[RECAP][PUZZLE] 12/1 Tachyon Craigslist puzzle

mourningbelle · Post by **mourningbelle** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:41 pm

Aww Tilt, good job! <3

tiltingwindward · Post by **tiltingwindward** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:46 pm

So, in accordance with covedweller's wishes, I've been trying to analyze the text of the letter. I was hoping to discover something that would give me a clue who Tachyon was writing to. I'm not sure I have, but I've pulled these phrases out of the letter. I pulled them because they seemed to be statements of "fact" (as much as I can claim there are any facts in this letter), rather than Tachyon rambling on. Here they are:

we couldn't travel that far
“my sister's oblitgations"
my sister was never the enemy.
your situation is different in many ways. It's almost the opposite actually
maturity was neither of your strong suits
I know that how it all played out
there might be an opportunity for you to settle the score
I'll tell you more about it in a few days
there's another pressing task at hand that needs to be dealt with, once and for all.
We're not going on vacation, and no one is going to Disneyland, but if what I suspect turns out to be true, well.. it damn well proves that it's a small world after all.

Here's a preliminary analysis, which might be completely wrong. I'm assuming that Tachyon's letter is addressed either to someone she knew a long time ago and is just getting back into contact with, i.e., the intended recipient of that birthday card, and maybe the person she referenced in her coded message "if there's even a chance I have to try and find her."

we couldn't travel that far
Tachyon didn't go as far away as the letter's recipient might have thought.

“my sister's obligations"
This refers to Tach's Sister's relationship to OpA, the Order, Tach's organization...or Sister's obligations relating to the ceremony, if she was in the same situation as Bree.

my sister was never the enemy.
I think this is pretty straightforward.

your situation is different in many ways. It's almost the opposite actually
Tachyon talks about how she wasn't able to do things as a kid because of her Sister's obligations, and it created in her a sense of inferiority, which led to a strong anger. From the text, it seems she's saying here that the letter recipient's situation did not involve a misunderstanding that created a sense of inferiority, but that the end result was the same as in Tach's situation--alienation, and a sense of having enemies for friends.

maturity was neither of your strong suits
The letter recipient was young when their "situation" occured?

I know that how it all played out
Tach has figured out the details of the recipient's story, which she might not have known before.

there might be an opportunity for you to settle the score
Again, straightforward.

I'll tell you more about it in a few days
And again.

The rest, I'm not entirely sure about. And like I said, I'm not that sure of any of it. It was just something I noticed as I read and reread the note.

sphinx · Post by **sphinx** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:50 pm

maturity was neither of your strong suits

Is she speaking to one or two people?

tiltingwindward · Post by **tiltingwindward** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:51 pm

sphinx wrote:maturity was neither of your strong suits

Is she speaking to one or two people?

I think she's talking to one person about two people, one of whom is the person she's talking to.

Caslynn · Post by **Caslynn** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:52 pm

maturity was neither of your strong suits

I think Tachyon might be saying that both her sister and the recipient of the letter might be childish and immature, rather than that they were really young when the situation occurred.

tigerlilylynn · Post by **tigerlilylynn** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:54 pm

d3c0d3 4 k3y / c0d3d 1n70 l337 5p34k 17 3qu4l5 'T'

Well unless we're supposed to poke at every number combination that equals 7 it has to be a number, word or name we already have right? I'll leave the numerology to the experts. >_< Second only to anagrams yuk

deagol · Post by **deagol** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:40 pm

MoonWatcher wrote:Deagol, I understand your confusion, the explanations about the how the "HEX" from the binary was decoded is confusing in some of the threads but maybe I can explain:

The string you refer to is not pure valid hex. Hex only allows 16 digits, up to "f", and in the binary-decoded string the second character is an "s" for starters . However, you need to ignore those two-byte pairs containing illegal hex values - these are the garbage characters you see in the screen capture of the decoded message above - a fiendish ploy by Tachyon. To convince yourself, look at the last 9 byte pairs of the file (as the message is in reverse):

Hex Dec Char
72 114 r
65 101 e
76 118 v
65 101 e
20 32
49 73 I
20 32
64 100 d
69 105 i
44 68 D

Simple ignore the dodgy bytes!

There are no other base conversions needed (base 32/34 etc). The base idea came from the "rob base" line in the colour codes.

