ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over - page 109.

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

Quote from: rgm108 on June 27, 2014, 05:47:40 AM

Quote from: S4VV4S on June 27, 2014, 05:36:18 AM

Public Note: no more clues

We are screwed......

Also the last clue came from: 1rEDGrNbuqqtbJU12XiU4hvmfM4XaQVcD

So maybe we should just focus on the red green dots

SOS + rEDGrN = Morse code?

Code:


@,w,b,5,!,@,@,@,@,y,@,#, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,@,u,@,f,e,@,!,!,@
@,@,!,!,3,#,T,#,#,@,@,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,#,C,@,@,!,!,S,!,v,!
@,@,@,j,!,!,@,@,@,!,@,!, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,#,@,!,!,w,!,@,!,o,@,@
@,A,!,!,@,@,@,U,@,!,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,r,@,!,@,!,@,k,!,9,@
F,@,@,@,z,@,R,!,@,#, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,!,e,@,@,@,7,!,a,@,#
@,!,e,#,!,!,!, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,J,@,6,!,@,@,!,@


!,@,!,@,#,2,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,#,!,!,Y,!,T,!
o,@,!,6,@,!,!, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,@,A,!,!,@,#
!,B,!,@,@,D, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,i,#,@,@,@,!,@
@,!,#,@,F,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,@,!,t,@,!
!,@,!,@,!,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,@,!,!,@,!

Consider lines 13 to 18 and then 19 to 23.
Reading top to bottom (@ = . and ! = - and # = break/next char)
@@@@@ = 5 which is typically what priv keys start with.

Maybe I looking at the wrong stuff?

I have made that suggestion before but since my morse code ain't that good I stopped at: c t h u l t (.) t k e t s e C e t s o

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

Quote from: shorena on June 27, 2014, 05:44:34 AM

Code:

stegdetect Uc6VAnV.jpg
Corrupt JPEG data: 6 extraneous bytes before marker 0xd9
Uc6VAnV.jpg : negative

dont get excited they are just 0 bytes. Might be just data corruption.

also ELA looks normal to me.

http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=02f2441a5bbd0a9fc3b69c0a4d490516ea0ddc46.913084&show=ela

Also I know we should not brute force, but I had to make sure:
stegbreak gives nothing

Code:

Loaded 1 files...
Uc6VAnV.jpg : negative
Processed 1 files, found 0 embeddings.
Time: 255 seconds: Cracks: 3666043,  14376.6 c/s

Quote from: S4VV4S on June 27, 2014, 05:24:40 AM

Guys and girls, if there is one thing we have noticed is that the transactions coming from "Alice" all count backwards 23-13 13-1 9-6 5-1.

Maybe we should be looking for things in reverse.

Probably.

I am going to research some of the basics.

http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/papers/practical.pdf

Quote from: S4VV4S on June 27, 2014, 05:36:18 AM

Public Note: no more clues

We are screwed...... Tongue

-snip-

stegdetect will give negative on this image too:

but I can guarantee to you that it has hidden content.
You don't even need a key to extract it Wink

EDIT: In case anyone is wondering about the hidden content:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

The work of a private man
who wished to transcend,
He trusted himself,
to produce from within.

1:2:3:1
3:3:13:5
45:5:2:3
20:3:20:5
8:3:8:6
48:5:14:2
21:13:4:1
25:1:7:4
15:9:3:4
1:1:16:3
4:3:3:1
8:3:26:4
47:3:3:5
3
13:2:5:4
1:4:16:4
.
o
n
i
o
n

Good luck.

3301

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
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=6Gxk
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

rgm108

sr. member

Activity: 274

Merit: 250

Quote from: S4VV4S on June 27, 2014, 05:36:18 AM

Public Note: no more clues

We are screwed......

Also the last clue came from: 1rEDGrNbuqqtbJU12XiU4hvmfM4XaQVcD

So maybe we should just focus on the red green dots

SOS + rEDGrN = Morse code?

