![\"Purple](\"http:\/\/words.deviating.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/lock_.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n… this is a contest lock. \u00a0If you aren’t familiar with this style of mechanism, let me explain. \u00a0This is known as the Master 1500i, which they call the “speed dial” but which we call the “hash lock” because “speed dial” is a stupid name for it.<\/p>\n
Nothing is “dialed” when operating this mechanism. \u00a0The combination to open a padlock of this type is entered as a series of pushes… up, left, down, or right …on the single big button on the front.<\/p>\n
Press in on the shackle (to reset the gears inside), enter your series of pushes, then pull it open… simple, right? \u00a0Well, the actual internals are pretty amazing stuff. \u00a0Our good friend Michael Huebler of the German sportpicking group SSDeV did extensive research on these locks and even produced a very interesting internal visualizer tool and white paper<\/a>\u00a0to teach others.<\/p>\n There is a decode attack for these locks.<\/p>\n It is not super easy.<\/p>\n If you want, you can try to decode this lock. \u00a0If you’d like to try to get the combination by another means, however, I’ve put up a little crypto puzzle. \u00a0Follow the clues and you should be able to discern the correct series of pushes to open the lock.<\/p>\n If you show the lock to any member of the FOOLS staff in the Lockpick Village before the end of DerbyCon, I’ll have a prize for you! \u00a0(You must bring the lock to them OPEN, not merely photograph or video it or tell them what you think the code is. \u00a0They do not know it. \u00a0Although, you should still try to bribe them with drinks.)<\/p>\n We’re calling this puzzle “Around the (most of) the World in (more or less) Eighty Hours.” \u00a0Here you go…<\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n UPDATE<\/strong> –\u00a0The above Puzzle has been solved by Scorche of TOOOL and DC949. Way to go, man!<\/p>\n The solution appears below, along with a step-by-step breakdown of the stages and the clues that were available to help people along.<\/p>\n .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Step One –<\/strong> the above image from the post announcing this contest (which was paired with some nonsense text about being at the controls of a spaceship, etc) contains a reference to a YouTube URL. \u00a0Some people spotted that the font on the blackboard was different in one place…<\/p>\n … and if people didn’t think that a v= variable could represent a youtube URL element, I later tweeted this hint image…<\/p>\n So hopefully that steered enough people to find this clip<\/a>.<\/p>\n .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Step Two\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong>The YouTube clip was clearly a Morse code segment, and if people couldn’t figure that out I even included the image of a signaling key there. \u00a0So, folk would listen to that and hear a series of letters.<\/p>\n If someone is very, very good with radio they might have been able to just listen to the dots and dashes, but there are also a series of other tools that can make the job easier.<\/p>\n The above is an app that runs on Android and iOS and will listen to Morse via the microphone and simply show characters. \u00a0Also, later on I tweeted the following hint…<\/p>\n offliberty.com<\/a> is a site that will easily allow you to download a YouTube video as MP4 or MP3 audio. \u00a0If someone were to pull the file and view the soundtrack in a wave editor, the dots and dashes of the Morse can become very easy to read…<\/p>\n So these dots and dashes would transcribe into the following groups of letters…<\/p>\n PCG \u00a0 \u00a0 XEX \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0RJE \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0LZK \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0YVF \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0PVN \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0ROO \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CUY \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0FQS<\/em><\/p>\n .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Step Three –\u00a0<\/strong>The letters above could mean a lot of things, but I tried to give\u00a0people a slight hint with the following tweeted image…<\/p>\n You see a boarding pass, hopefully you think Airport Codes. \u00a0And all of the above letter groups are airports… almost<\/em>. \u00a0These letter codes represented airports in very, very obscure places (and someone later told me they almost lined up in a nice great circle route!) but one letter code is just wrong.<\/p>\n Some people explained that they thought I had done something wrong in keying the Morse code letters. \u00a0So i later sent out another tweeted hint image…<\/p>\n …now while this may have led some people very astray in their thinking, given that this is clearly a press photo for a NASA mission, a few diligent and observant folk spotted that this was the crew of the Apollo 13.<\/p>\n What do hackers think during crypto contests when the number 13 appears?<\/p>\n .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Step Four\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong>That’s right… run the letter codes from the Morse message through a ROT-13 pass. \u00a0This is the result…<\/p>\n CPT \u00a0 \u00a0 KRK \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0EWR \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0YMX \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0LIS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CIA \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0EBB \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0PHL \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0SDF<\/em><\/p>\n Now THOSE look like some more common airports. \u00a0 All that was left was to plot the route going from those cities, in order, and see what “direction” you would be flying.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n