| The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 12:07am |
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medeman 
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | Alright, here is the first StuffIt .sitx file to decrypt!
I will put more files of different types as the others get decrypted or canceled.
http://tinyurl.com/6kpuq9x (UPDATED March 2, 2011!)
Please post the contained file (a .png image) here and if you are the first, you will win!
Prize: Good question...Uhmm...Ubuntu 10.10 OR Debian 6.0.0, you can choose, I'll give you the download links!post updated on Mar 2, 2011 @ 9:02am |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 12:15am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | Hints
Password has 20 digits
Only contains numbers and letters (small only, no special characters, no spaces), no symbols
Now what you have to do is:
1. Find the solution (x = solution) of this:
2x = 2 * 4 - 6 * 3 - 1x
2. Let's say the result is 345, then the password would look like this:
3a4b5c3d4e5f3g4h5i3j
New hint: Don't calculate * before -/+; calculate number by number!
So, if you don't find a solution, I'll add more hints overtime.post updated on Mar 2, 2011 @ 1:30pm |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 1:05am |
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marky1991 
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Posts: 6651
Location: Douglasville, GA Deputy | Note: "Price" != "Prize". |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 2:38am |
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marky1991
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Posts: 6651
Location: Douglasville, GA Deputy | I'd never even heard of a stuffit file was until I looked it up...
What does "decrypting" mean? Are we expected to guess the password somehow? I like puzzles, but I don't think we have much to go on right now... (I even tried "no hints available...." as the password, lol.)
Are we supposed to go around the password protection somehow? (I don't think that's possible. Lots of posts from ~2000 say that contemporary versions of stuffit were essentially unbreakable.) |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 6:00am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | Well, I'll give more hints soon, for now, you have to...
...guess
OR
...bruteforce (password is 20+ digits, so this shouldn't be possible that easy)
...write an application to crack it
...I dunno... |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 6:02am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | Note: "Price" != "Prize".
Thanks, fixed it! |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 7:08am |
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assassin437 
Joined: Jan 29, 2007
Posts: 1116
Location: Quantification Sheriff | I'll complete this challenge Medeman if you complete mine. It's to fly, using homemade apparatus, from Columbia to Timbuktu. The ways to do this are:
+ Close your eyes, leap and hope
+ Jump and flap your arms (but it's several hundred/thousand miles so shouldn't be that easy)
+ Build your own aeroplane
+ I dunno...
Good luck! :)post updated on Feb 28, 2011 @ 7:09am |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 10:34am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | I'll complete this challenge Medeman if you complete mine. It's to fly, using homemade apparatus, from Columbia to Timbuktu. The ways to do this are:
+ Close your eyes, leap and hope
+ Jump and flap your arms (but it's several hundred/thousand miles so shouldn't be that easy)
+ Build your own aeroplane
+ I dunno...
Good luck! :)
Done, already back in Germany. Now complete mine. |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 10:44am |
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assassin437
Joined: Jan 29, 2007
Posts: 1116
Location: Quantification Sheriff | Completed yours :)
Also, fun fact!
It would take about 316,000 years to brute force crack a 20 digit random collection of numbers, with one consumer PC powering the attack.post updated on Feb 28, 2011 @ 10:49am |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Feb 28, 2011 @ 12:37pm |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | Completed yours :)
Also, fun fact!
It would take about 316,000 years to brute force crack a 20 digit random collection of numbers, with one consumer PC powering the attack.
You didn't, you have to post the pic first! |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 1, 2011 @ 3:08am |
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assassin437
Joined: Jan 29, 2007
Posts: 1116
Location: Quantification Sheriff | Sure! I'll post the picture when you post a video of your flight :D |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 1, 2011 @ 9:10am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | Sure! I'll post the picture when you post a video of your flight :D
You didn't requested one, so I didn't made one. I requested the upload of the content of the file (picture). And no I won't fly there again... |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 1, 2011 @ 2:41pm |
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marky1991
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Posts: 6651
Location: Douglasville, GA Deputy | Thanks for warning me of the impossibility of the brute force approach, assassin. I was actually going to try it.
Hmm. I wonder if "jasWW" reveals anything about the rest of the password. Maybe it's it's a sequence of some sort? (Edit: Not found in the integer sequence database www.oeis.org )
I'm not sure if this contest is a hopeless brute force only contest or if a clever solution can be found. Medeman, could you clarify which it is? I don't want to waste time thinking about a problem if there's no real way to solve it.
edit: Wondered about the revealed part of the password.
edit 2: Asked medeman if a brute force algorithm is the only way to solve it.
post updated on Mar 1, 2011 @ 3:00pm |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 1, 2011 @ 3:51pm |
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kunckles 
Joined: Feb 12, 2010
Posts: 650
Location: here | Sure! I'll post the picture when you post a video of your flight :D
You didn't requested one, so I didn't made one. I requested the upload of the content of the file (picture). And no I won't fly there again...
I think he got you assassin. :-)
Thanks for warning me of the impossibility of the brute force approach, assassin. I was actually going to try it.
Really? lol
Medeman, does the password only use letters from the English alphabet? Also, does it use spaces?
-Kuncklespost updated on Mar 1, 2011 @ 3:52pm |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 1, 2011 @ 4:23pm |
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marky1991
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Posts: 6651
Location: Douglasville, GA Deputy | @knuckles: I've never tried to crack a password before! I didn't think the brute force approach would take that long.
-the dumb CS major |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 2, 2011 @ 12:25am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | I guess I'm gonna update the file to make it easier ;-). |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 2, 2011 @ 7:30am |
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assassin437
Joined: Jan 29, 2007
Posts: 1116
Location: Quantification Sheriff | Thanks for warning me...no real way to solve it.
No problemo!
This seems like an unlikely contest. The point I was facetiously making above is that he's set an arbitrary challenge which is basically impossible.
Do you really think that the password feature on a professional product can be cracked by some teens on the Galcon Forums?
It'll just be guessing attempts till you stumble on the right one.
Correct me if I'm wrong medeman? |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 2, 2011 @ 9:00am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | Current contest is canceled! |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 2, 2011 @ 9:10am |
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medeman
Joined: Mar 25, 2010
Posts: 1653
Location: Stay Hungry.Stay Foolish | File has updated, download the file from the URL again (is named different) and follow the hints in the second post! |
| Re: The "Decrypt That" Contest :: Mar 2, 2011 @ 12:36pm |
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swollenpig 
Joined: Jun 12, 2010
Posts: 951
Location: Colorado | Wait, unless I'm wrong, x=-(10/3) or x=-3.333. I can't see how this could fit into the equation thing that you provided. I guess 4a.3b3c3d and so on. (I'm on a iPad, so I can't answer this myself.) |