Code:


@,w,b,5,!,@,@,@,@,y,@,#, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,@,u,@,f,e,@,!,!,@
@,@,!,!,3,#,T,#,#,@,@,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,#,C,@,@,!,!,S,!,v,!
@,@,@,j,!,!,@,@,@,!,@,!, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,#,@,!,!,w,!,@,!,o,@,@
@,A,!,!,@,@,@,U,@,!,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,r,@,!,@,!,@,k,!,9,@
F,@,@,@,z,@,R,!,@,#, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,!,e,@,@,@,7,!,a,@,#
@,!,e,#,!,!,!, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,J,@,6,!,@,@,!,@


!,@,!,@,#,2,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,#,!,!,Y,!,T,!
o,@,!,6,@,!,!, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,@,A,!,!,@,#
!,B,!,@,@,D, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,i,#,@,@,@,!,@
@,!,#,@,F,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,!,@,!,t,@,!
!,@,!,@,!,@, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,@,@,!,!,@,!

Consider lines 13 to 18 and then 19 to 23.
Reading top to bottom (@ = . and ! = - and # = break/next char)
@@@@@ = 5 which is typically what priv keys start with.

Maybe I looking at the wrong stuff?

shorena

copper member

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1528

No I dont escrow anymore.

Code:

stegdetect Uc6VAnV.jpg
Corrupt JPEG data: 6 extraneous bytes before marker 0xd9
Uc6VAnV.jpg : negative

dont get excited they are just 0 bytes. Might be just data corruption.

also ELA looks normal to me.

http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=02f2441a5bbd0a9fc3b69c0a4d490516ea0ddc46.913084&show=ela

Also I know we should not brute force, but I had to make sure:
stegbreak gives nothing

Code:

Loaded 1 files...
Uc6VAnV.jpg : negative
Processed 1 files, found 0 embeddings.
Time: 255 seconds: Cracks: 3666043,  14376.6 c/s

Quote from: S4VV4S on June 27, 2014, 05:24:40 AM

Guys and girls, if there is one thing we have noticed is that the transactions coming from "Alice" all count backwards 23-13 13-1 9-6 5-1.

Maybe we should be looking for things in reverse.

Probably.

I am going to research some of the basics.

http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/papers/practical.pdf

Quote from: S4VV4S on June 27, 2014, 05:36:18 AM

Public Note: no more clues

We are screwed...... Tongue

-snip-

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

Public Note: no more clues

We are screwed...... Tongue

Also the last clue came from: 1rEDGrNbuqqtbJU12XiU4hvmfM4XaQVcD

So maybe we should just focus on the red green dots

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

Guys and girls, if there is one thing we have noticed is that the transactions coming from "Alice" all count backwards 23-13 13-1 9-6 5-1.

Maybe we should be looking for things in reverse.

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

shorena

copper member

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1528

No I dont escrow anymore.

ITA2 TELEX isnt working either in case someone wondered Wink

its a 5 bit code.

http://www.bergziege-owl.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Telegraphenalphabet-ita2.jpg

raw code used

Code:

010101111110101101010100101011110101110111000001101001001011111110011010101011111111000100011011100011101011000110110001111001001101001101100101011011010100011101001111011011001001010100011101111010101110000011110011101101010001110001010111100111101111000011011000001001111101111101110011100111110000111001110101000101110011110111010101111101101110110000010110101011100001010001001001111101101101010010101110010

split to 5 bit parts

Code:

padded the last to 00000

and got:

Code:

R
LETTERS
Y
Y
L
G
J
Q
A
N
D
G
LETTERS
N
Y
V
K
SPACE
P
A
Q
I
P
Z
11100
B
L
F
R
INTs
R - 4
M - .
L - )
Q - 1
F - €
L - )
R - 4
M - .
V - =
R - 4
11100
O - 9
W - 2
INTs
R - 4
M - .
<-
X
B
INTs
A
P
E
L
K
LETTERS
C
C
V
E
11100
Q
->
X
M
X
R
LETTERS
P
INTs
KYR
F
Y
A
R
SPACE
B
Q
F
S
Y
W
KYR

crap

I still think the hints point towards some sort of binary coding.

Mister S

member

Activity: 72

Merit: 10

Checking blockchain, there's a few more things to note tonight.

No more hints will be given.

This is listed on both address 1rEDGrNbuqqtbJU12XiU4hvmfM4XaQVcD and 1rEDGrNbuqqtbJU12XiU4hvmfM4XaQVcD, so it's safe to say those addresses are valid clue repositories.

I'll be honest, I've given this one a lot of silent thought before chiming in.

