Shoutout time.
This year at PhreakNIC 26, my brother Nirtom and I somehow went from "let's play some CTFs" to "hey, why are we literally digging for treasure at 11:21 PM?"
We teamed up for the conference Treasure Hunt, which was this wild multi-stage puzzle chain that mashed together:
- Sudoku
- Braille
- Word searches
- Custom cards
- Photo analysis
- Music metadata
- And a lot of "wait… what if we try this?"
Out of 1,575 grid squares, we managed to grind it all the way down to 4 final candidates, and from there we tracked down the hidden treasure late Saturday night. Absolute blast.
All of this was happening while we were also in the main CTF. We leaned hard into the Treasure Hunt for a big chunk of the con, which dropped us down to 4th and about 10,000 points behind. Once the treasure was secured, we snapped back to the main scoreboard, sprinted into 1st for a while, and finally landed in 3rd place overall — just 1,900 points behind a six-person team that regularly hits DEF CON and racks up black badges. Not bad for two sleep-deprived nerds on a weekend side-quest.
From my side, one of the coolest parts was watching how Nirtom works when he's in full puzzle/IR mode:
- He turns super-vague clues into something concrete and usable
- He's really good at layering different data types into one "this is the truth" picture
- Automates the boring/repetitive stuff so his brain can stay on analysis
- And when the pressure's on? He adapts fast and closes the gap
He put together a full writeup of the Treasure Hunt — every clue, every step, and how we got from chaos to coordinates:
Full writeup by Nirtom:
https://pn26treasurehunt.nirtom.com
If you're into CTFs, puzzle hunts, or just want a peek into how we tackle complex problems in a cybersecurity context (with a little pirate energy and a lot of caffeine), give it a read. And if you've never been to PhreakNIC, keep an eye on PhreakNIC 27 – November 6–7, 2026.
Might just see you there on the next treasure run.
Stay curious. Keep tinkering. Reps4Thor out.