Zero Cool
It was a steel grey room, one that looked like a stereotypical interrogation room from movies. There was a mirror on the wall in front of me, a metal table with a chair on each side, and an expressionless fed sitting opposite me.
“You’re likely surprised about what is happening. We are with the government. We have been observing your actions for some time now, and we would like your help with a problem we have. In return, we will erase all traces of your …. less legal activities” the man said to me. I waited, face carefully neutral. The room was so stereotypical, I thought there were likely people observing from behind the mirror.
“We needed to talk to you without the chance of being overheard. We’ve seen what you can do on a computer, and we need your skills. Will you help us?” the man asked me. I said nothing for a moment, thinking it through. Computers were still relatively new, and if I was lucky I’d get some community service, but if not, I might end up like Condor. Condor, known as Kevin Mitnick in the news, had been caught and jailed a year or so ago, and no one was sure when he’d get a trial, let alone released.
“Okay, but you all have to leave my family alone. I don’t want them to get involved with this.” I said finally.
“That can be done.” He tapped his wrist, probably wearing a watch, and stood up, gesturing for me to follow. I followed behind cautiously, unsure of our destination. We left the room, entering a long sterile white hallway interspersed with featureless metal doors. After I’d counted around 300 steps, we reached another door, which, after opening, the man gestured for me to enter.The new room was less brightly lit, with a computer sitting on a desk in the canter, but otherwise identical to the other room. I had an inkling of what they wanted me to do now.
“Someone else will be in to explain what you need to do in a moment.” the man said, and left the room. I stood awkwardly, the back of my neck prickling. The chair in front of the computer tempted me to sit down and explore the computer, but I had not been given instructions yet, and for all I knew it might have been booby trapped.
I reflected on how I had gotten in this whole mess. The day started off as usual. I woke up, had breakfast, and checked on the BBS I ran. Nothing big had happened, though there were a few rumors of some arrests happening, but no real details. Since it was a Saturday, I didn’t have much to do so I started playing one of my favorite BBS games, LORD. After some time my mom came upstairs, knocking on my door before hurriedly coming in. She was pretty anxious, and I found out why quickly. She told me that some people from the government were here, and needed to talk with me right away.
I hurried downstairs, having heard countless stories about feds. They were waiting in the living room, and after going through all the “friendly” formalities, told me that I had the choice to be arrested right then, or go with them willingly to do a task that they needed my abilities for. Of course, I went with them. I wasn’t going to have an arrest on my record, not with all the “hacker” fear going around nowdays. And that’s how I ended up here, in this strange place. I thought of my mom and how worried she must be now, it must have been sudden, my leaving with no explanation.
A knock at the door jolted me from my thoughts. A woman, one of the feds from this morning, came in.
“Hello again. I’m Kate, I’ll be here to explain everything for you. Your name is Ezra, correct?” I nodded.
She continued on, “Don’t worry, this shouldn’t take too long, we’ve seen what you’ve done. Take a seat now, and I’ll explain your task.” I sat down, turning on the computer. The hard drive began to whir and click as Windows booted. The musical jingle was reassuring, a reassuring reminder I was now in the world of computers. The desktop and icons appeared, and Kate began explaining.
“There’s a hacker who we haven’t been able to catch yet. He’s encrypted several important files of ours, but he says he left a key to break it somewhere in the files on this computer. We need you to find it. There’s a text file he left as a hint as well. Good luck.” And with that, Kate left the room, leaving me alone. I gave a silent laugh, if it was DEF CON with Spot the Fed, I’d easily be the winner. Returning my focus to the computer, I saw a text file on the desktop, hello.txt. Opening it, I began to read.
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Hello.txt
Hi th3r3 n00b. I’m fl4re, y0ur n3w w0rst 3n3my. I’v3 hidd3n 3 p4rts 0f a k3y s0m3wh3r3 0n this c0mput3r which will br34k th3 3ncrypti0n 0n s0m3 fil3s. 0f c0urs3, I can’t t3ll y0u wh3r3, that’d b3 t00 34sy. Th0ugh, I’ll giv3 y0u a hint. Th3 k3y is in th3 f0rm4t 0f KEY{string}. Typ3 in th3 k3y h3r3 wh3n y0u th1nk y0u’v3 s0lv3d it.