YT gives number sequences in the transactions list.
Starting with the 1AskcEemXLiwStjvHEXGkLSDEWK6CEx9sd transaction, they are as follows, omitting the leading 0.X

10101010 *
00100000
11101000 è
01010011 S
01001111 O
01000011 C
01001100 L
01001111 O
01010011 S
01000101 E
00101111 /
01100100 d
01101111 o
01100100 d
00101111 /
01110100 t
10100110 |
10011110 ž
10100110 |
01011000 X
01011000 X

Now things get cool.

5, 2

4, 1

19, 8

Asked for a hint, we got

01011010 Z eight times.

... think Z has anything to do with this puzzle? Actually, it probably does.

Nine binary commas follow.

a countdown from 23 to 1, omitting 8 AND 3

00101101 -

00111111 ? (This is probably a hint request)

5

followed by another help request from the community, SOS

Lastly followed by 12345, and 98765

That's it, that's the clues we get. I got ABSOLUTELY nothing to contribute elsewise.

jc01480

hero member

Activity: 854

Merit: 500

Nope..

Only an artist would think like this! Gotta be a clue.

jc01480

hero member

Activity: 854

Merit: 500

Nope..

RGB = (1,1,1)
Red= (1,0,0)
Green = (0,1,0)
Blue= (0,0,1)

CMY=(1,1,1)
Cyan = (1,0,0)
Magenta = (0,1,0)
Yellow = (0,0,1)

Plotted they make a 3 dimensional cube or square.

shorena

copper member

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1528

No I dont escrow anymore.

yw

jc01480

hero member

Activity: 854

Merit: 500

Nope..

No, the next one down with the plotted coordinates. And thanks!

shorena

copper member

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1528

No I dont escrow anymore.

3 new TX over night:

spelling

01010011 S
01001111 O
01010011 S

they do not come from the usually address though.

there are also 2 more with 0.0054321 BTC
from 1sosB9wN5ij84GKfo6Xxx8FWyh5fPXVXu

and 0.00098765 BTC
from 1rEDGrNbuqqtbJU12XiU4hvmfM4XaQVcD

the last one also has "no more clues" has a blockchain comment.

rEDGrN was loaded from the one address we access as the one controlled by OP.

https://blockchain.info/de/tx/c353daf8bdbbf74e76ade5d11fec3b0479f20813e15aabb0988f312b04309c1b

Fibnacci looks like a deadend as well.

One of the values is
1000010100010010011
-> 100001010001001001
= 1+13+34+233+987+4181 = 5449 which isnt in base64

there is also no way to encode 0 in fib, so we would be missing 1 letter or wed need to shift by -1 to get a 0.
But 1 or 0 would be encoded 11 which is all over the code. ~ 20/80 times sounds a bit overkill to me. Might be noise but since its ignoring the yellow and blue dot(s) I stopped going down that path.

Quote from: mirth23 on June 27, 2014, 01:50:39 AM

Playing around in GIMP a bit with color channels, brightness/contrast, and saturation, I see a few things that might be interesting:
- the black border area has plenty of artifacts that mostly look like noise to me, but there's occasional surprising geometric regularity to them. there's a chunk in the lower left that looks sort of like 8-bit art, but I can't tweak things to get anything clear (to me) out of it.
- the yellow squares in the lower left quadrant seem extra yellow compared with anything else in the image.
- a few of the darker blue squares with dots look like their color was digitally darkened, but it looks like touch up work.

If this is the correct direction to go in, it's really challenging to tell what's a clue and what's an artifact of the artistic process. Maybe there's some other manipulations people can try out that I'm not thinking of.

I just check it with inverted colors and the only thing that struck me was:

red and green are complementary colors
blue and yellow are complementary colors as well.

So there might be some sort of code where red/green are one thing and yellow/blue are another thing complementy.

E.g. yellow = shift left, blue = shift right.

Quote from: jc01480 on June 27, 2014, 02:53:40 AM

Okay, I have a suspicion. Look at the RGB and CMY color models:

https://software.intel.com/sites/products/documentation/hpc/ipp/ippi/ippi_ch6/ch6_color_models.html

(Sorry, can't post the pic from a mobile. Can someone help?)

You'll see why when the example is posted. It is a three-dimensional block, as in block chain.

I'm also suspicious that some of this is hexadecimal in the photo. They weren't kidding about the sleepless nights...

this one?

jc01480

hero member

Activity: 854

Merit: 500

Nope..

