ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over

[arg-sidekick]

This stuff sure brings out the ugly in people.

I hope that wasn't directed at me. Everyone's being friendly here. My data isn't a solve, nor is mirth's. I need to mull over if my work is even logical and/or helpful. You wouldn't like it if I pumped my rapidly changing thought processes into this thread. Trust me, arg has been getting the brunt of my thought processes for days..

Functionally, it's a diff. It may not be the right path, but it's a valid data set to examine.

Quite, but I was referring to the entire 90 something block (possibly more). I'm stuck and reconsidering my approach. I doubt coinartist will drop another hint, but we (arg and I) are very stumped.

[1714704471]

1714704471

[1714704471]

1714704471

[1714704471]

1714704471

[xELx]

Anyone have any ideas? I be stumped.

[Prospero]

Open the image in a hex editor and it looks like there might be something else embedded. The end marker of a JPG image is supposed to be FFD9. There are multiple of these markers in the file contents and the file does not end in one.

[arg]

Open the image in a hex editor and it looks like there might be something else embedded. The end marker of a JPG image is supposed to be FFD9. There are multiple of these markers in the file contents and the file does not end in one.

Yeah. That's where the crops.7z comes from.

[Prospero]

oh sorry, missed that. playing catch up.

[rgm108]

This stuff sure brings out the ugly in people.

Yep. I even spilled my drink all over my keyboard. It's a whole new way of thinking about sticky keys...

[mirth23]

Functionally, it's a diff. It may not be the right path, but it's a valid data set to examine.

Quite, but I was referring to the entire 90 something block (possibly more). I'm stuck and reconsidering my approach. I doubt coinartist will drop another hint, but we (arg and I) are very stumped.

This wouldn't be the first time some part of the data got dropped on the floor. I'm just back from being away and have a couple ideas I'll poke on.

Coinartist usually drops hints after a day or so of halted progress.

[mtgox555]

This probably has no significance since this is a JPG picture
https://i.imgur.com/Y3qFyzU.png

[micaman]

Anyone tried to overlap Crops.jpg with Algo.jpg?

[arg-sidekick]

This probably has no significance since this is a JPG picture
https://i.imgur.com/Y3qFyzU.png

I've seen a bunch of the same image all with the typical JPEG lossy colour profiles. I noticed this too but we weren't supplied a specific link to source material and the internet has many shitty reposts, so it's not important.

Nice catch though. Keep thinking along outside the box

[itod]

Open the image in a hex editor and it looks like there might be something else embedded. The end marker of a JPG image is supposed to be FFD9. There are multiple of these markers in the file contents and the file does not end in one.

This may mean that several JPGs are concatenated one to another, masked under single file name. BTW, JPG should start with FFD8, so if this is true then there should be ate least one FFD9FFD8 four-byte sequence inside a file.

[arg-sidekick]

This may mean that several JPGs are concatenated one to another, masked under single file name. BTW, JPG should start with FFD8, so if this is true then there should be ate least one FFD9FFD8 four-byte sequence inside a file.

Checked and nothing. Lots of FFD9 and FFD8, but it's a short hex, so collisions are common.

Also, be aware that the crop.jpg has a crop.7z we've removed. Check arg's post earlier.

[jc01480]

Can't help but think you guys might be getting a little too technical.  Trying to keep up with you is making my eyes cross.  Learning a lot, though.

[xELx]

I'll just leave this here:

0=0A=10BABYA=36

Code:

0	0
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5
6	6
7	7
8	8
9	9

A	10
B	11
C	12
D	13
E	14
F	15
G	16
H	17
I	18
J	19
K	20
L	21
M	22
N	23
O	24
P	25
Q	26
R	27
S	28
T	29
U	30
V	31
W	32
X	33
Y	34
Z	35

a	36
b	37
c	38
d	39
e	40
f	41
g	42
h	43
i	44
j	45
k	46
l	47
m	48
n	49
o	50
p	51
q	52
r	53
s	54
t	55
u	56
v	57
w	58
x	59
y	60
z	61

[arg-sidekick]

I'll just leave this here:

0=0A=10BABYA=36

Code:

0	0
1	1
2	2
[..]

(trimmed)

I went down this path, again, not sure if it's the solution. Happily proven wrong though.

[xELx]

I'll just leave this here:

0=0A=10BABYA=36

Code:

0	0
1	1
2	2
[..]

(trimmed)

I went down this path, again, not sure if it's the solution. Happily proven wrong though.

What did you try and use it on? I tried converting the whole binary string. Tried the file name, tried converting the timestamp on the picture to unix and then convert that to text but nada.

[arg-sidekick]

Pretty much the same.

Ok, here are some of my thoughts from my 34 open hex files, 13 image variations, 14 text files and 80+ tabs for this single problem. If you've not guessed yet, I'm the weird one.

I mapped out the spiral several times. I started with the assumption that it was morse but quickly dismissed after a couple of rounds of elimination. Below is my list.

