Entries Closed [Encoding/Encryption] 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♂️ Detective Decoder

[adam]

Can you crack my code to win some credits? 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♂️

First two to complete without hints -> 500 credits (2/2 claimed)
Next four to complete with/without hints -> 300 credits (3/4 claimed)
All subsequent completions till' close -> 150 credits

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Hints

Stuck? You can purchase some hints here! Careful though, purchasing any of these disqualify you from our top prize.

Free hint:
It's dangerous to go alone! Take this: https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:
No hint. If you're this far, you know what to do next!

Step 6:

Step 7:

Step 8:

Step 9:

 

[Gummibeer]

I'm done with it 💚 - first chapter :D

 

[Gummibeer]

1872 🎉

 

[adam]

1872 🎉

Verifying...

...

...

We got our first winner! 500 credits to @Gummibeer. Nicely done. That was fast! 😎

Still one more top prize up for grabs.

 

[Gummibeer]

The first chapter was super easy! The second one requires a bit of web dev skills and should be done on a real PC/browser (no mobile device).

Wish you all good luck! 🚀
Was kind of fun! ☺️

 

[Sharkie]

The first chapter was super easy! The second one requires a bit of web dev skills and should be done on a real PC/browser (no mobile device).

Wish you all good luck! 🚀
Was kind of fun! ☺️

Yeah, I got Chapter 1 on my phone, but Chapter 2 is just not happening on it.

I might try again when I end up back inside on my computer.

 

[Mike Rees]

I forget what step I'm at but I'll just say that as someone who has worked a lot developing translation tools in the past, I am running into the same damn problem I did all the time trying to store accented and Asian characters. Rargh

 

[adam]

I forget what step I'm at but I'll just say that as someone who has worked a lot developing translation tools in the past, I am running into the same damn problem I did all the time trying to store accented and Asian characters. Rargh

Everything should work fine in UTF-8, if that helps! If you PM me what you see so far I’ll drop you a hint. 😎

 

[Gummibeer]

I forget what step I'm at but I'll just say that as someone who has worked a lot developing translation tools in the past, I am running into the same damn problem I did all the time trying to store accented and Asian characters. Rargh

So far I remember everything should be a-zA-Z0-9 and some normal special chars .-_=.
The moment you see some strange chars you should step back and retry.
The hardest was the first step of the second chapter.
But you need a basic knowledge of how base64, hex, decimal and so on look like.

 

[adam]

Yes just been through and checked, if you're seeing anything not in the standard English character set something's gone wrong. You can do almost all of it apart from one obviously different step using CyberChef. 😄

The output of step 1 will begin with 4c.
The output of step 2 will begin with LS.

 

[Mike Rees]

Oh no, I'm not seeing anything untowards as far as characters for input on this step are concerned, it's all hex - what I'm seeing for output is "[[ALGO]] - Malformed UTF-8 data." I was just trying to be a little obtuse about explaining it I guess.

 

[Gummibeer]

So I think that you've solved chapter one and start with chapter two?
If so you have to set the correct characterset. Otherwise the decryption doesn't output something useful.

If you are still in chapter one: you can restart and you can chain all the steps in CyberChef - pretty useful.

 

[Mike Rees]

I'd say start of chapter 2. My problem is though, I've tried every characterset combination for key, input and output that CyberChef offers and it comes out either with garbage or that message.

 

[Mike Rees]

87948

I'll confess a small hint from Gummibeer!

 

[Gummibeer]

87948

I'll confess a small hint from Gummibeer!

And I am happy that you've solved it! 🚀
@Adam the hint was the correct version of the required decryption algorithm. The hint in the quiz wasn't this specific about this.
But you have to decide if that's a hint regarding quiz-rules or not.

 

[adam]

87948

I'll confess a small hint from Gummibeer!

Verifying...

...

...

🥳 Nice one Mike! 500 credits coming your way. @Gummibeer's hint fine. Helping eachother out all what we're about anyway. 😉

 

[Mike Rees]

Huzzah thanks! You best get digging some holes and planting some trees

 

[27leaves]

44640

That was fun, thanks ;)

 

[Gummibeer]

44640

That was fun, thanks ;)

Congratulations! 🎉

 

[adam]

44640

That was fun, thanks ;)

Congrats @27leaves! 300 coming your way. 🥳