contains a single file: kmsauto password for archive - windows.txt
KMSAuto2022 (appears several times in the UI and in log messages). This is the strongest candidate. A small wordlist ( kmsauto_wordlist.txt ) was created containing:
grep -i "kmsauto" kmsauto_strings.txt The most frequently occurring string in the binary is: The goal is to recover the password and
windows.txt windows.txt contains the final flag / answer required for the challenge:
Password found: KMSAuto2022 The script exits after the first successful attempt, confirming the password. With the password discovered, extraction is straightforward: | Determines which tools can be used for extraction
#!/usr/bin/env bash archive="kmsauto_password_for_archive.zip" while IFS= read -r pwd; do 7z t -p"$pwd" "$archive" &>/dev/null && echo "Password found: $pwd" && break done < kmsauto_wordlist.txt