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2022

README.md

The Third Annual Binary Golf Grand Prix took place from June 17th 2022 until September 2nd 2022.

Goal

The goal of this challenge was to create the smallest file (under 4 kilobytes) that crashed a given program. Additional points were rewarded hitting other goals.

The scores were calculated as follows:

  • Base Score = 4096 - File Size
  • Add 1024 for publishing a write up
  • Add 1024 if the program counter was overwritten with 0x33's or ASCII "3"
  • Add 2048 if code execution was achieved (proven by printing or returning the value "3")
  • Add 4096 if you author a patch which is merged by the end of the competition.

Stats

There were a total of 34 entries, more than double from last year and over 8 times the amount of the first BGGP.

  • 23 entries came with writeups
  • 3 entries included code execution. This was challenging because some entries could have achieved this, but it would've added greatly to the file size.
  • 8 entries had patches that were authored and merged before the end of the competition.
  • 2 additional entries had patches which were rejected :(
  • 2 entries did not qualify as official entries due to size, delivery method, or other issue. These are included in the Honorable Mentions section.
  • 2 entries came after BGGP and were added to this repo in the Honorable Mentions section.

Also, four new CVEs were awarded to participants

Scored Entries

These are the scored entries for BGGP3. Click on the author name to see their entry in this repo. The directories include the entry which was sent to us (.txt file), and the binary file of the entry (.bin file).

For the writeup and patch modifiers, the associated writeups and patches are linked from the score number in the table below. There is also a notes column which may be out of the viewport, scroll to the right to see.

Author Date Target Size Writeup PC Exec Patch Total Points Notes
David3141593 20220729 chip8 0.2.0-1ubuntu1 20 +1024 +0 +2048 +4096 11244
Dan Bastone 20220903 Lotus 1-2-3 R3 for Linux < 1.0.0rc3 34 +1024 +0 +2048 +4096 11230 This score was adjusted, the exploit points were mistakenly not given. See the writeup for details.
PierreKimSec & AlexTorSec 20220824 multiple versions of telnetd 2 +1024 +0 +0 +4096 9214
fridayortiz 20220717 Cave Story (HaikuOS) 8 +1024 +0 +0 +4096 9208
_mattata 20220714 GNUCobol v3.1.2.0 40 +1024 +0 +0 +4096 9176
s01den 20220727 upx git-d7ba31+ 518 +1024 +0 +0 +4096 8698
royhax91 20220804 MilkyTracker v1.03.00 701 +1024 +0 +0 +4096 8515
qkumba 20220901 AppleWin v1.30.10.0 6 +0 +0 +0 +4096 8186
urisk 20220827 Gameboy Colour BIOS0 58 +1024 +1024 +2048 +0 8134
vechs 20220825 gnome-logs - Version 42.0 1 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5119
0xNinja 20220728 Espruino 4 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5116 A patch was suggested but a different patch was written and merged :(
ifygecko 20220902 chocolate-doom 8 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5112
echel0n 20220729 Brainflow 14 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5106
yungintranet 20220821 nftables 19 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5101 A patch was suggested but a different patch was written and merged :(
novafacing 20220818 clang 23 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5098
nopnopgoose 20220902 PCSX 2 Playstation 2 Emulator 45 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5075
LouisKronberg 20220724 mold v1.2.1 50 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5070
junyian 20220716 GIMP 2.10.30 67 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5053
netspooky 20220901 rizin 0.4.0 72 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5048
endofunky 20220824 patchelf 92 +1024 +0 +0 +0 5028
h0wdy 20220831 Renoise 3.4.2 128 +1024 +0 +0 +0 4992
scratchadams118 20220721 munpack 158 +1024 +0 +0 +0 4962
tecknicaltom 20220619 mediainfo v21.09 2 +0 +0 +0 +0 4094
qkumba 20220627 DOSBox 0.74 2 +0 +0 +0 +0 4094
0xdroogy 20220712 qterminal 0.17.0 2 +0 +0 +0 +0 4094
tecknicaltom 20220622 exactimage 1.0.2 4 +0 +0 +0 +0 4092
seerskye 20220902 Hot Soup Processor 3.6 5 +0 +0 +0 +0 4091
linted 20220831 gdb 12.0.90 13 +0 +0 +0 +0 4083
David3141593 20220812 qemu 29 +0 +0 +0 +0 4067 POC
netspooky 20220726 radare2 v5.7.0 32 +0 +0 +0 +0 4064 POC
softwarejosh & potionhax 20220902 libjpeg-turbo-2.1.4 166 +0 +0 +0 +0 3930
q3w3e3 20220724 Portal 2 1094 +0 +0 +0 +0 3002

Honorable Mentions

These entries were written with BGGP3 in mind, but didn't qualify due to reasons discussed in their respective writeups.

.fini

Huge thanks go to the following:

  • Everyone who participated this year!
  • Everyone who shared, wrote about, expanded on, debated, wrote patches for, and were inspired by this year's Binary Golf Grand Prix.
  • Binary Golf Association for helping with organizing, brain storming, and promoting the event.
  • tmp.0ut for allowing us to use their website to host the challenge announcement.
  • xcellerator for doing a majority of the scoring and verification.
  • yoffdog for designing the poster, logo, and other assets

An ultra-special thanks goes to everyone who encouraged, coached, and guided many of the new people who worked on this challenge. Several people who participated this year had never found a bug before, let alone written a PoC, a patch, or a detailed technical blog. This kind of community effort and openness is what will drive this culture forward.

Unlike most CTFs or competitive programming challenges, the Binary Golf Grand Prix is more of a personal quest. There's no right or wrong answer to the question, and no right or wrong way to find the answer.

Constraints are a breeding ground for innovation. When we challenge ourselves to find the smallest, weirdest, and most unlikely ways to achieve our goals, we will often figure out entirely new pathways that we can build upon in the future. It's our sincere hope that BGGP has made you think differently in some way.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us via Twitter or the BGGP channel in the tmp.0ut Discord.

See you next year!

～ netspooky/BGA