Can you Crack the British GCHQ Code ???

I thought I'd post this and see who amongst us can crack this code ???

This is a genuine code, used as part of a current recruitment drive.........

www.canyoucrackit.co.uk...

Go to the link and test your grey matter.... i will be trying later today.......

Any answers and solutions welcome...

Regards

PDUK

yeah just see this too.

someone here can do this for sure.

Well, obviously an hexadecimal code at first.
2*(10 raws and 8 columns) that can be converted in whatever you want:

- ASCII gives no readable results, using this converter
- Decimal, octal and binary can be try using hexprobe multibyte calculator

I don't think it's a simple conversion though, it would be too easy. Anyway, the final result is a "keyword", so I guess that the last conversion have to be done in ASCII.
This keyword have a max letter number of 16, multiple of 8.

Food for thoughts....

what is GCHQ ?

Originally posted by sabalsis1972
what is GCHQ ?

Government Communication Head Quarters
UK

Originally posted by sabalsis1972
what is GCHQ ?

See here, GCHQ= Government Communications Headquarters.

And here for the annual challenges, including this one (GCHQ Challenge (Cheltenham Science Festival))

I'm pretty sure that not being able to google gchq bars you from ever working for gchq.
Possibly posting on ATS does too

Thanks for sharing

Shame I am not up to the challenge as I would be keen to get a peek behind the curtains.

So Far I am drawing a blank... so I guess I am not one of those people cut out for intelligence.

More of a 'Grunt' on the frontline for me then !!!


PDUK

dont know if this is any good but i got this when i put it in a hex calculator...
Binary:11101011
Ternary:22201
Quintal:1420
Octal:353
Decimal:235

then found some kind of 11101011 website that does security software?? ..
11101011.org...
then i stopped to make a bacon sarnie lol

reply to post by welshbeliever


Bacon Sandwich, BOB.......... sounds like a good idea !!

I will be trying again later......... i must just be really thick !!??

PDUK

it's more complicated than simple hex-ascii conversion, folks.

those hex codes are representing a shellcode - one has to launch it under linux, but to work, it needs some data that are encoded inside the image file on that website. in this one:
www.canyoucrackit.co.uk...

there's a comment in that png file, encoded with base64, which contains the data for that shellcode. shellcode running with that data returns the url to the second part of that challenge:
www.canyoucrackit.co.uk...

which is, as you can see, stage 2 of 3 good luck hacking imaginary virtual machine, i'm not moving to uk so i guess i'll pass.

source

Surely the point of the exercise is to see if you can crack the code without using code cracking software, ie by brain power alone?

And no, i can't do it!

Originally posted by Flavian
Surely the point of the exercise is to see if you can crack the code without using code cracking software, ie by brain power alone?

And no, i can't do it!

I don't think so. I think you are able to use whatever tools that are necessary. To use those tools effectively in the first place requires intelligence.

reply to post by Flavian


no. more or less, the point is to crack the data/software with software written on your own just for that challenge. basically, only programmers with assembly programming skills and some hacking knowledge are able to solve it (well, coding in assembly isn't required, but skills like that make it easier to understand this stuff).

reply to post by 547000


I get your point but i actually disagree in that with training you could use those tools - intelligence is not a prerequisite to training.

That said, anyone that cracks the code by whatever means has done well in my book. I suspect that the people that end up getting the jobs will be those that hack the answer out of GCHQ!

reply to post by jedi_hamster


Now that I've seen the JS code, this exercise seems trivial. Someone who knows computer architecture can do it.

reply to post by Flavian


If you know how those tools work, using them shouldn't matter. Algorithms are tedious to compute by hand.

www.bbc.co.uk...

The organisation has invited potential applicants to solve a visual code posted at an unbranded standalone website.
The challenge has also been "seeded" to social media sites, blogs and forums.
A spokesman said the campaign aimed to raise the profile of GCHQ to an audience that would otherwise be difficult to reach.
"The target audience for this particular campaign is one that may not typically be attracted to traditional advertising methods and may be unaware that GCHQ is recruiting for these kinds of roles," the spokesman said.
"Their skills may be ideally suited to our work and yet they may not understand how they could apply them to a working environment, particularly one where they have the opportunity to contribute so much."
The competition began in secret on 3 November and will continue until 12 December.
GCHQ said that once the code was cracked individuals would be presented with a keyword to enter into a form field. They would then be redirected to the agency's recruitment website.
The organisation said it was not worried that the problem's answer might be spread around the internet.
It said it would still benefit because the resulting discussion would "generate future recruitment enquiries". However, it added that anyone who had previously hacked illegally would be ineligible. The agency's website also states that applicants must be British citizens.

just saw this in my daily bbc news reading... since america's news outlets are so unbelievably biased, i always check bbc... they aren't trying to protect us poor little american's 'feelings'...

anyways, thought it was a pretty nifty idea... i know a few months ago, there was a hacker convention out west, and my boss, conspiracy theory extraordinaire, informed me that the fbi and cia actually had recruiters... pretty wild... reminds me of that leo dicaprio movie... catch me if you can www.imdb.com...