-31337 h4x0r fl4re
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I gave a silent groan. I’d met people online like this before, people who loved “1337sp34k” and were often endlessly annoying. And this time it seemed like the person actually knew their stuff, making them even more annoying. I begrudgingly started trying to figure it out. Opening up File Explorer, I looked for anything of note.
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All Folders | Contents of ‘Files’
-My Computer | ¬ hello.txt
-(C:) | + Clues
+Desktop |
+Downloads |
-Files |
+Clues |
+Program Files|
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The folder labelled “Clues” seemed interesting, so I clicked to expand it.
————————————
All Folders | Contents of ‘Files’
-My Computer | ¬ hello.txt
-(C:) | – Clues
+Desktop | ¬ n00b.png
+Downloads | ¬ k3y.txt
-Files | ¬ list.txt
+Clues | ¬ lock.png
+Program Files|
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Going through the files at a glance didn’t show any obvious solution. The picture gave a message saying “File header error” upon trying to open it. K3y.txt was a long string, ending in an equals sign, which meant it was likely base64. List.txt looked like jumbled up English, and lock.png only showed a picture of a lock.
Base64 seemed like the easier to solve, and after running it through a decoder tool I found the phrase “th3”. I wasn’t sure what to do with that, so I started to look at the other files. Looking at list.txt, I realized it was likely a caesar cipher, where each letter is shifted by a set number. The whole phrase was “Gur abbo fubhyq chg gur xrl va gur ybpx”, but to make it easier I used the first 3 letters until it made a word. Eventually I figured it was shifted by 13, leaving the phrase to translate to “the noob should put the key in the lock.” No clue what that one meant either, but it referenced the other file names.
Next was the image. I opened the image in a hex editor, and saw right away the header of the file was incorrect. The first part of a PNG is always 89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A, but here it started off as 88 49 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A, and after correcting the data the image opened, showing the words “h4ck”. Taking a guess that lock.png would be solved with stenography, I ran a quick check and found the phrase “pl4n3t”. Looking at the phrasing of both list.txt and common English phrasing, the key seemed to be “h4ckth3pl4n3t”. I typed in KEY{h4ckth3pl4n3t} into hello.txt, and a small chime sounded. I let a quiet cheer escape my lips, glad to have solved it quickly. Almost immediately, Kate comes in.
“That was impressive to watch, thank you for your help. There’s a car waiting for you which will take you home. We’ve already told your mother it was a mix-up of names, and you had been mistaken for someone with the same name, but we had to hold you while we confirmed, just in case.” I was startled at the sudden dismissal, but wanted to get home quickly. As I followed Kate out to a dim parking garage, I had a nagging feeling something wasn’t right. But upon seeing a nondescript car waiting for me, I ignored the feeling, wanting to get home above all else.
As my house came into view, I breathed a sigh of relief. Before the car had fully stopped I was out the door and into my house, giving my mom a tight hug.
“Hi mom, I’m back. I-” I started to explain, but was interrupted.
“Oh Ezra, you don’t know how worried I was! I didn’t know if they’d kidnapped you or anything, it was so sudden!” My mom cried, clearly very shaken.
“Let’s go to the couch, I’ll tell you everything.” I began explaining what had happened, leaving nothing out.
Elsewhere, Kate dialed a number and without waiting for a response, began speaking.
“Subject 138 was successful. He showed high intelligence, strong computer literacy, and was able to make decisions under stress. It is recommended to move Subject 138 to Group 2 for further testing of his abilities.
Notes: The title comes from “Hackers”, a great movie. Kevin Mitnick was a famous hacker who became known after his arrest in 1995 for various computer-related charges. He passed away recently, this July (2023). Condor was Mitnick’s “handle”, or alias. Most old-school hackers have a handle, and some of us newbies. The puzzle is solvable, use google and a bit of creativity.