[website] Can you Crack It?

[LeightonJames]

From the BBC Website this morning:

 

UK intelligence agency GCHQ has launched a code-cracking competition to help attract new talent.

 

BBC News - GCHQ challenges codebreakers via social networks

 

Any budding Hackers on here fancy the challenge?

 

Can you crack it?

[bandgeekmafia78]

I've been looking at it for about 45 minutes. Still no idea what I'm doing

[LeightonJames]

Me neither, looked at the source for the site, nothing!! Ah well. Guess hacking and cracking aren't for me then!

[Devontechie]

nor me. Can't work it out..

[creese]

I think it's '42'

[jamesreedersmith]

Looks like Hexidecimal

[bandgeekmafia78]

Tried converting the hex to ascii and string and it proves futile (I think). Errrm... not sure what else to try now. Maybe if you stare hard enough the answer will appear, like a magic eye photo?

[featured_spectre]

The whole hex code (with spaces taken out) translates into "Infinity" but thats not the code word! grrrr

[bandgeekmafia78]

The whole hex code (with spaces taken out) translates into "Infinity" but thats not the code word! grrrr

 

How did you translate it into 'Infinity' ?

[shenley]

I'll have to dig out my copy of Simon Singh's "The Code Book" for inspiration.

[JJonas]

Looks like hex to me as well.

 

any body care to post it on here as a text string?

[bandgeekmafia78]

eb 04 af c2 bf a3 81 ec 00 01 00 00 31 c9 88 0c

0c fe c1 75 f9 31 c0 ba ef be ad de 02 04 0c 00

d0 c1 ca 08 8a 1c 0c 8a 3c 04 88 1c 04 88 3c 0c

fe c1 75 e8 e9 5c 00 00 00 89 e3 81 c3 04 00 00

00 5c 58 3d 41 41 41 41 75 43 58 3d 42 42 42 42

75 3b 5a 89 d1 89 e6 89 df 29 cf f3 a4 89 de 89

d1 89 df 29 cf 31 c0 31 db 31 d2 fe c0 02 1c 06

8a 14 06 8a 34 1e 88 34 06 88 14 1e 00 f2 30 f6

8a 1c 16 8a 17 30 da 88 17 47 49 75 de 31 db 89

d8 fe c0 cd 80 90 90 e8 9d ff ff ff 41 41 41 41

[featured_spectre]

How did you translate it into 'Infinity' ?

 

Hex works in base 16...split the letters into 16 segments, then convert it!

[sippo]

Done. The password is 1234.

[LosOjos]

Done. The password is 1234.

 

[dwhyte85]

Hex works in base 16...split the letters into 16 segments, then convert it!

 

Hex is base 16

[LosOjos]

I'm getting nowhere, put it all in HxD but it was never going to be that easy was it?

 

@nephilim - really intrigued how you got "Infinity"? The numbers involved seem too large to convert to ASCII...

[Rydra]

Assuming this is Hexadecimal base 16, the 'easiest' solution is to assume it's ASCII character table.

 

From this, hex code '20' would be a space, and '48' to '57' would be numbers, '41' to '5A' would be uppercase letters, and '61' to '7A' would be lowercase letters. I would be highly surprised if there was non-alphabetical letters in there, so anything not in these ranges is unlikely to be real.

 

Anything higher than 7A does not on ASCII convert into a letter. It could in theory be EBCDIC, which is an older style character conversion used in punch cards in the 60's which goes up to FF in hex.

 

Beyond this I'm out of ideas, and haven't had a chance to have a go myself, but that's the best idea's I've got.

 

Chances are, that there is a lot of rubbish filler, and it's worth looking for a pattern within it for the gibberish as well as the coding above.

 

There are also probably more hex code conversions, but I'm not immediately aware of them.

[dwhyte85]

Assuming this is Hexadecimal base 16, the 'easiest' solution is to assume it's ASCII character table.

 

From this, hex code '20' would be a space, and '48' to '57' would be numbers, '41' to '5A' would be uppercase letters, and '61' to '7A' would be lowercase letters. I would be highly surprised if there was non-alphabetical letters in there, so anything not in these ranges is unlikely to be real.

 

Anything higher than 7A does not on ASCII convert into a letter. It could in theory be EBCDIC, which is an older style character conversion used in punch cards in the 60's which goes up to FF in hex.

 

Beyond this I'm out of ideas, and haven't had a chance to have a go myself, but that's the best idea's I've got.

 

Chances are, that there is a lot of rubbish filler, and it's worth looking for a pattern within it for the gibberish as well as the coding above.

 

There are also probably more hex code conversions, but I'm not immediately aware of them.

 

As far as i've worked out... it's asm, plus more to do with the cyber.png too... not all about what you see on the image, what's IN the image. Unless there are any other gotchas... i think i might be able to make stage 2 within 10 hrs...

[mac_shinobi]

closest I got was this :

 

Can you crack it? - GCHQ - Overclockers UK Forums

 

'we will be in touch'

 

Was trying to establish if there was a way to download the asp file ( index.asp ) and view the source code from the asp page

[dwhyte85]

closest I got was this :

 

Can you crack it? - GCHQ - Overclockers UK Forums

 

'we will be in touch'

 

Was trying to establish if there was a way to download the asp file ( index.asp ) and view the source code from the asp page

 

Boo... don't give the answers!

[bandgeekmafia78]

My theory is that if you can somehow plot the Hex onto a graph on a scientific calculator, the hex might 'curve' to shape/draw letters on the graph. A bit like SIN/COS/TAN

 

I'm probably thinking too hard about this now.

[localzuk]

closest I got was this :

 

Can you crack it? - GCHQ - Overclockers UK Forums

 

'we will be in touch'

 

Was trying to establish if there was a way to download the asp file ( index.asp ) and view the source code from the asp page

 

Too long. The text field only accepts 18 characters, that is 19.

[LeightonJames]

Wow, glad to see that this has piqued some interest!!

 

Apparently it is only one word and there is a hell of a lot of padding in the hex string.

 

Even armed with that information i don't know what to do

[bandgeekmafia78]

Someone has put some extra information on pastebin, but even with that information I'm a long way from cracking it

 

If anyone wants that info PM me and I'll send it across.