CyberChef
CyberChef recipes and techniques for encoding, decoding, and data transformation in CTF challenges.
CyberChef
CyberChef is a browser-based tool that chains data transformation operations - encoding, decoding, encryption, compression, parsing. No installation required. It's often the fastest way to solve encoding/crypto challenges.
Decoding Decision Tree
Using the Magic Operation
Paste your data
Paste the encoded/unknown data into the Input box (top right).
Run Magic
Search for Magic in the Operations search box → drag it to the Recipe area → click BAKE.
Magic automatically detects and chains multiple encoding layers.
Review the output
The Output box shows the result. If it looks like readable text or a flag - done. If not, inspect what Magic suggested and extend or adjust.
Save the recipe
Click the Save recipe icon to get a URL you can share or reuse. Recipes are shareable via URL - useful for writeups.
Operations by Category
| Operation | Use when |
|---|---|
| From Base64 | Trailing =, only A-Za-z0-9+/ |
| To Base64 | Encoding binary as text |
| From Hex | deadbeef, \xde\xad, space-separated hex |
| URL Decode | %xx encoded strings |
| HTML Entity Decode | A or & sequences |
| From Binary | 01001000 01101001 space-separated bits |
| From Charcode | Comma-separated char codes 72,101,108 |
| ROT13 | Classic letter rotation |
| Caesar Brute Force | Unknown rotation (shows all 25 results) |
| Atbash Cipher | Reverse alphabet (A↔Z) |
| From Base32 / 58 / 85 | Less common base encodings |
Common CTF Recipes
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