Puzzle Solving Exercise Thread

[sparkyb]

Ok Sca walked me through it... and I have to say mine seems much easier to me lol... maybe I suck at these less structured puzzles.

Should I post the solution?

Greedy Oppy

No! I'm still working on both of them.

[Scalare]

Ok Sca walked me through it... and I have to say mine seems much easier to me lol... maybe I suck at these less structured puzzles.

Should I post the solution?

Greedy Oppy

I wouldn't exactly call it less structured, it's just less conventional but structured in a way that all the hints on how to solve it are in the poem itself. You have to take things literally . And there's no brute forcing through it

[deagol]

Ok Sca walked me through it... and I have to say mine seems much easier to me lol... maybe I suck at these less structured puzzles.

Should I post the solution?

Greedy Oppy

I wouldn't exactly call it less structured, it's just less conventional but structured in a way that all the hints on how to solve it are in the poem itself. You have to take things literally . And there's no brute forcing through it

Well, in mine the only external knowledge you need is to understand how the vigenere cipher works, so you can work it backwards. And I can't see how you would brute force it.

I did like yours. It is less conventional, and that's a good thing. I only think it needs some more clear-cut hints that point at the language used. The main problem I had was that the colors could be interpreted in a lot of different ways (even when taking the clues in the poem in consideration). There's too many possible languages (color initials, base6, 3-digit binary, etc.). With the correct interpretaion, all the color information gets ignored, and it just becomes B&W, so to speak (this is in a way a steganographic technique). I would've discarded that as an option on the loss of information alone, obviously a wrong strategy on my part.

[acidfingers]

Deagol, can you post a hint for how 2EATISG transforms the string. It can be a number of things, but you can't really verify whether or not it's the correct way without going through the whole thing, but that also brings up possibilities of getting other parts wrong. If you can at least hint at the method used for the string transformation, it would help

[deagol]

Deagol, can you post a hint for how 2EATISG transforms the string. It can be a number of things, but you can't really verify whether or not it's the correct way without going through the whole thing, but that also brings up possibilities of getting other parts wrong. If you can at least hint at the method used for the string transformation, it would help

Sure can!

Notice the right permutation should get the space in the correct position (as you can see it's been shifted).

Here's an example:

1234567
SHUFFLE

7142563
ESFHFLU

Is that enough?

[acidfingers]

While that hint helps in the sense that it confirms my ideas of how to do the scramble... it doesn't tell me what scrambles into what. I mean, obviously the 'G' will go from the 7th position to the 4th, but aside from that... there are no clues as to how the rest of the 2EATISG jumble key is transformed.

[sparkyb]

So I was able to intercept this message (no screen cap cause I'm lazy).

From: OpAphid
Videos (12) | Favorites (10) | Friends (1)
Sent: December 07, 2006, 05:42 PM
Subject:Lost key
Message:
Oh Dear... how could you lose the key! Can't you do anything right?

It is critical that you carry out the mission specified in that message with urgency, as time is pressing. But most importantly, these communications require the utmost discretion to avoid alerting our enemies. Thus, now you will have to work harder to decode our orders.

So, here's the deal: I've multi-bagged it. First, I've jumbled the message using the reverse of a certain pattern that you'll have to learn back and forth, and then encoded that with the one word key that you forgot (how can you forget one word, you idiot!) resulting in this:

SEWODGXOZW ISX

Then it's been double-encoded using a second key, this time two very common words (but remove the space when applying it) which is an anagram of the one word key. Finally, I've reversed that result and unjumbled it using the same pattern as before (this time straightways).

SLGLDB SOURIFR

The permutation pattern is precisely the same required to turn the one word key into the two word anagram. Think of this orderly. Considering your limited capabilities I'll even give you a clue to that reordering: 17 c4n b3 r34d 45 2EATISG. Repeat the pattern over the length of the message when you're jumbling or unjumbling.

Hopefully if you've read carefully you'll remember that first key and be able to simply decode the original one I sent. If not, just work through all of this backwards. There's no more time for further communications, so be swift with your work and your contribution will more than compensate for your mistakes. Otherwise you will have failed us, and you will not escape the rewards of your inaction.

Do well, for the sake of us all.



warpylol wrote:

> I've lost the key...<br/>

First let's list out all the steps and results (spaces replaced with underscores for clarity):

A: original message
B: jumbled with the reverse of the pattern
C: vigenere ciphered with key #1 = SEWODGXOZW_ISX
D: vigenere ciphered with key #2
E: reversed
F: unjumbled with the forwards pattern = SLGLDB_SOURIFR

Step 1: jumble F to get E
Step 2: reverse E to get D
Step 3: apply a reverse vigenere cipher on D and C to get key #2.
Step 4: unjumble key #2 to get key #1
Step 5: apply a reverse vigenere cipher on C and key #1 to get B
Step 6: unjumble B with the reverse pattern to get A

The tough part was figuring out what the jumble pattern was. Basically, the clue means that 2EATISG is a mixed up pattern, but what is the correct order? What you were supposed to figure out (and the new clue helps) is that all these letters are numbers in leet speak (where letters are sometimes replace with similar looking number). So 2EATISG = 2347156. The correct order is now obvious, 1234567.

jumbling F:

Code: Select all

SLGLDB_SOURIFR 
12345671234567

LGL_SDBOURRSIF
23471562347156

So E = LGL_SDBOURRSIF
reversing it give D = FISRRUOBDS_LGL

Doing a reverse vigenere cipher on D and C (remember to remove the spaces) gives NEWDOORNEWDOO so key #2 = NEWDOOR

unjumbling key #2:

Code: Select all

NEWDOOR
2347156

ONEWORD
1234567

So key #1 = ONEWORD (get it, the one word key, it was right in front of us the whole time!)

