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Operation Kinetic

May 2026 · OSINT UK CTF · 5 challenges

Endless Cycle (6pts)

Task: Identify the name of the building shown in the attached video.

Answer Format:

  • Use the osintuk{answer} format.
  • Replace spaces with underscores.
    e.g. osintuk{Water_Wheely_Steeley_House}

The video shows a waterwheel and seemingly-bilingual text in the bottom-right corner. At first glance the text appears likely to be Welsh. Google Translating the word for ‘Danger’ into Welsh shows it to be ‘Pergyl’, which matches.

With my hunch confirmed, I started running simple queries for water wheels in Wales. Unfortunately, trusty resource WelshMills (there truly is a website for everything) tells me that there’s quite a lot. Too many to manually search.

I applied Occam’s Razor here - the simplest solution is often the best - and uploaded the image to Google Lens, adding the word ‘Wales’ to help filter through the noise.

Gemini identified Melin Bompren Corn Mill in Cardiff. This appears to align with the images identified, which match the signage displayed in the footage. This resolves the flag.

Flag: osintuk{Melin_Bompren_Corn_Mill}

Tariff Temporal (3pts)

Task: Identify how much it costs to park a regular car at the place where the Corn Mill is located and the date of when the price last increased.

Answer Format:

  • Use the osintuk{answer} format.
  • Use a pound sign (£).
  • Date format: DDMMYYYY
  • Separate the price and date with an underscore.
    e.g. osintuk{£2_12042006}

A Google search for the mill shows it to be at St Fagans National Museum of History. Their website shows a current parking price of £7.

Now that we know the current price, we have sufficient information to Google the price increase date. This reveals the date as Monday, 8th July 2024.

Flag: osintuk{£7_08072024}

Idle Fees (3pts)

The entry price to visit St Fagans is currently free after paying the parking fee.

Task: Identify what the entry price was to visit St Fagans in March 2002.

Answer Format:

  • Use the osintuk{answer} format.
  • Use a pound sign (£).
    e.g. osintuk{£3}

My first thought here was to check the Wayback Machine, but 2002 is a long time ago for even major websites - let alone museums. Unsurprisingly, the earliest archived date for the museum’s website is 2016.

We need to look elsewhere.

I’m not convinced that I’ve found all there is to find in archived resources yet, and the above webpage - with a ‘.wales’ TLD - strikes me as odd. I’m not convinced that TLD existed as far back as 2002. I wanted to see if the website had a previous name, so I went to Museum Wales’ Wikipedia page.

An edit from 2006 gave a former name - the National Museums & Galleries of Wales.

I followed this thread to the ‘National Museum, Cardiff’ page. In so doing, I found what I was looking for: a previous URL for Welsh Museums, ‘nmgw.ac.uk’.

By searching through this in the Wayback Machine, I was able to stretch time back to March 2002. Searches on the main page - and the St Fagans subdomain - revealed the price back then to be… £0. The same as today.

I entered this with some suspicion, but it does indeed resolve the flag!

Flag: osintuk{£0}

Charity Number (3pts)

Task: Identify the registered charity number for the charity that operates St Fagans.

Answer Format:

  • Use the osintuk{answer} format.
  • Digits only.
    e.g. osintuk{123456}

Being familiar with UK websites, I’m aware that charity numbers are always listed at the bottom of the webpage. Going to the St Fagan’s Museum webpage and scrolling to the bottom gives the charity number: 525774.

Flag: osintuk{525774}

Overdue Accounts (3pts)

In the March 2022 reporting year, the charity was late with their annual return.

Task: Identify how many days they were late by.

Answer Format:

  • Use the osintuk{answer} format.
  • Digits only.
    e.g. osintuk{23}

We can use the charity number from the previous challenge to search the UK Charity Register. This contains a broad range of information for registered charities - including details on their financials.

In this case, clicking into ‘National Museum of Wales’ and navigating ot ‘Accounts and Annual Returns’ shows that their accounts were 255 days late in 2022. This gets the flag, and completes the challenge series.

Flag: osintuk{255}