Okay, I have a suspicion. Look at the RGB and CMY color models:

https://software.intel.com/sites/products/documentation/hpc/ipp/ippi/ippi_ch6/ch6_color_models.html

(Sorry, can't post the pic from a mobile. Can someone help?)

You'll see why when the example is posted. It is a three-dimensional block, as in block chain. Each element in the photo is a separate block. Overlapping colors make yellow, etc.

I'm also suspicious that some of this is hexadecimal in the photo. They weren't kidding about the sleepless nights...

mirth23

member

Activity: 112

Merit: 10

Playing around in GIMP a bit with color channels, brightness/contrast, and saturation, I see a few things that might be interesting:
- the black border area has plenty of artifacts that mostly look like noise to me, but there's occasional surprising geometric regularity to them. there's a chunk in the lower left that looks sort of like 8-bit art, but I can't tweak things to get anything clear (to me) out of it.
- the yellow squares in the lower left quadrant seem extra yellow compared with anything else in the image.
- a few of the darker blue squares with dots look like their color was digitally darkened, but it looks like touch up work.

If this is the correct direction to go in, it's really challenging to tell what's a clue and what's an artifact of the artistic process. Maybe there's some other manipulations people can try out that I'm not thinking of.

rock_collector

member

Activity: 67

Merit: 11

Quote from: Coinkle on June 26, 2014, 11:29:35 PM

"Remember - steganography is so effective bc of the volume of noise" - From YT Coin_Artist via twitter DM on the night of the pictures release

She also told me "there's more than meets the eye"

And "I'm not going to say anything else - can't give things away, Wink

"

This is just some personal info I had that i would like to share.

Thanks for sharing this! I remember her saying something on Twitter about "what meets the eye," too. Just wasn't sure she said "there's more than what meets the eye." Either way, we need to focus on the eye in the painting or our own eyes looking at the painting.

At first, I thought she was intimating something about what meets the actual eye in the painting. I've since looked at the yellow triangle in the dark wallet triangle image (thanks to participants!), which points to the blue dot. I've looked at the 8 in the first line that is directly above the eye (and between Y and t, her signature). If steganography is involved, I'm lost.

rock_collector

member

Activity: 67

Merit: 11

Quote from: Remember remember the 5th of November on June 26, 2014, 11:32:37 PM

Quote from: Coinkle on June 26, 2014, 11:29:35 PM

"Remember - steganography is so effective bc of the volume of noise" - From YT Coin_Artist via twitter DM on the night of the pictures release

She also told me "there's more than meets the eye"

And "I'm not going to say anything else - can't give things away, Wink

"

This is just some personal info I had that i would like to share.

Curious, who is this woman? If she can produce such a painting with a hidden message that even collectively isn't solved yet...I am intrigued. I can only infer it's a man at this point(sorry if I am discriminating here).

Any relation to this guy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YTCracker. Pretending to be a woman does also infer hidden desires, but I guess this discussion is best left for 4chan.

Haha, no it's definitely a woman, pretty well-known in bitcoin world. Goes by Y.T. coin_artist on Twitter. She silenced her account during the solving of this puzzle.

Remember remember the 5th of November

legendary

Activity: 1862

Merit: 1011

Reverse engineer from time to time

Quote from: Coinkle on June 26, 2014, 11:29:35 PM

"Remember - steganography is so effective bc of the volume of noise" - From YT Coin_Artist via twitter DM on the night of the pictures release

She also told me "there's more than meets the eye"

And "I'm not going to say anything else - can't give things away, Wink

"

This is just some personal info I had that i would like to share.

Curious, who is this woman? If she can produce such a painting with a hidden message that even collectively isn't solved yet...I am intrigued. I can only infer it's a man at this point(sorry if I am discriminating here).

Any relation to this guy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YTCracker. Pretending to be a woman does also infer hidden desires, but I guess this discussion is best left for 4chan.

Coinkle

newbie

Activity: 36

Merit: 0

"Remember - steganography is so effective bc of the volume of noise" - From YT Coin_Artist via twitter DM on the night of the pictures release

She also told me "there's more than meets the eye"

And "I'm not going to say anything else - can't give things away, Wink

"

This is just some personal info I had that i would like to share.

Topic: ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over - page 109. (Read 99514 times)