5 ms·

This looks ominous, anyone have any ideas on how to solve the puzzle? https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW

by iooi 9y ago

yorwba 9y ago
The table made me suspect that a Vigenère cipher was involved, but none of the obvious key/value combinations seem to yield anything intelligible.
- JKCalhoun 9y ago
  I see the word "STU". Anyone else get that far?
  - reaperducer 9y ago
    "NO"
esnard 9y ago
Ideas: - The "vbizukfplsqf...." is not part of the puzzle - The original website is available at https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion/ https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion/ - The page title is "Caesar Was Rome's 2nd Emperor", hinting to Caesar cipher - In a HTML comment: "kcovjgfktgevgf" which is "I am the directed" encrypted via Caesar cipher - In a HTML comment: "6e6f71696e796c6e646e7179736d77666163766a7272666a0a" which is the hexadecimal for "noqinylndnqysmwfacvjrrfj\n" - The image is named "vigenere.png", hinting to Vigenere cipher
- BlackLotus89 9y ago
  The solution is > endofthelinenineninenine every one of your obervations was correct (btw I got to know the tabula recta as vigenere square [1]) kcovjgfktgevgf was the key for noqinylndnqysmwfacvjrrfj\n (and \n is indeed endoftheline) I used an online vigenere chiffre "applet" (ok it is javascript so not really an applet but who cares) and I got an off by one (just define the alphabet as bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza or use jbnuifejsfdufe as the key) PS. Without tor you can use [3] and thx for making me waste that 5 minutes :D it was fun [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_recta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_recta [2] https://cryptii.com/vigenere-cipher https://cryptii.com/vigenere-cipher [3] https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion.link https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion.link
  - iooi 9y ago
    So what does that solution mean? Are you supposed to visit /999?
    - BlackLotus89 9y ago
      Don't know it isn't my puzzle. Maybe I'm wrong and this isn't the solution and there is still some way to go. Edit: damn wanted to try the /999 but the site is down (yeah I'm using tor and not the onion.link link) I hope this is just the HN effect and it will soon work again Edit2: I hoped to find something hidden in the image itself but it wasn't Edit3: If anyone else wants to give it a shot https://blacklotus.github.io/ https://blacklotus.github.io/ uploaded the index.html and vigenere.png (oviously no other files)
      - esnard 9y ago
        I read "Hax and Vax" as "Horizontal axis and Vertical axis", but I'm not sure what to think about it.
Nadya 9y ago
In the bottom left of the dark web map there is another puzzle that says to "visit when the :imer (sic) runs out" with a countdown that is at like -2600 days or so. Could be related as a previous or future step of the same puzzle. It looks less ominous and more of a web-based puzzle to me. I've done something similar for 4chan's /g/ board back in the day setting up a simple puzzle with the "prize" being a bruteforced tripcode that was to Serial Experiments Lain. It was fun for the day and promptly ruined by the 4th or so solver who leaked the tripcode to ruin the little circlejerk that had formed over having solved the puzzle. It also made me respect people who make complex puzzles. I had to recreate the puzzle several times because I had to create the puzzle in reverse and test that the solutions would work. It took me several attempts to get everything right and in the end the most difficult part of the puzzle was that the font I had used did not differentiate between a capital I ("eye)" and lowercase l ("el") well enough. E: Here is the timer I was talking about and another page. https://vgy.me/album/99CCIbMS https://vgy.me/album/99CCIbMS
- rashkov 9y ago
  Good catch, interesting stuff. Not sure why, but your post was marked as "dead" but I vouched
  - Nadya 9y ago
    Probably the album link. I've ran into that problem on a few sites (for example: it gets flagged on Reddit if I don't use the direct-to-file links). Thanks for that.

This looks ominous, anyone have any ideas on how to solve the puzzle? https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW

by iooi 9y ago

This looks ominous, anyone have any ideas on how to solve the puzzle? https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW

yorwba 9y ago

The table made me suspect that a Vigenère cipher was involved, but none of the obvious key/value combinations seem to yield anything intelligible.

JKCalhoun 9y ago
I see the word "STU". Anyone else get that far?
- reaperducer 9y ago
  "NO"

esnard 9y ago

Ideas: - The "vbizukfplsqf...." is not part of the puzzle - The original website is available at https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion/ https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion/ - The page title is "Caesar Was Rome's 2nd Emperor", hinting to Caesar cipher - In a HTML comment: "kcovjgfktgevgf" which is "I am the directed" encrypted via Caesar cipher - In a HTML comment: "6e6f71696e796c6e646e7179736d77666163766a7272666a0a" which is the hexadecimal for "noqinylndnqysmwfacvjrrfj\n" - The image is named "vigenere.png", hinting to Vigenere cipher

BlackLotus89 9y ago
The solution is > endofthelinenineninenine every one of your obervations was correct (btw I got to know the tabula recta as vigenere square [1]) kcovjgfktgevgf was the key for noqinylndnqysmwfacvjrrfj\n (and \n is indeed endoftheline) I used an online vigenere chiffre "applet" (ok it is javascript so not really an applet but who cares) and I got an off by one (just define the alphabet as bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza or use jbnuifejsfdufe as the key) PS. Without tor you can use [3] and thx for making me waste that 5 minutes :D it was fun [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_recta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_recta [2] https://cryptii.com/vigenere-cipher https://cryptii.com/vigenere-cipher [3] https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion.link https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion.link
- iooi 9y ago
  So what does that solution mean? Are you supposed to visit /999?
  - BlackLotus89 9y ago
    Don't know it isn't my puzzle. Maybe I'm wrong and this isn't the solution and there is still some way to go. Edit: damn wanted to try the /999 but the site is down (yeah I'm using tor and not the onion.link link) I hope this is just the HN effect and it will soon work again Edit2: I hoped to find something hidden in the image itself but it wasn't Edit3: If anyone else wants to give it a shot https://blacklotus.github.io/ https://blacklotus.github.io/ uploaded the index.html and vigenere.png (oviously no other files)
    - esnard 9y ago
      I read "Hax and Vax" as "Horizontal axis and Vertical axis", but I'm not sure what to think about it.

Nadya 9y ago

In the bottom left of the dark web map there is another puzzle that says to "visit when the :imer (sic) runs out" with a countdown that is at like -2600 days or so. Could be related as a previous or future step of the same puzzle. It looks less ominous and more of a web-based puzzle to me. I've done something similar for 4chan's /g/ board back in the day setting up a simple puzzle with the "prize" being a bruteforced tripcode that was to Serial Experiments Lain. It was fun for the day and promptly ruined by the 4th or so solver who leaked the tripcode to ruin the little circlejerk that had formed over having solved the puzzle. It also made me respect people who make complex puzzles. I had to recreate the puzzle several times because I had to create the puzzle in reverse and test that the solutions would work. It took me several attempts to get everything right and in the end the most difficult part of the puzzle was that the font I had used did not differentiate between a capital I ("eye)" and lowercase l ("el") well enough. E: Here is the timer I was talking about and another page. https://vgy.me/album/99CCIbMS https://vgy.me/album/99CCIbMS

rashkov 9y ago
Good catch, interesting stuff. Not sure why, but your post was marked as "dead" but I vouched
- Nadya 9y ago
  Probably the album link. I've ran into that problem on a few sites (for example: it gets flagged on Reddit if I don't use the direct-to-file links). Thanks for that.