Pusheen Loves Graphs

We are given a binary file called Pusheen. It we execute it, we will see a picture of a cat:

$ ./Pusheen
   ▐▀▄      ▄▀▌   ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
   ▌▒▒▀▄▄▄▄▀▒▒▐▄▀▀▒██▒██▒▀▀▄
  ▐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▀▄
  ▌▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▄▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▀▄
▀█▒▒█▌▒▒█▒▒▐█▒▒▀▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▌
▀▌▒▒▒▒▒▀▒▀▒▒▒▒▒▀▀▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▐   ▄▄
▐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▌▄█▒█
▐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▐▒█▀
▐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▐▀
▐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▌
 ▌▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▐
 ▐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▌
  ▌▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▐
  ▐▄▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▄▌
    ▀▄▄▀▀▀▀▄▄▀▀▀▀▀▀▄▄▀▀▀▀▀▀▄▄▀

If we check the printable strings inside the file, there are a lot that start with e_ (actually, they run from e_0_0 to e_66_100). We can count them like this:

$ strings Pusheen | wc -l
6767

These strings might be function names, because the binary is not stripped:

$ file Pusheen
Pusheen: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, not stripped

Ghidra won’t help this time to do binary analysis. However, if we open the binary in IDA, we will see a warning message:

Actually, the name of the challenge talks about graphs, and IDA usually shows the assembly code in a graph view. Furthermore, the description of the challenge points the usage of IDA.

We can fix the maximum number of nodes:

And then tell IDA to show the main function in a graph. We get this:

Cool, isn’t it? That’s the graphical representation of the code: function calls, conditional statements, loops…

Anyway, this is the flag: HTB{fUn_w17h_CFGz}.