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haxlrose's profile info - vague spoiler | |||||||
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Ha, it took a while to figure out how to read the message in QBasic but I finally did it! |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 12:21PM | View LROSENBERG1996's Profile | # | ||||||
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i dont know how to fix the coding. i got a interpreter that i can copy paste. but it keeps coming up that the code is wrong! its ****ing me off. |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 12:48PM | View clock worker's Profile | # | ||||||
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clock worker Posted:
the “quotes”s need to be replaced with "quotes", for one. |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 12:53PM | View MrThePlague's Profile | # | ||||||
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MrThePlague Posted:
i dont understand. also, the program tells me what the error is so il give it to you and i hope you can explain.
Error on line 45: compile error
also the site im using is http://www.ruby.ch/interpreter/rubyinterpreter.shtml clock worker edited this message on 03/02/2008 1:05PM |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 1:04PM | View clock worker's Profile | # | ||||||
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clock worker Posted: I’m going to break character for a moment and not call you a complete ****sucking re-re, because I was a little unclear. replace the curly quotes with real ones. it’s not that hard. Also, for that particular page, you’ll have to put the word “print” at the beginning for it to do anything. Even a complete ****-sucking re-re should be able to figure out how to script-kiddy my program now. |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 1:16PM | View MrThePlague's Profile | # | ||||||
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Jesus ****ing christ. the quote thing i dident understand was because the only quotes i saw was around the ones and zeros. i dident see the ones at the end. also its done now but i did all that for the **** that came out? |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 1:22PM | View clock worker's Profile | # | ||||||
I just want to point out that this is no “vague spoiler”... in fact, it doesn’t spoil a banana placed overnight in a rice basket. As far as I can determine, it would take some kind of serious mental disorder to figure that out without significant prior knowledge in computers. |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 1:26PM | View Skyreal's Profile | # | ||||||
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clock worker Posted:
Not my problem. |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 1:49PM | View MrThePlague's Profile | # | ||||||
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I solved it using a different method. I was not familiar with the function of the XOR operator, I don’t have many tools on my system, and visual C# studio is great timesbersome.
I tried, on a whim, replacing all of the 1s with 0s and all of the 0s with 1s, then using http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayGround/Binary_Conversion/Binary_To_Text.asp to convert the output to text. I had to delete the last 5 characters of the binary code to make groups of 8(bits). Those with limited computing skills, like myself, can use a word processor to ctrl+f find and replace 1s with As, then 0s with 1s, and finally As with 0s, delete the last 5 characters (should be 1s) and feed the result into the binary to decode field at the site linked above. I’m fairly certain that wasn’t how the puzzle was intended to be solved, it just seemed the easiest thing for me to try. |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 1:55PM | View markchd's Profile | # | ||||||
Easiest thing to “try” is to: 1. Download and install ruby 2. Fire up the text editor that comes with it (SciTE) 3. Copy and paste the above Ruby code, and insert “puts ” before it (removing the quotation marks around “puts ” ) 4. Retype the part of the code that looks like ( "0b#{e}" )
because it will be screwed up (thanks to the spoiler tag messing with the quotation marks) 5. Save the file as anything.rb (yup, any file name that ends in .rb) 6. Hit F5
EDIT: Added link to download page, foreseeing the moans and groans of lazy people who can’t sentril- I mean, google their own links.
EDIT: I deserve a slap. Using clock worker’s link is probably easier. Skyreal edited this message on 03/02/2008 2:18PM |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 2:06PM | View Skyreal's Profile | # | ||||||
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Skyreal Posted: Apologies, I meant that before anyone mentioned XOR, my brain just thought try inverting the binary. I didn’t have any knowledge of programming, so that was as far as my “cryptanalysis” went. Basically I got plain lucky. I’m a bit curious what prompted MrThePlague to use XOR and to XOR “each bit” by 255. Did he try other values as well, or did he try XOR by 255 because he, unlike myself, knew that that was the fastest way to invert the binary. Clearly, knowing what I know now, and with the code already posted, using ruby is far easier. markchd edited this message on 03/02/2008 2:24PM |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 2:21PM | View markchd's Profile | # | ||||||
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markchd Posted: This is actually how I encoded it in the first place, and is the easiest way to decode it Log in to see images! |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 2:42PM | View Evil Trout's Profile | # | ||||||
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markchd Posted: xor 255 accomplishes that, apparently. I didn’t think of that myself. markchd Posted: As to why, I’ve taken a clbum where one of the bumignments was to reverse-engineer a binary to figure out the secret option to change my “grade” in the database. The bumignment was somewhat more puzzle-like since it wasn’t xor with a constant, but the general idea is the same. When presented with a chunk of binary that doesn’t immediately “decode”, the first thing I try is xor’ing it from 1 to 255 and seeing if anything readable comes out.. MrThePlague edited this message on 03/02/2008 2:51PM |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 2:48PM | View MrThePlague's Profile | # | ||||||
instead of doing any work, us re-res can just float over this spoiler. i figure us lazy bastards need to look out for each other, eh?
sentrillion’s search results are so perfect. what kind of algorithm is at work here? i’ve tried to hack into their system several times, but it’s locked up tighter than fort knox. who have they hired to dream up such a magnificent piece of code? i thought i was on a first name basis with all the world’s hackers. i should ask around about this |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 2:48PM | View Mr_Smiles's Profile | # | ||||||
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EDIT: Nevermind, I took so long to post this that everything I said has been said already.
That XOR 255 inverts is a basic property of bitwise operations. Anyone who knows their bitwise operations well at all would use it if they wanted to invert some binary.
That said though, if you don’t have an easily accessible interpreter for a scripting language, it’s still faster to do it in Notepad. Just copy the text over, do a find-replace to replaces 1s with xs, do a find-replace to replace 0s with 1s, and do a find-replace to replace xs with 0s. Then copy it into that binary-ascii converter.
Well done though: I took one look at haxlrose’s profile and bumumed it was just garbage, and didn’t bother toying with it. Squash Monster edited this message on 03/02/2008 2:58PM |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 2:55PM | View Squash Monster's Profile | # | ||||||
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MrThePlague Posted: Thanks for the insight. I’ve been reading about how XOR works, and I can see why you’d use that before trying anything more complex. It seems almost useless in terms of breaking a “secure” encryption, but for an online puzzle it’s (demonstrably) adequate. EDIT: Evil Trout Posted: |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 3:00PM | View markchd's Profile | # | ||||||
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markchd Posted:
Apparently a shocking amount of commercial software relies on it for protection. F. ex: the CueCat tried to protect its scan data by XOR’ing it with the ASCII value for “C”, and the company got kinda ****y when people figured it out and started using the scanners without the corresponding software.
markchd Posted:
I just did it as a program because I’m a jerk. 8) MrThePlague edited this message on 03/02/2008 3:16PM |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 3:11PM | View MrThePlague's Profile | # | ||||||
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Even easier:
1) Exchange all the 0s and 1s with notepad or something 2) Remove the last five 1s they’re there for spacing 3) http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayGround/Binary_Conversion/Binary_to_Text.asp 4) Profit! |
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Posted On: 03/02/2008 5:00PM | View Zaratustra's Profile | # | ||||||
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I’ve given you a unique E-Peen™ for your efforts, sir! |
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Posted On: 03/08/2008 1:00PM | View Evil Trout's Profile | # | ||||||
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Evil Trout Posted:
Awesome, thanks! |
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Posted On: 03/08/2008 1:41PM | View MrThePlague's Profile | # | ||||||
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