Competition

[EMB]

I thought I'd organise a competition in order to prove how easy it is to hide/conceal a message.

The competition is to find a secret message in a picture. You have to find it, decode it and then email it to me to win.

There aren't really any rules, except that you have to do this on your own. First person to find it wins!

Email = competition@secretmessage.comyr.com

Pictures

I now have three different pictures up, and I have changed the link above to simply goto the root of the website.

Because there are now a few different challenges, from now on please put the challenge number you have attempted as the subject, nothing else.

Before you all start screaming "OMG DIS IS 2 EASY FOR A 1337 Hax0r LIEK ME!", let's see how long it takes for someone to actually get the answer. Of course I could be underestimating the community, but hey everyone who has met me thinks I'm a n00b anyway. I have underestimated you all, one guy even got it in 38 seconds flat (supposedly).

If you want to chat to me live, my Steam name is "EMB", and I always accept chat requests. Be aware that I am in UK time (GMT 0) so it may be late for me if you are in the US.

Below is a list of all those who have completed "Secret Message 1":

1. digininja
2. wiretapp - "38 seconds?!"
3. Atarii
4. Facuman
5. Jason

Below is a list of all those who have completed "Secret Message 2":

1. Noone

Below is a list of all those who have completed "Secret Message 3":

1. Noone

Edited October 2, 2010 by EMB

[digininja]

I've got my answer in

[EMB]

Hurr, /me has definately underestimated digininja :(

Ahh well, always expected one of the people high up to get it fast.

Nonetheless, let's see how quickly some of the "normal" get it. Yes I will try and make a harder one for you to crack digininja, however efortlessly you seem to be able to crack it.

[digininja]

I'll send you the ruby one liner so you can post it when you decide to close the comp.

[EMB]

Ok, I got another one up :D

Try getting it this time.

Same website.

[digininja]

Food time, will try to have a play later.

[facuman]

answer sent

[algorythm]

just sent in my answer as well. it was a fun challenge.

i'd be interested in seeing digininja's one liner after this is over, i can't fathom how to do all that's required in one line (at least, not and still be able to read it.)

[Atarii]

That was fun :)

Got any more?

[digininja]

This is the one line in Ruby

puts ("001101010011001000110110001100010011011001100011001101100110011000110111001

100000011001000110000001101110011001100110111001100100011011000110001001101100011

010100110110001100100011001000110000001101100011010100110111001100100011011000110

001001100100011000000110110011000100011011001100101001101100011100100110111001100

000011001001100011001100100011000000110111001110010011011000110101001101100011100

000110111001101000011001000110000001101110011010000110111001100110011011100110101

001101100110000100110010001100000011011100110100001101110011010100110111001100000

011001000110000001101110011010000110110011001100011011001100011001101100011000100

110010001100000011011000110110001101100110011000110010001100000011011100110000001

101110011010100110110001101010011011001100010001101100011000100110110011001000011

001000110000001101100110010100110110011001100011001001100101").gsub(/([01]{8})/) { |b| b.to_i(2).chr} .gsub(/../) { |b| b.hex.chr }.reverse.split.reverse.join(" ")

[facuman]

That's a cool piece of code. I ported it to python as a self imposed exercise (I used 3 loops for my original approach to the problem).

import re; print " ".join([rev_word[::-1] for rev_word in "".join([chr(int(hex_char,16)) for hex_char in re.findall("..", "".join([chr(int(bin_char,2)) for bin_char in re.findall("([01]{8})","00110101001100100011011000110001001101100110001100110

110011001100011011100110000001100100011000000110111001100110011

011100110010001101100011000100110110001101010011011000110010001

100100011000000110110001101010011011100110010001101100011000100

110010001100000011011001100010001101100110010100110110001110010

011011100110000001100100110001100110010001100000011011100111001

001101100011010100110110001110000011011100110100001100100011000

000110111001101000011011100110011001101110011010100110110011000

010011001000110000001101110011010000110111001101010011011100110

000001100100011000000110111001101000011011001100110001101100110

001100110110001100010011001000110000001101100011011000110110011

001100011001000110000001101110011000000110111001101010011011000

110101001101100110001000110110001100010011011001100100001100100

0110000001101100110010100110110011001100011001001100101")]))]).split(' ')])

readeable, huh?

[EMB]

Look at the origional post for updates.

Can I remind all of you that this is being done using the Firefox and Notepad++, by a 14yr old who also has to leave clues as it is meant to be solved. Think of what someone trying to actually hide a message would be possible of.

Also, w00t I got 3 people to join just because of my thread!

Edit: Forgot to mention that the first secret message was made by 11yr old brother, that's why it's kind of completely random..

Also, don't cheat using the code supplied if you haven't already solved it...

Edited October 2, 2010 by EMB

[algorythm]

This is the one line in Ruby

...

that's very cool. my hat to you sir. =)

[EMB]

Hey, is anyone actually going to try the second or third?

[digininja]

Think you hit the short attention span/lack of time barrier. I just had a quick look at number 3 and didn't get it but have other work to do so no time to spend.

[EMB]

Hmm, it looks like the knowledge of where I go to school will stay safe :D (No. 3 contained that)

It would have pointed out the problems and scary realities of steganography and how easy it is if only the community hadn't given up...

[charm_quark]

you guys any hints on this topic, i'm sooo blank that i feel left out! :(

[EMB]

What one are you stuck on?

Try opening the picture differently for a start.

[charm_quark]

makes sense,! ;)