Byte Bandits CTF 2019 : EasyPHP [ Basic ]

Challenge Code:

<?php
$hashed_key = '79abe9e217c2532193f910434453b2b9521a94c25ddc2e34f55947dea77d70ff';
$parsed = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
if(isset($parsed["query"])){
    $query = $parsed["query"];
    $parsed_query = parse_str($query);
    if($parsed_query!=NULL){
        $action = $parsed_query['action'];
    }

    if($action==="auth"){
        $key = $_GET["key"];
        $hashed_input = hash('sha256', $key);
        //echo $hashed_input.'\n';
        if($hashed_input!==$hashed_key){
            die("GTFO!");
        }

        echo file_get_contents("/flag");
    }
}else{
    show_source(__FILE__);
}?>

To solve this challenge  if($hashed_input!==$hashed_key) condition should be matched.

There is one interesting PHP function is used in challenge - parse_str().

As per PHP manual - https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.parse-str.php

In challenge, "result" parameter is not used with parse_str(), therefore it suffers from dynamic variable value assignment issue.

To satisfy  if($hashed_input!==$hashed_key) condition, value of $hashed_key can be overwritten with SHA256 hashed value of "key" variable.

• key = abcd
• hashed_input = sha256(abcd) = 88d4266fd4e6338d13b845fcf289579d209c897823b9217da3e161936f031589