The Steemit Crypto Challenge #14 - Winner Announcement
Prepare - Uncover - Outwit - Find - WIN!
The 13th Steemit Crypto Challenge is over and we are happy to announce the winner:
You followed your intuition and stayed on the right track. Solving the puzzle you saved your reward. 150 Steem goes to you.
Solution
Here is a breakthrough, showing step by step what you had to do in order to solve the crypto-puzzle.
The two given hints were:
and
https://defuse.ca/b/HeXzXeW7PSkSkgGFfBouIc
RGBRGBRGBUser @captainmaku figured out that he has to use the RGB code of the colors red, green and blue from hint 1. He went further and found out that he has to use the pattern given in hint 2 to put the RGB code in the right sequence.
By doing so he was able to decode the message hidden on defuse.ca and got a link that contains this picture.
Unfortunately there were some problems I fixed quickly. The picture on Steemit manipulated the image and changed some RGB values. After uploading a raw file of the picture my detective skilled Steemians were able to solve it. I payed everyone who tried to solve it within the first minutes and wasn't able 10 Steem as a redemption. Won't happen again!
@jeppex1 did what seem to be impossible. The Steemians spent hours to solve this one. Inside this picture was another hidden. This method is called Steganography. If you want to know more read my post Hiding sensitive Information: Steganography.
But how did he do it? After I saw that my agents were not able to extract the data, I uploaded another version which was easier to break. I gave them another hint to use mobilefish.com to decode the picture. All they needed was another password.
The filename was coversecret and another hint from me was Run backwards. They tried to use this password and it was almost right! They tried all possible passwords until @jeppex1 noticed that I had changed the message of a Steemian in the steemit.chat. There was an additional letter in the word I put in the message.
tercetrevoc he was able to extract the last piece of the puzzle:
Great work and congratulations to the winner and all who participated. @captainmaku you get 10 Steem for the first hint! Don't miss the next Steemit Crypto Challenge and be prepared.
Tim Said
And everyone that is interested in joining for the next crypto challenge and wants to cooperate come and join us on steemit.chat #steemitcryptochallenge channel
Congrats, that was a tough one!
Congrats to the winner, the challenge increased my knowledge too.
Wow, could have looked at that for days and wouldnt have solved it! Congrats!
Congrats
well said
Winners prize is usually high since I want to give something back to the community. I have something special in mind I will share with you soon. Let me tell so this so far: One lucky person will get to SteemFest II with my help :)
Thank you @timsaid!
Just wondering, can you explain how to extract the data from the original file (not the easy version)? I think it might be interesting since probably many tried a lot of tools and some heavy brain use to not be able to solve it (me included)..
Looking forward to the next one. Thanks for the challenge!
I am interested in that, too
Hey! I usually only post the solutions when a challenge was solved. In this case I might use the same encryption any time soon again and giving out the solution would be too easy! However I will give some more helpful hints in case I use it again.
Thanks for the feedback and be excited! Next Challenge coming tomorrow
Waiting for the next one. Good one..
Coming in two days
Can someone explain to me what is challenge is about?
It's a puzzle you need to solve in order to win the prize
Hearty congrats to the winner.