yeah, the beginner one is definitely higher level that I would've expected a beginner level one to be. Definitely starting with a binary/reversing challenge is already quite a bit more than I'd expected from the very first beginner level.
You really don't need to reverse the binary to pass that one haha. The string isn't obfuscated in the ELF, you can just look at the file in a text editor to see the flag
Haha I feel extremely stupid now! Thanks though, after being unblocked I'm making decent progress, already gotten then next 4 levels. This is really fun for beginners!
I think that feeling is extremely important when learning new things. It show's that you are starting to build a model of the problem space and filling it with things that were non-obvious to you.
