I did this lab as part of CMU's excellent intro to systems class (15-213, which also happens to be the zip code of CMU). Its one of the best courses offered in the CS department. As far as bomb lamb itself, I had a lot of fun doing this lab and getting to use gdb.

For anyone interested, here is the class and labs - https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~213/.

My first instinctive response to seeing this post's title was "Oh no, someone has published the solution for binary bomb, that's unnecessarily damaging to the 213 pedagogy."

Upon not-much-more reflection though: all pedagogy has to adapt to available tools and techniques. Even classic college-level puzzles like the binary bomb aren't excepted if decompilation and analysis tools have advanced far enough to make "Hit it with gdb until your head aches" no longer the best solution approach.

(Besides, gdb is the tool for the job, not necessarily the best tool for the job. That program really shows its age these days).

This was one of my favorite assignments from CMU. Thanks for rekindling a great memory.

It looks like Radare is not far from being a full decompiler. I remember when it was still a rough prototype.