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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 26, 2005 - 09:35pm PT
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Here's one I ran across while participating in an online "reverse engineering course"..ie. Code cracking, program reversing, protection bybassing etc...
Hints:
This one does not require math.
This does not require any special decryption software, etc.
This does however require the use of a "Hex Editor" program, such as WinHex, or any of the many free ones available if you just google.
Here is the link to Shack's Encrypted File!.
Try to decypher the hidden message!
Good Luck!
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Nov 26, 2005 - 09:47pm PT
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4öæv'GWÆG–öæ7•öW†gVföWæFG†V7V6'VGöf5†6¶r7f–ÆV
Shack loves sucking horse c*#k while loving his fat hot dog
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Nov 26, 2005 - 09:47pm PT
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4öæv'GWÆG–öæ7•öW†gVföWæFG†V7V6'VGöf5†6¶r7f–ÆV
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 26, 2005 - 09:48pm PT
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Bwahahaha!!! Not even close! but I guess you see what you want to see!
Yes..that's how it looks encrypted Jake!
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Nov 26, 2005 - 09:49pm PT
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that is f*#ked... it fit when it was in reply box
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 26, 2005 - 09:56pm PT
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I didn't get any real clues and it took me about 3 days of using a hex editor and staring at it in "Ascii"(hint), before the solution finally hit me...
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Nov 26, 2005 - 10:05pm PT
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Your website is crazy!
"Watch it, because this formula and the ones following have not been tested and could be highly volatile. Only make these if you are into pain."
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 26, 2005 - 10:39pm PT
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I know...too hard...maybe only Werner has a chance...
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 27, 2005 - 01:28am PT
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You guys give up?
Email me if you want the answer.
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Nov 27, 2005 - 09:21am PT
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Shack, this seems like the type of problem that won't be interesting after it is converted. But if it is, post up the conversion. Wouldn't it be better to wait on hints?
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 28, 2005 - 01:20am PT
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Ok...another big hint...
Here's what it looks like in Hexadecimal.
Actually it's ascii code which is in Hex.
34F6E67627164757C6164796F6E637120295F65702861667560266F657E646024786560237563627564702F6660235861636B67237026696C65612
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Nov 28, 2005 - 07:03am PT
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94027716370227967686471202A392
Too many hints! Actually this would not be much more difficult even using plain old cryptography.
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 28, 2005 - 11:29am PT
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Good Job TIG! You were right! :)
I know, too many hints...when I solved it, I had NO hints.
It took me 3 days.
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Nov 28, 2005 - 12:48pm PT
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Shack, getting the file was ambiguous since it was rendered by the browser the way you set up the link. The hex version eliminates that difficulty.
Without the hints, it probably would have taken about an hour. (Letting each pair of hexdigits = a symbol, note symbol frequencies, the fact that one appears too frequently to be a letter, blah, blah.)
The hint that cryptographic techniques were not necessary made me look for an obvious shortcut...
It is a nice problem, regardless.
If you have not seen this already, you may want to try it:
You have 1 by 2 unit rectangular tiles, and an 8 by 8 square grid with diagonally opposite corners removed, e.g. upper left and lower right. Thus there are 62 squares remaining. The problem is to determine whether it is possible to fill the 62 squares fully with 31 1x2 tiles. (The tiles may be oriented vertically or horizontally.) If so, show the solution, and if not prove that it is impossible. Breaking the tiles or the grid is not allowed.
Enjoy. :) Do not be disappointed if this takes 3 days to solve.
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Paul_in_Van
Trad climber
Near Squampton
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Nov 28, 2005 - 01:11pm PT
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No, that is not possible. I have a proof, but this website is too small to contain it.
Paul
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Nov 28, 2005 - 01:12pm PT
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Just guessing... Find a shorter proof. Should be able to fit it in the margin. Bwahaha.
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 28, 2005 - 01:54pm PT
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TIG what do you mean "ambiguous since it was rendered by the browser" etc?
It should be a .txt file that looks like this in notepad.exe etc.:
4öæv'GWÆG–öæ7•öW†gVföWæFG†V7V6'VGöf5†6¶r7f–ÆV
What did you see?
If you only had this to go on and no hints...it would take alot longer than an hour.
I know quite a few gifted code breakers that were stumped for a couple days...normal frequency analysis etc. doesn't work.
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Nov 28, 2005 - 02:28pm PT
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There are many "characters" in that representation whose hex representations are not clear - making the simple solution more difficult - which is why I suggested posting the hex equivalent. I have not used a hex tool in ages. I suspect that notepad solution would have worked, especially since you seem to believe it.
But now that you mention it, you could also work with them just as is. One key feature, from a cryptographic standpoint is that there is a non-alphabetic character (in the clear text) whose frequency significantly exceeds any normal letter frequency in a 59 character message. Mixed case adds minor difficulty for a message this short as well. Getting the first non-alphabetic character adds the same kind of information that is typically found in newspaper cryptograms. Then letter frequency combined with the resulting structure simplifies the problem after getting 3-5 letters. (I realize that after the fact, the previous statement is speculative, but my experience makes me believe it to be true - there are after all reasonable numbers of various vowels and the more common consonants.)
Much harder would have been things such as using 7 bits (or even 6) instead of 8 for each character (52 bytes for 59 character message), well known compression techniques, etc.
I assumed from the short length of the file that it was not a tiff file or any other type of image file that would render characters graphically.
Once I saw the hex it probably took me about 3 minutes to figure out what the technique was and then another few to work it out by hand. There is something that I noticed about the hex that lead me quickly to the solution, but mentioning it would be a very strong hint, so I will leave that unsaid, since others may still be working on it.
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 28, 2005 - 03:27pm PT
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The point is, without knowing that the hex values are important,
if all you had was the text file, it would have been much more difficult.
Knowing to convert it to hex is half the battle,
then with hints like "ascii" and "reverse it" that's the other half.
Good job none the less.
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Nov 28, 2005 - 04:01pm PT
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Shack, my point was that the hex values were unimportant until you gave the hints. If you had not given that hint, I would have solved the puzzle from the characters you provided (Again estimating hour max.) But when you gave the hint, I figured why waste extra time, since your hint suggested to me that it was in fact going to be easy. Thus the posted request for the hex, and the claim that I expected it to be relatively easy.
ASCII, who cares? Reverse it, only helps if you have the hex. Since you repeated this hint, note that there were no trailing A-F in the hex pairs, which is enough of a hint by itself to reverse it, or it was to me. (Leading A-F do not lead naturally to alphabetic characters, so since all were leading, reversing is called for.)
But in the original form, with no conversion, slightly harder than your average newspaper puzzle, because of the "odd characters", the mixed case of the solution, and the brevity of the message. Eased by the fact that there were spaces in the clear text.
Trust me. I am not a cryptographic whiz. But if you take all of those characters and replace them with a, b, c, ... in a standard cipher and put the spaces in, lots of people would solve. So the only complication is the rather unfamiliar looking characters and the fact that first you have to figure out the spaces. The words, you, the, of, have, are very commonly used words in these types of puzzles. The, in particular, often quickly leads to discovering other words because of the e and t, the two most commonly occurring letters in normal English text.
Anyway, thanks, it was a nice puzzle.
I have avoided giving hints for mine, because the solution is very satisfying, and if I made it too easy, it would deprive folks of the joy of discovery.
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