DawgCTF 2026 - OSINT Challenges

Created on April 11, 2026 by Anonymous Student

2026   ·   writeups   osint   dawgctf   ·   writeups   osint

I have always been fascinated by just how much you can find out using open-source information. However, I had never attempted OSINT challenges at CTF events before. The “DawgCTF 2026” event featured a range of OSINT challenges that looked interesting, so I decided to give them a go.

The Temple of Doom

  • Description: I used to work at this crazy looking building. I’ve attached a picture of it, can you guess where it is?
  • Goal: Find out the nickname of the building.

Judging by the large car park in the foreground and the type of vehicles (mostly saloon cars, a few pick-up trucks and Teslas), I was fairly certain that the building was located in the USA. The vegetation appears to be rather dry and there are a few palm trees. For this reason, my first guess was that the building might be in California.

I opened Google, searched for “california pyramid building”, and had a look at the images. There were many different buildings found, but one of them looked very similar to the one on the picture provided by the challenge. It lead to the Wikipedia page of a building called “Chet Holifield Federal Building”, which is a United States government building in Laguna Niguel, California. The article on this building mentions that it is colloquially also known as “The Ziggurat Building”. Submitting this nickname in the challenge proved that it was the correct one.

Better Call AT&T!

  • Description: I was watching my favorite show Better Call Saul recently and noticed something peculiar. I wanna recreate the shot…
  • Goal: Figure out what the phone number for this parking garage is.

According to the description of the challenge the picture is a scene from a TV show called “Better Call Saul”. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that show. For popular movies and shows there are often wikis or fanpages on the internet, so I thought that, if this was an important scene from that show, there may be some location information on such a page.

On Fandom I found a wiki page for the show and a bit hidden there was also a section on locations, which included 321 items. Under the letter “P” I finally found a location “Parking Garage (Better Call Saul)”. The wiki page of this location included a photo showing a person in a parking garage. The same person can be seen in the centre of the image provided by the challenge. The floor markings and the railing of the parking garage also look very similar in both photos. So I was pretty sure that this was the car park we were looking for.

The wiki page stated that it was a parking garage at Tijeras Ave NW, Albuquerque. Knowing this, I opened Google Maps and searched for “Tijeras Ave NW, Albuquerque”. Unfortunately, there were multiple parking garages next to this road. Looking at the photo again I noticed the prominent AT&T building in the background with its large antennas. On the map this building wasn’t easily visible, but using Google Street View, I was able to find out where it was located. Using the location of the AT&T building, the building with the many small windows visible behind the leftmost person in the image, Tijeras Ave NW, the viewing angle of the photo, and Google Street View, I finally managed to find out that the parking garage we were looking for must be the ‘Convention Center Parking’. On the Google Maps details page of this parking garage I could also find the phone number +1 505-768-4575, which was the solution to this challenge.

Дмитрий-шесть

  • Description: My friend from Ukraine sent me this weird picture, he says that it’s the key to a secret treasure room underground. Do you know where this picture was taken?
  • Goal: Find out what the official name of this location is.

From looking at the picture I thought that it probably depicts an old metro. Since the challenge description mentioned Ukraine, I searched for “ukraine metro” on Google and had a look at the pictures. Unfortunately, there was no picture that looked similar to what was visible on the challenge’s photo.

The description also mentions a secret underground treasure room, so I searched for “secret metro”. Looking through the pictures I suddenly saw one that exactly matched the top picture provided by the challenge. It was an image from the Wikipedia page of “Metro-2”, which is the informal designation for a clandestine and officially-unacknowledged deep underground metro system in the Moscow metropolitan area. On this Wikipedia page I could also find the photo on the bottom left of the provided image, so I was pretty sure, that this was the solution. “Metro-2” was the correct name the challenge was looking for.

Gateway to the Turnpike

  • Description: They say all roads lead to Rome, but in this part of the mid-Atlantic, all roads lead to a very confusing set of gas stations. I snapped this photo on a road trip a while back.
  • Goal: Figure out the ZIP code of the place this photo was taken.

From looking at the picture it is quite clear that this is somewhere in the USA. Road signs often provide much information, so I had a look at what was availabe here. Roughly in the middle of the picture there are two “Interstate 70” signs and just below of them one that says “PENNA TURNPIKE”. Since I didn’t know what the second sign meant, I looked it up on the internet. Appaerntly, it stands for “Pennsylvania Turnpike”, which is a controlled-access toll road. I also found out that it is part of Interstate 76 between the Ohio state line and Valley Forge, and that it is running concurrently with Interstate 70 in some parts.

Looking at the picture again I noticed something else. Further back on the image between the trees you can see some trucks driving from left to right. So, maybe there is an Interstate there.

With this information I opened Google Maps and started looking for Interstate 76 and Interstate 70. Specifically, I was looking for a place where Interstate 76 and Interstate 70 intersect at nearly a right angle. There I found a town called “Breezewood”. The name sounded familiar to me somehow, so I had another look at the picture. It features a partially obstructed street sign with “S Breezew… Rd” on it. At that point, I was pretty sure Breezewood was the right town. To make sure, I still checked Google Street View, which confirmed that it was indeed the right place.

On Google Maps I was unfortunately not able to find the ZIP code of Breezewood, but a quick search on Wikipedia revealed that the ZIP code is 15533, which was the solution to this challenge.

Conclusion

All in all, I really enjoyed these OSINT challenges. They were by no means easy and took way longer to solve than the write-ups might suggest. At first glance, I often wondered how it was even possible to find the required information using the given resources. However, if you pay attention to small details in the images and occasionally have a good idea of what else to look for, you can usually achieve more than you initially think. I’m also convinced that OSINT challenges like these are good practice for spotting small details, combining information and working step by step towards a solution - skills that will also come in handy in other CTF challenges.