The Hacker Challenge:

With the release of the new clbum, there has been a flood of Hacker characters appearing on FWZ. As a result I decided to hold a contest to put your hacker (or logic) skills to the test. There will be a series of challenges presented to anyone (you don’t have to be a Hacker) who would like to try. The contest will be over when the first person correctly solves the final challenge. The prize will be 5 Brownie Points.

How It Works:

There will be 10 challenges of increasing difficulty present to anyone who participates. The first challenge will be posted publicly (see below). After that, each challenge will be sent via Tubmail.

To prevent someone from running through the entire challenge before anyone else gets a chance there will be 1 challenge presented per day. If you are starting late, or it takes you a few days to solve a specific challenge, you will be given the next challenge available immediately. So for example if you start on the 3rd day, and solve the 1st challenge, you will get the 2nd challenge right away, and if you complete that you will get the 3rd, but you would have to wait until the next day to get the 4th challenge with everyone else.

This allows for latecomers to start on equal footing, but also gives a slight advantage to those who start early, as they have more time to solve the challenge.

If no one solves a challenge in it’s first day the next challenge will not be given until at least 1 person has solved the previous challenge, and it will be given the following day. I will post hints AT MY DISCRETION.

Rules:

Do not post answers or hints. If you do you will be disqualified. If I see fit I may send out an alternate challenge should this occur.

All answers are to be tubmailed, to me only.

Do not supply answers to other players. If caught, both/all involved will be disqualified. Some later challenges may have unique answers for each player.

No trolling please, but ALL CAPS posts are allowed if you’re frustrated Log in to see images!

Good luck and have fun!

Special thanks to TUBSWEETIE for his help!

Challenge 1:

 00110001 00111000 10110000 00110011 00110010
 00100111 00100000 01001110 00100000 00110111
 00110010 10110000 00110010 00110000 00100111
 00100000 01010111

SOLUTION: Convert to ASCII for Co-ordinates 18°32’ N 72°20’ W – The answer was where they were pointing to: Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

Challenge 2:

Log in to see images!

SOLUTION: Look at the URL for the photobucket account name, which was HEX that converted to
TUBMAILME”TOKYOCRAYON”

Challenge 3:

 11000111 11001111 11011111 11001110 11001111
 11001110 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001111
 11011111 11001110 11001110 11001011 11011111
 11001110 11001110 11001110 11011111 11001100
 11001101 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001111
 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001110 11011111
 11001100 11001101 11011111 11000111 11001001
 11011111 11000110 11001000 11011111 11001110
 11001111 11000111 11011111 11001110 11001111
 11001111 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001010
 11011111 11001110 11001110 11000111 11011111
 11001110 11001111 11001010 11011111 11000110
 11001000 11011111 10011001 10010000 10001010
 10010001 10011011 10011010 10011011 11011111
 10001011 10010111 10010110 10001100 11011111
 10011100 10011110 10001111 10010110 10001011
 10011110 10010011

SOLUTION: This binary was inverted. Swapping the 0s for 1s and the 1s for 0s got you the correct binary. Converting it to ASCII got you this:
80 101 100 114 111 32 100 101 32 86 97 108 100 105 118 105 97 founded this capital
Translating the numbers from DEC to ASCII completed the sentence “Pedro de Valdivia founded this capital” – The correct answer was “Santiago, Chile”

Challenge 4:

0º0' N 0º2' W
0º0' N 0º3' W
0º0' N 0º5' W
0º0' N 0º7' W
...
0º1'N 2°7' W
0º1'N 3°1' W
0º1'N 3°7' W
0º1'N 3°9' W
...
7°8' N 7°7' W
7°8' N 7°9' W
7°8' N 8°3' W
Where's next (Name & Co-ordinates)

SOLUTION: Remove the characters down to just numbers, and you’ll see that these are all PRIME NUMBERS. Enter in the next prime, 7901 as coordinates 7°9’ N 0°1’ W and you find the answer was the Volta region of Ghana. I would have also accepted just “Ghana”.

Challenge 5:

SEdQIENZSEYgU0JIRUdSUkE=

SOLUTION: This was Base64 encryption for “HGP CYHF SBHEGRRA”. Convert that string with Rot13 (aka Ceaser Cipher) to get “UTC PLUS FOURTEEN”. This is the time zone UTC+14, aka the first place on earth to start the new day. The only thing here is Christmas Island (and a few other line islands) in Kirimiti.