Code:

 GGGGG GRRRG GGGGG RG GRRRG RGGGG GGGGG GRRR RG GRRR GRGG RG GRRRG RRRGG GRRRR RGG GGG RGG RRGGR GGG GRRGGGRG GRRGGRGR GRRGGGGR GRRRGGRG GRRGGRGR GRRRGGRG GRRRGGRR GGRGGGGG GRRGRRRR GRRGGRRG GGRGGGGG GRGGGRRG GRGGGGGR GRGGRRGG GRGRGGRR GRGGGRGR GGRGGGGG GRRGGRRRGRRGRGGR GRRGGRRG GRRRGRGG GRRRGGRR GGRGGGGG GGRGGRRG GGRGGGGG GRRRGRGG GRRGRGGG GRRGGRGR GRRGRGGR GRRRGGRG GGRGGGGG GRGGGGRG GRGRGGRG GRGGRRRR GRGGRGRR GRGGGRGR GRGGRRRG GGRGGGGG GRGR GGGG GRGRGGRG GRGGRRRR GRGGRRGR GRGGRGGR GRGRGGRR GRGGGRGR GRGRGGRR GGRGRRRG GRGGRRGR GRRRGRGR GRRGGGRR GRRGRGGG GGRGGGGG GRGRGGGG GRGGGGGR GRGGRGGR GRGGRRRG GGRGGGGG GRRGGGGRG GRRRGRGR GRRRGRGG GGRGGGGG GRRRGGRR GRRRGRGG GRRGRGGR GRRGRRGG GRRGRRGG GGRGGGGG GRRRGRGG GRRGRGGR GRRGRRGR GRRGGRGR GGRGRRRG GRGGG[]RG[] GRGGGRGR GRGGRRGG GRGGRGGR GRGGGRGR GRGRGRRG GRRGGR[]GGRGR GGRGRRRG GRGRGRR GRRGRGGG GRRGGRGR GRRRGGRG GRRGGRGR GGRGGGGG GRRGRGGR GRRRGGRR GGRGGGGG GRGGGRRR GRGGRRRR GRGGRRRR GRGGGRGG GGRGGGGG GRRGRRRR GRRRGRGR GRRRRGRGG GGRGGGGG GRRRRGRGG GRRGRGGG GRRGGRGR GRRRGGRG GRRGGRGR GGRGRRRRG GRGRGRRR GRRGGRGR GGRGGGGG GRRGRRRR GRRRGGGG GRRR GGGG GRRGRRRR GRRRGGRR GRRGGRGR GGRGGGGG GRGGGRGG GRGGGRGR GRGGGGRR GRGGGRGR GRGRGGGG GRGRGRGG GRGGRGGR GRGGRRRR GRGGRRRG GGRGRRRG GRGGGGRR GRRGRRRR GRRGRRRRG GRRGGRGG GRRRRGRGR GRRGRGGR GRRRRGRGG GGRGGGGG GRGGGGRR GRGGRRGG GRGGRRRR GRGRGGRR GRGGRGGR GRGGRRRG GRGGGRRRR GGRGRRRG

Starting from the inside of the spiral. It starts with a space, which I'm assuming is just some padding. But please correct me if you suspect something different.

Considering G (green) seems fairly common, lets just call it 0, R 1 and [] the wildcard. This creates:

Code:

 00000 01110 00000 10 01110 10000 00000 0111 10 0111 0100 10 01110 11100 01111 100 000 100 11001 000 01100010 01100101 01100001 01110010 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01000110 01000001 01001100 01010011 01000101 00100000 0110011101101001 01100110 01110100 01110011 00100000 00100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101001 01110010 00100000 01000010 01010010 01001111 01001011 01000101 01001110 00100000 0101 0000 01010010 01001111 01001101 01001001 01010011 01000101 01010011 00101110 01001101 01110101 01100011 01101000 00100000 01010000 01000001 01001001 01001110 00100000 011000010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00101110 01000*10* 01000101 01001100 01001001 01000101 01010110 011001*00101 00101110 0101011 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01000111 01001111 01001111 01000100 00100000 01101111 01110101 011110100 00100000 011110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 001011110 01010111 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110000 0111 0000 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01000100 01000101 01000011 01000101 01010000 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00101110 01000011 01101111 011011110 01100100 011110101 01101001 011110100 00100000 01000011 01001100 01001111 01010011 01001001 01001110 010001111 00101110

Now, straight up converting that into something readable isn't quite as straight forward as one would like. It's not divisible by 8. Selecting a few sections and converting will dump you quotes from

Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEVE: There is GOOD out there.We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING ?

Well, that's not technically true, the first word has been modded by our wonderful overlord, Coinartist.

Now, morse seems like a reasonable way to go, but not quite. After the rest is decoded with binary, why would morse be used? I'm not totally convinced I'm right in dismissing morse for that bit. Prove me wrong?

I've tried double sha256's on everything and anything from that file. My terminal's history will never be the same again.

I must add that I've been awake for several days, I do tend to overthink and I don't have an arg to bounce ideas off while it recharges its pony posting powers. So, that being true, disregard everything I say.

[elh40257]

Hello, again! Readed all what you are write there, nice finds! So, for me archive again looks like corrupted (offset is where 7z archive signature placed). If you need to crop it, you can run following command:

Code:

dd if=Crops.jpg of=Crops.7z bs=1 skip=279038

[arg-sidekick]

Hello, again! Readed all what you are write there, nice finds! So, for me archive again looks like corrupted (offset is where 7z archive signature placed). If you need to crop it, you can run following command:

Code:

dd if=Crops.jpg of=Crops.7z bs=1 skip=279038

Possibly your copy or the one uploaded but my local copy is byte for byte exact. Always good to double check though

[elh40257]

Always good to double check though

http://www.speedyshare.com/jjhEd/Crops.7z