Doing a reverse vigenere cipher on C with ONEWORD gives B = ERSSPPUAMS_MEG

Finally, unjumbling B with the reverse of 2347156 = 6517432:

Code: Select all

ERSSPPUAMS_MEG
65174326517432

SUPPRESSGEMMA_
12345671234567

So the answer is Suppress Gemma.

[sparkyb]

This thread has been quiet for a while, but so has Op, and then I intecepted this message:

Code: Select all

From: OpAphid
Sent: January 02, 2007, 04:59 PM
Subject: HID PANIC
Message:

4920646f6e2774206c696b65206974206f6e652062697421

3d 5b  3a 29  3d 5d  42 7d  38 5d  38 5b  3d 3c
38 3c  3b 44  3a 44  3b 44  3d 5d  38 44  42 5b
3a 5b  3b 44  3a 3c  3b 44  3d 5d  3a 5b  3a 5d
3a 5b  3d 5d  42 5b  3a 44  42 29  42 3c  3d 5d
3a 28  3b 3e  3a 5d  3a 3c  3d 3c  42 3c  38 3c
38 5b  38 44  3a 5b  3a 5d  38 5b  42 44  3d 5d
3b 5d  3a 3c  3a 7d  3a 5d  3b 29  3a 29  3d 3e
42 5b  42 7d  3a 5d  3b 29  38 7d  3a 28  3a 5b
3d 3c  3d 44  3a 5d  38 5d  42 7d  42 7d  3d 7b
3d 7b  3a 3e  3b 29  38 5b  3a 29  3a 3c  38 28
42 3c  3a 5d  3b 3e  3a 44  3d 7b  3b 3e  38 3c

[iamcool]

how did u intercept the msg lol

[acidfingers]

I got this from translating the body of the e-mail from hex to ascii.

Code: Select all

I don't like it one bit!
=[ :) =] B} 8] 8[ =<
8< ;D :D ;D =] 8D B[
:[ ;D :< ;D =] :[ :]
:[ =] B[ :D B) B< =]
:( ;> :] :< =< B< 8<
8[ 8D :[ :] 8[ BD =]
;] :< :} :] ;) :) =>
B[ B} :] ;) 8} :( :[
=< =D :] 8] B} B} ={
={ :> ;) 8[ :) :< 8(
B< :] ;> :D ={ ;> 8<

The clue "I don't like it one bit!" may refer to a sad face representing 1. So, translating a happy face to a 0 and a sad face to a 1, I got:

Code: Select all

1000001
1000001
1010010
1010010
1001111
1010100
0100000
1000011
1000001
1001011
1000101

If we tack on 0 as the most significant bit (left-most bit) we get 11 full bytes, which then equal:

Code: Select all

67 65 82 82 79 84 32 67 65 75 69

Translating Decimal->ASCII:

Code: Select all

CARROT CAKE

haha, nice one.

Oh, and that subject line looked all too familiar. It anagrams into "C IN APHID"

realllllll cute. Interesting note: The clue says "I don't like it one bit!" and the solution is "carrot cake" so this proves that Op hates carrot cake!

[Sad Panda]

How did anti carrot cake propaganda find its way onto the puzzle thread?

[JustAnotherLonelyGirl.]

I got this from translating the body of the e-mail from hex to ascii.

Code: Select all

I don't like it one bit!
=[ :) =] B} 8] 8[ =<
8< ;D :D ;D =] 8D B[
:[ ;D :< ;D =] :[ :]
:[ =] B[ :D B) B< =]
:( ;> :] :< =< B< 8<
8[ 8D :[ :] 8[ BD =]
;] :< :} :] ;) :) =>
B[ B} :] ;) 8} :( :[
=< =D :] 8] B} B} ={
={ :> ;) 8[ :) :< 8(
B< :] ;> :D ={ ;> 8<

The clue "I don't like it one bit!" may refer to a sad face representing 1. So, translating a happy face to a 0 and a sad face to a 1, I got:

Code: Select all

1000001
1000001
1010010
1010010
1001111
1010100
0100000
1000011
1000001
1001011
1000101

If we tack on 0 as the most significant bit (left-most bit) we get 11 full bytes, which then equal:

Code: Select all

67 65 82 82 79 84 32 67 65 75 69

[/b][/color]
Translating Decimal->ASCII:

Code: Select all

CARROT CAKE

haha, nice one.

Oh, and that subject line looked all too familiar. It anagrams into "C IN APHID"

realllllll cute. Interesting note: The clue says "I don't like it one bit!" and the solution is "carrot cake" so this proves that Op hates carrot cake!

I followed you up to the red bolded part.
Do you think you could show me what that part means?

[lonelyelendi]

Here is one with a twist

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[acidfingers]

I followed you up to the red bolded part.
Do you think you could show me what that part means?

A byte is a series of 8 bits. A bit is a numeric values in binary (meaning it can be either 0 or 1). Usually when you see strings like 0101101 you can guess it's in binary. So lets take the first 7 smiley faces for example:

Code: Select all

=[ :) =] B} 8] 8[ =<

We know that sad face = 1, and happy face = 0. So that gives us:

Code: Select all

1000011

Notice how there are 7 digits there. In order for it to be a byte, you need 8 digits, so you tack on an extra 0 on the left side which will preserve the value.

I guess it's not actually necessary to put the extra 0 on there, since it doesn't change the values, but it does allow for the byte to be put into a translator tool.

[JustAnotherLonelyGirl.]

AHHH i understand thank you! I just didn't get the tacking on thing cuz i didn't know what a byte was.