MoonShadow (OP)
Legendary
 Offline
Activity: 1708
Merit: 1007
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December 02, 2011, 09:31:05 PM |
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http://canyoucrackit.co.uk/A novel way for a cybersecurity company to find qualified applicants. If you live in the UK, and need a job, give it a go.
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"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."
- Carroll Quigley, CFR member, mentor to Bill Clinton, from 'Tragedy And Hope'
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"Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally
controlled
networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem
to be holding their own." -- Satoshi
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Advertised sites are not endorsed by the Bitcoin Forum. They may be unsafe, untrustworthy, or illegal in your jurisdiction.
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Raoul Duke
aka psy
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1002
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December 02, 2011, 10:01:15 PM |
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casascius
Mike Caldwell
VIP
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1136
The Casascius 1oz 10BTC Silver Round (w/ Gold B)
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December 02, 2011, 10:02:52 PM |
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I got as far as determining that this was a block of executable code. Poking at it, I decided this, because it contains lots of patterns that start with the same byte, that are two- and three- bytes long, very much like what you'd expect to see in an executable binary. (I have written assembly code in the past, perhaps this is the programmer audience they are targeting)
I started googling, and found comments consistent with that interpretation. I didn't bother to go past trying to execute the code, but I notice somebody had written a C program that poked the bytes into memory and then called them as though it were a function, and then scraped whatever it left behind in the memory. The program seemed to suggest that this is x86 code (must be run in a 32-bit process).
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Companies claiming they got hacked and lost your coins sounds like fraud so perfect it could be called fashionable. I never believe them. If I ever experience the misfortune of a real intrusion, I declare I have been honest about the way I have managed the keys in Casascius Coins. I maintain no ability to recover or reproduce the keys, not even under limitless duress or total intrusion. Remember that trusting strangers with your coins without any recourse is, as a matter of principle, not a best practice. Don't keep coins online. Use paper or hardware wallets instead.
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naypalm
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1272
Merit: 1012
howdy
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December 02, 2011, 10:47:08 PM |
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Dang this is a short program.
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scribe
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December 02, 2011, 11:36:50 PM |
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I got as far as determining that this was a block of executable code. Poking at it, I decided this, because it contains lots of patterns that start with the same byte, that are two- and three- bytes long, very much like what you'd expect to see in an executable binary. (I have written assembly code in the past, perhaps this is the programmer audience they are targeting)
I started googling, and found comments consistent with that interpretation. I didn't bother to go past trying to execute the code, but I notice somebody had written a C program that poked the bytes into memory and then called them as though it were a function, and then scraped whatever it left behind in the memory. The program seemed to suggest that this is x86 code (must be run in a 32-bit process).
Been looking at this today. There are too many patterns between the left and right halves to be coincidence, IMHO. Interesting challenge, anyway. Better than the usual "solve some boring transposition" challenges. |
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Phinnaeus Gage
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
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December 03, 2011, 04:32:36 AM |
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http://canyoucrackit.co.uk/A novel way for a cybersecurity company to find qualified applicants. If you live in the UK, and need a job, give it a go. I clicked the linked and stared at it for about a minute and believe that I would try the HTML Hexadecimal Color approach. I did not Google anything, so I don't have a clue if others are approaching it from that angle. |
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Vanderbleek
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December 03, 2011, 06:32:37 AM |
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Almost wonder if the correct answer is "brute force it." Don't see any captchas, might be worth trying a dictionary attack.
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naypalm
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1272
Merit: 1012
howdy
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December 03, 2011, 09:36:35 AM |
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Gosh golly, This code is hard! |
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Phinnaeus Gage
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
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December 03, 2011, 04:30:07 PM |
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Is my HTML Hexadecimal Color approach a dead end? I think I have the hexadecimal part right. I though of this when I saw 00 00 00 and FF FF FF, and it seemed black and white to me.
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casascius
Mike Caldwell
VIP
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1136
The Casascius 1oz 10BTC Silver Round (w/ Gold B)
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December 03, 2011, 05:28:47 PM |
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It's not colors. It is definitely x86 code.
I ran it. It is incomplete. There is a second half apparently buried in the metadata of the image, according to a posting I found. I wonder if I would have come to the "there's more to this, somethings missing" conclusion had I disassembled and analyzed it in detail.
When you run the code it gives you a URL
At the URL is a second problem to solve. The second problem is you must implement a simplistic virtual machine according to a spec they made up, and then run a program written for it. I did not bother, but am certain it is something I could do.
I used Google for help along the way, but was able to independently determine that the bytes were likely to be executable code without any help, just by staring at them and looking at the patterns. I feel I could implement the VM as well - sounds like a typical comp sci homework assignment - I just don't feel it's worth the time.
They say they want code crackers. Working with assembly language isn't a skill I would associate with cracking codes. It would make more sense if they were after programmers for doing device drivers or embedded programming. Unless they mean "cracking" in the "removing copy protection" sense, this is also assembly intensive.
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Companies claiming they got hacked and lost your coins sounds like fraud so perfect it could be called fashionable. I never believe them. If I ever experience the misfortune of a real intrusion, I declare I have been honest about the way I have managed the keys in Casascius Coins. I maintain no ability to recover or reproduce the keys, not even under limitless duress or total intrusion. Remember that trusting strangers with your coins without any recourse is, as a matter of principle, not a best practice. Don't keep coins online. Use paper or hardware wallets instead.
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Vanderbleek
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December 03, 2011, 05:55:21 PM |
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I figured the image itself had something to do with it -- I also pulled apart the HTML just to see if there was something in that. Anyway, kind of a cool hiring process.
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silverchair
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December 12, 2011, 07:14:41 AM |
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Try to refer this thing to a Cracker.  |
Hey Guys! WWW.FREEBITCOINS.ORG introduces "Epic December Contest" where you can Win Sweet Casascius Coins !!! |
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BurtW
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1131
All paid signature campaigns should be banned.
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December 12, 2011, 07:25:46 AM |
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Our family was terrorized by Homeland Security. Read all about it here: http://www.jmwagner.com/ and http://www.burtw.com/ Any donations to help us recover from the $300,000 in legal fees and forced donations to the Federal Asset Forfeiture slush fund are greatly appreciated! |
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tiberiandusk
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December 12, 2011, 09:55:55 AM |
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The password is Swordfish. It is always Swordfish.
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Phinnaeus Gage
Legendary
Offline
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
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December 12, 2011, 03:46:47 PM |
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So you did it. Well done! Now this is where it gets interesting. Could you use your skills and ingenuity to combat terrorism... I'll try! I would start by axing the TSA, then use all that money to help combat terrorism. Then, I would start an open forum that would have everyone in the world offering up their ideas on how to combat terrorism--for free. Have one real smart guy--you're Atlas equivalent--pull out all the good ideas, daily. Now, implement the best ideas. Profit! |
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