Magic with Manticore

Summary: A Trail of Bits intern used Manticore, a binary analysis tool with an API for symbolic execution, taint analysis, and instrumentation, to solve Magic, a DEFCON CTF qualifying challenge made up of 200 unique binaries that each require a separate key. The writeup presents three solutions combining Manticore with Binary Ninja, and notes that abandoning the negative branch cut solve time from 3 hours to 1 minute.
What you should know: The article's own numbers show the gap automation closes: 200 binaries that would take significant time to reverse engineer by hand, and a 3-hour solve reduced to 1 minute once the tool stops reasoning down dead branches. As CTFs add more challenges of this shape, the writeup states that modern tools will be required to remain competitive.

Read the original at Trail of Bits Blog ↗