Santa released a new password policy (more than 40 characters, upper, lower, digit, special).
The elves can’t remember such long passwords, so they found a way to continue to use their old (bad) password:
merry christmas geeks
Challenge Description
Attached to this was the following file named HV19-PPC.ahk
::merry:: FormatTime , x,, MM MMMM yyyy SendInput, %x%{left 4}{del 2}+{right 2}^c{end}{home}^v{home}V{right 2}{ASC 00123} return ::christmas:: SendInput HV19-pass-w0rd return :*?:is:: Send - {del}{right}4h :*?:as:: Send {left 8}rmmbr{end}{ASC 00125}{home}{right 10} return :*?:ee:: Send {left}{left}{del}{del}{left},{right}e{right}3{right 2}e{right}{del 5}{home}H{right 4} return :*?:ks:: Send {del}R3{right}e{right 2}3{right 2} {right 8} {right} the{right 3}t{right} 0f{right 3}{del}c{end}{left 5}{del 4} return ::xmas:: SendInput, -Hack-Vent-Xmas return ::geeks:: Send -1337-hack return
This was an AutoHotkey source file. Loading the script with AutoHotkey, starting Notepad and carefully typing merry christmas geeks (spaces are important!) reveals the flag: HV19{R3memb3r, rem3mber – the 24th 0f December}.