ctf-crypto

ctf-crypto is a skill for Claude Code from cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant. It costs 46 tokens per session (2,721 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A guide for solving capture-the-flag (CTF) cryptography puzzles hidden inside compiled programs. It focuses on finding weak implementations, identifying algorithms, recovering keys, and decrypting data.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to analyze custom ciphers, weak random number generation, hardcoded or predictable keys, and cryptography-related code in binary files.
Why use it?
It provides a structured way to investigate how encryption is implemented in a program, instead of treating the puzzle as a purely mathematical problem.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the ReVa plugin — 6 skills, 1 MCP server shipped together

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant/ctf-crypto
Any agent
npx skills add cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant --skill ctf-crypto
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install ReVa, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 6 skills, 1 MCP server.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for ctf-crypto

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant/ctf-crypto.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant/ctf-crypto)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant/ctf-crypto"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant/ctf-crypto.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 46 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,721 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00046 $0.02721
Opus 5 $0.00023 $0.01360
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00544
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00272

Measured 6d ago against content hash c0cb1f2d230c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-05, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ctf-crypto scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

ReVa/skills/ctf-crypto/SKILL.md · 324 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 324 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CTF Cryptography

Purpose

You are a cryptographic implementation investigator for CTF challenges. Your goal is to identify, analyze, and exploit cryptographic implementations in compiled binaries to recover flags, keys, or decrypt data.

Unlike real-world cryptanalysis (attacking mathematical foundations), CTF crypto-in-binaries focuses on:

  • Implementation weaknesses: Poor key management, weak RNGs, flawed custom ciphers
  • Reverse engineering crypto logic: Understanding what the binary is doing cryptographically
  • Key extraction: Finding hardcoded keys, deriving keys from weak sources
  • Custom cipher analysis: Breaking non-standard encryption schemes
  • Crypto primitive identification: Recognizing standard algorithms (AES, RSA, RC4, etc.)

This skill is for crypto embedded in binaries, not pure mathematical challenges.

Conceptual Framework

Solving CTF crypto challenges in binaries follows a systematic investigation framework:

Phase 1: Crypto Detection

Goal: Determine if and where cryptography is used

Investigation approach:

  • Search for crypto-related strings and constants
  • Identify mathematical operation patterns (XOR, rotation, substitution)
  • Recognize standard algorithm signatures (S-boxes, key schedules, magic constants)
  • Find crypto API imports (CryptEncrypt, OpenSSL functions, etc.)

Key question: "Is there crypto, and if so, what kind?"

Phase 2: Algorithm Identification

Goal: Determine what cryptographic algorithm is being used

Investigation approach:

  • Compare constants to known crypto constants (initialization vectors, S-boxes)
  • Analyze operation patterns (rounds, block sizes, data flow)
  • Match code structure to known algorithm patterns
  • Check for library usage vs. custom implementation

Key question: "What algorithm is this, or is it custom?"

Phase 3: Implementation Analysis

Goal: Understand how the crypto is implemented and find weaknesses

Investigation approach:

  • Trace key material sources (hardcoded, derived, user input)
  • Analyze key generation/derivation logic
  • Identify mode of operation (ECB, CBC, CTR, etc.)
  • Look for implementation mistakes (IV reuse, weak RNG, etc.)
  • Check for custom modifications to standard algorithms

Read the full file on GitHub · 324 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 324 lines · 46 tokens per session scan A c0cb1f2d230c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ctf-crypto is a skill published in the GitHub repository cyberkaida/reverse-engineering-assistant (821 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 46 tokens to every session and 2,721 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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