Can You Crack This Code ?

[tomahawk6]

UK's GCHQ is looking for a few good code crackers.Good fun if nothing else.

http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/

 

[Veiledal]

Any hints or guesses? The only letters I'm seeing are a-f so it could be hex/binary, ascii value maybe.

 

[tomahawk6]

They dont give any hints.If you think you have a word I guess you type it in and see if you are right.

 

[PanaEng]

it is the hex representation of an encoded message.
by a quick glance I see that it is not a good cryptographically strong encoding since the bytes are not totally randomized - i.e. sequences or 00, ff, 41, etc.
and there are some patterns with some numbers repeated or used more frequently. May try to get into it when I have more time.

cheers,
Frank

 

[dapaterson]

it is the hex representation of an encoded message.
by a quick glance I see that it is not a good cryptographically strong encoding since the bytes are not totally randomized - i.e. sequences or 00, ff, 41, etc.
and there are some patterns with some numbers repeated or used more frequently. May try to get into it when I have more time.

cheers,
Frank

Sequences and patterns do not necessarily imply poor encryption.  There are many methods available to disguise information; many include blanks, padding or other noise to distract cryptographers and lead them down dead ends.


... but given the season, I'm guessing the message is "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"...

 

[PMedMoe]

... but given the season, I'm guessing the message is "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"...

:rofl:

Ohh  fffffuuuuudge.......  ;D

Off topic:

Holy Crap, Ralphie got hot!!! 

 

[Sapplicant]

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Direct encoding doesn't seem likely EB = either ë or õ  by  direct Hex to ASCII or HEX to EBCDIC ...  unless the message is foreign or from a heavy metal fan  :clown:  ....

 

[PanaEng]

Sequences and patterns do not necessarily imply poor encryption.  There are many methods available to disguise information; many include blanks, padding or other noise to distract cryptographers and lead them down dead ends.


... but given the season, I'm guessing the message is "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"...

duh!!!

Actually, if you look at the meta-data of the .png file (the picture) there are more hints there.
A coworker mentioned that he saw some Nokia PMU tags (SMS messages) or something...
And maybe it could be steganography - the actual characters on the picture are irrelevant in that case.

Analyzing cryptography if you don't know what encoded it is a tedious task; you have to explore and exhaust all the dead ends - you find the answer in the last one you look at ;-)

cheers,
Frank

 

[PanaEng]

Some academic dude posted a solution:
http://gchqchallenge.blogspot.com/
At first I did not recognize it was executable code until I saw the txt on the png header.
Did not get too far but was in the right track; got to the point of disassembling the code. If you use Linux - in the case of the professor, Ubuntu, you have all the tools you need at hand.

Chimo!

 

[Nault_army]

UK's GCHQ is looking for a few good code crackers.Good fun if nothing else.

http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/

Cracked it... the keyword is:

Pr0t3ct!on#cyber_security@12*12.2011+

 

[PMedMoe]

Cracked it... the keyword is:

Pr0t3ct!on#cyber_security@12*12.2011+

Now we can all apply for jobs.    ;D