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GLASSHEADS, pt. 4 Cover Challenge

This challenge can be found on the cover of issue 11. Spot the strings of code beneath the issue number.

The shell

We are given what looks like a line of obfuscated shell.

The $'...' pieces are ANSI-C quoting: each \x.. is a hex byte. The $(L), $(U) and $(Z) in between are command substitutions. L, U and Z are not commands, so they expand to nothing (and any error is sent to /dev/null), which means they are just there to distract us.

Decoding the hex characters gives us a URL, which leads us to the flag.