As a note, a small error in the recap above:

"When the phrase “havefun” was added to .rar, we got an encrypted file" - havefun was actually the name of the file in the RAR archive.

Wait a second, it's not a fiendish ploy by dear Tach, we diddn't follow every step. If we find the correct hex letters (abcdef) for the invalid ones, you would have clean text! So, it is a vigenere after all!

Look, this is what I have so far:

Reverse the faux-Hex (fHex) string in groups of 2 characters, and align it with the message that we already decoded, to obtain the real-Hex (rHex). I start at the end of the message "small world after all." Like this:

Code: Select all

fHex: 736r616q6k20776j726k6420616674657220616k6g2s
Char:  s ? a ? ?   w ? r ? d   a f t e r   a ? ? ?
Mesg:  s m a l l   w o r l d   a f t e r   a l l .
rHex: 736d616c6c20776f726c6420616674657220616c6c2e
Lttr:    r   q k     j   k                   k g s
Diff:   15  15 9     5   9                   9 5 15
Key?:  ? o ? o i ? ? e ? i ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? i e o

Remember the vigenere key should be padded over the message. So we have this 'ieo' stuff going on. I tried a couple of ways but couldn't fit anything. But I'm sure this is what we were supposed to do to get a clean message.

Caslynn · Post by **Caslynn** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:46 pm

Good catch Deagol! We've been mulling it over in the chat for a long time, but couldn't figure out quite how we'd missed a step.

MoonWatcher · Post by **MoonWatcher** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:49 pm

Yes, you are onto something... they dodgy characters did not sit right with me at all, but it's 2am here so I gave up looking, but my interest has been renewed now

tiltingwindward · Post by **tiltingwindward** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:51 pm

Deagol, when you finish doing whatever you're doing, could you post your results and methods here in layman speak, so that I understand and can add it to my recap? :? Thanks!

covedweller · Post by **covedweller** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:53 pm

1. cassandra hughes HEX
Character on the show HEX

2. poly[amorous] sub[missive]? [u wish!] Polyaphabetic Substitution! (Cipher)
Joking aside, Poly Sub here means Polyaphabetic Substitution!

3. u may b [roughly] 32186 kilometers away butt eye can c ya BINARY
(this works out to the song "Digital Getdown" by NSync if you convert the kilometers to miles. "Digital" would then most likely equal BINARY

4. turn it out go _ 36 34 base64
The song "Turn It Out (Go Base)", 36 34 in hex are 64. base64

5. SuperBoy fitty fo' HEX
SuperBoy #54 features the introduction of the character HEX

and do the steps BACKWARDS

covedweller · Post by **covedweller** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:54 pm

So we just need to figure out the l33tspeak key for the cipher now?

covedweller · Post by **covedweller** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:00 pm

d3c0d3 4 k3y / c0d3d 1n70 l337 5p34k 17 3qu4l5 'T'

translated: decode 4 key / coded into leet speak it equals 'T'

In leetspeak, 'T' equals 7.

So whatever equals 7 gets decoded from leetspeak and presumably is the key to the cipher above? (most ciphers use letters not numbers for keys).

MaxZyrix · Post by **MaxZyrix** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:06 pm

First off, let me present my gratefulness to all of the people who have been working on this since the profile update. I tried to help a while ago and I came up to be just a burden.

Now, on to the subject...

covedweller wrote:d3c0d3 4 k3y...

translated: decode 4 key...

Are you sure this isn't 'decode a key...'?
I'm sorry to bother you with this minimal detail, but that's how I've been reading it since I saw it on her YT's profile.

As a matter of fact 'decode 4 key' could simply mean 'decode for key', but could it also be directing us to a 4 letter key?

covedweller · Post by **covedweller** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:10 pm

MaxZyrix wrote:First off, let me present my gratefulness to all of the people who have been working on this since the profile update. I tried to help a while ago and I came up to be just a burden.

Now, on to the subject...
covedweller wrote:d3c0d3 4 k3y...

translated: decode 4 key...
Are you sure this isn't 'decode a key...'?
I'm sorry to bother you with this minimal detail, but that's how I've been reading it since I saw it on her YT's profile.

As a matter of fact 'decode 4 key' could simply mean 'decode for key', but could it also be directing us to a 4 letter key?

could mean "a" could mean "4" could mean "for."

Most ciphers only use letters for keys though, and the l33t translation part makes me think it's #s that equal "7" translated back into text (if that makes sense).