Challenge 6:

17  73  61  00  47  79  11  17  73  5  97  43  53  61  00  3  67  00  101  19  13  13  3  97  79  2  79

SOLUTION: This was a Prime Number replacement cipher. 00 being a space, and the first 26 prime’s being A-Z. Converted you would get this:
Gur ovegucynpr bs Zhffbyvav
Using ROT13 on that would give you “The birthplace of Mussolinni” which is “Predappio, Italy”

Challenge 7:

00110001 00110001 00110110 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110100 00100000 00110001 00110000
00110001 00100000 00110011 00110010 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110111 00100000 00110001
00110000 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110010 00110001 00100000 00110011 00110010 00100000
00110001 00110000 00110101 00100000 00110001 00110001 00110101 00100000 00110011 00110010
00100000 00111001 00111001 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110100 00100000 00111001 00110111
00100000 00110001 00110000 00111000 00100000 00110001 00110000 00111000 00100000 00110001
00110000 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110011
00100000 00110001 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110001 00110101 00100000 00110001
00110000 00110001 00100000 00110001 00110001 00111000 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110001
00100000 00110001 00110001 00110000
///
K hm ty xuk agvghf voico prgwl tjthnhtpo majihiihrpa czfrgxc A adpy dl lplzvtk nmv evtwllyi Nz azmxl nkypzcx ns M dsxeggk

This was a major step up in encryption.
SOLUTION: The binary decodes to DEC, that then decodes to “the key is challengeseven” Using that key along with the ciphered text in a Vigenere Cipher (A very common Alphabet Cipher) returns the following:
I am in the worlds third least populated independent country I will be leaving via airplane At which airport am I located

The answer would be the only airport in Tuvalu, Funafuti International Airport.

Challenge 8:

64 65 72 20 53 63 68 6c 75 73 73 65 6c 20 69 73 74 20 64 69 65 20 41 6e 74 77 6f 72 74 20
61 75 66 20 64 69 65 20 48 65 72 61 75 73 66 6f 72 64 65 72 75 6e 67 20 7a 77 65 69
///
iozcf kkcf xrky
qpwpu tfit gcel

SOLUTION: The code is in hex, converted it is a german phrase that translates to “the key is the solution to challenge 2” (roughly). Using “tokyocrayon” as a Vigenere cipher key for the ciphered text gives you the following:
paper itch jerk
grind thug noun
Which is an anagram for:
Jack The Ripper
Hunting Ground — Which was in Whitechapel, London, England.

Challenge 9:

QU1TQ08gS0VZIDQxMzI1
///
EYKET HFOTH SCIRH LGENA LEIFE ONLSY
///
Yltg zys fzfa gs Fzggms alg n qhmpbggxx mm gpfhp phr fpdc nq uswwgghmlb nli e hfvrjv swf dfqzif lfqp knq reos.  Qgxgzjrpnid wa cqinheghmem zyd fp o fmqmo qblyiyrrp gye vvq kens vq przka ktwe snqnpj kvrm ltg cmwxcovr tr evr ujewhuw fqpfvafrd hrliic.  Bbu yllh lmz wffrjd oycjl mmd bnkj eyr syhi esyj ri hvnr hmem umqhd vvq kmyoy pjwewae uplqr.

SOLUTION: The first bit is in Base64. Decoded it is AMSCO KEY 41325.
The second bit when solved using the AMSCO Cipher with 41325 as the column order (except I’m dumb and I did it by row, not by column) was:
4 1 3 2 5
TH E KE Y FO
R TH I SC H
AL L EN G EI
S FE L ON Y
Using “felony” as the key for the last bit, gets you:
This man born in Boston was a scientist by trade but also as politician and a writer his famous name was made. Discoveries in electricity may be a solid contender but his face is known most easily with his portrait on the wealthy americans tender. Now that you surely known his name and face tell me what city holds his final resting place.
The answer is that Benjamin Franklin was buried in Philadelpia, PA.

Challenge 10:

This is the Tubmail that went out to the final 6.

