kashiCTF 2026 - POEM

Posted on In Views: Disqus:

I like to have my poems saved on CTFd instances like this. But the admin does like it, so I hid the secret in my poem.

Solution

The provided poem contains a significant amount of trailing tabs and spaces at the end of each line. This is a classic indication of SNOW (Steganographic Nature Of Whitespace) steganography.

By using a SNOW decoder (such as the web-based snow.js decoder), we can extract the hidden message from the poem text:

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The way a crow	      	  	   	   		     	   	      
Shook down on me      	  		   	 	     		      
The dust of snow  	     		 	      	    	       	      
From a hemlock tree    	 	  	     	       	     	     	 
      	  	  	   	     	     	 	     	  	       
Has given my heart   	       		    	     	       	      	    
A change of mood  	   	   	     	   	      	  	       
And saved some part   	   	    	    	   	     	      	     
Of a day I had rued.

The decoded message reveals the flag.

Flag

kashiCTF{1_like_poems_but_1_lik3_u_more<3}