Key takeaways here are gdb command lines as radare, uh, requires too much remembering esoteric keystrokes. Usual friends plus ida were good enough to solve it all in one day.
gdb -x /opt/gdbinit/gdbinit ./file
set disassembly-flavor intel
break main
disassemble main
stepi
x/s address
x/8x address
Also, I did use pwntools to automate some of the work, it's a great lib !
s = ssh(username, host, port , password)
remote_dir = s.set_working_directory()
fish7@gibson:~$ cat CONGRATULATIONS