First of all, congratulations and thanks for playing.  Secondly, as far as this challenge pertains, it is multiple parts. I won't be giving any hints, but I tested it all about 10 times so it should work if you solve it.  When you get the final solution it will be very much like the rest in that it explicitly tells you what to say to me.

Good luck, and here's the first part of the challenge:

11001010 11001011 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001111 11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001010 11001010 11011111 11001010
11001000 11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001010 11001111 11011111 11001011 11000111 11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111
11001010 11001011 11011111 11001010 11001011 11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001010 11001011 11011111 11000110 11000110
11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001010 11001011 11011111 11001010 11001000 11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001010
11001011 11011111 11001010 11001110 11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001010 11001011 11011111 11000110 11000111 11011111
11001100 11001101 11011111 11001010 11001010 11011111 11001010 11001111 11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001110 11001110
11001000 11011111 11001110 11001110 11001010 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001110 11011111 11001110 11001110 11001011 11011111
11001110 11001110 11001111 11011111 11000110 11001000 11011111 11001110 11001111 11000110 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001110
11011111 11001100 11001101 11011111 11001110 11001111 11001010 11011111 11001110 11001110 11001010 11011111 10001101 10010000
10011101 10010000 10001011 10001100 10010110 10010001 10001001 10011110 10011011 10011010 10010010 10011010 10000111 10010110
10011100 10010000

Solution part 1: Invert the binary, then the DEC it decoded, then the HEX that decoded, to complete the full translation of “my flickr username is robotsinvademexico

This is where all my hard work went in – making the following images as authentic as possible (while not being counterfeit material)

2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robotsinvademexico

3: If you re-order these ID cards in the order of the above challenges 1 being Haiti, 2 being Tokyo, etc. and string together all of their ID Numbers you will get a string of Base64 that looks like this:
VEhFIEtFWSBJUyBIQUxMT1dFRU4gLSBITUROQyBHSUMgNDE1MzIgLSBBVlVFVyBRQ1JIWiBBU1BDQSBP WFdJUCBOV0hHUCBYTEpNQiBHVk1XUyBQU0hMWiBQT0hDVyBZQVpaTiBDVUlITiBMTlBGUCBXSVZOSCBI UkNHRCBJTFJVTSBMVE9TUyBNQ1Y=


4: The Base64 decodes to:
THE KEY IS HALLOWEEN – HMDNC GIC 41532 – AVUEW QCRHZ ASPCA OXWIP NWHGP XLJMB GVMWS PSHLZ POHCW YAZZN CUIHN LNPFP WIVNH HRCGD ILRUM LTOSS MCV

5: Using the key in a Vigenere cipher gives you this:
AMSCO KEY 41532 – NOUTL CGNDM TSERM STSVI NLWST THWFB VKYAO LFALO EALYS LTZOC OYEDA ENEUB AERAA HGRSH EHENM AIAWO IPO


6: Plotting the letters into the AMSCO cipher with that key should look something like this:
_4_|_1_|_5_|_3_|_2_
___|_N_|___|___|TS_
___|OU_|___|___|S__
___|T__|___|___|ETC…
___|LC_|___|___|___
___|G__|___|___|___
___|ND_|___|___|___
___|M__|___|___|___
___|TS_|___|___|___
___|E__|___|___|___
___|RM_|___|___|___
___|S__|___|___|___


And once you’re done you’ll have the winning message and a phrase to tubmail me.
aSh-gangSTA-685 edited this message on 11/01/2008 12:05PM

King Krimson Posted:

I think I’ve got this first one.

Good contest so far.

Indeed you do, and the most in depth answer so far Log in to see images!

Glad you like it.

no phuking clue

srsly

Cool challenge. I got the first right, didn’t i? Log in to see images!

King Krimson Posted:

Hey, me again. Do the challenges stack, or are they separate questions? Will the answer of the third help us with the forth, etc.

Good question – the answer is both. Separate, yet related.

aSh-gangSTA-685 edited this message on 10/20/2008 3:34PM

This is awesome contest.

Fran Posted:

Awesome contest.

Posting here to increase hog’s flamebate score

Fran Posted:

Awesome contest.

Posting here to increase hog’s flamebate score

Fran Posted:

Awesome contest.

Posting here to increase hog’s flamebate score