Solution:MacHeist 3:Intelligence Gathering

From WikiHeist, the unofficial MacHeist wiki

Mission Walkthrough

Image:brief_folder_active_scaled.png.jpg

Warning! Spoilers ahead!

Proceed at your own risk!

While this walkthrough tries to encourage thinking and discovery, it does contain spoilers. The walkthrough is intended to be read a section at a time. Hopefully it provides organized and entertaining assistance if you get stuck.

Part 1: URGENT!

Briefing

Video from Sophia

Transcribed:

Agents,

My name is Sophia. 
The directorate recruited me after the 'unfortunate' demise of Monique.
While the directorate is away completing reconnaissance operations, I have taken it upon myself to contact you. 
We have received an extremely urgent tip - via email.
From an informant known only as the source. Shown below (she points a finger)
Our senior agents might recognize this from last year. At first glance nothing has changed, but after close 
examination of last year's mission reports they will notice that significant and systematic tampering has occurred.

(video fades to black and back)

Unfortunately as you may have already guessed this isn't exactly a mission, but more an information gathering assignment.

(video fades to black and back)

Anything you have gathered through this URL would be helpful.
Please contact me on anything you find via the forums and chat.

I will contact you via the communique as the situation develops. 
(Ambulance sirens in the background. She turns and walks away)

The Source wrote:

Hello. I know this is an unorthodox method of communication, but there are many listeners. 
Please revisit thegardenofforkingpaths.com. I have more information about pending threats 
to the Mac community, but I need to be sure that you are capable.

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=133931#p133931

Solution

Visit http://thegardenofforkingpaths.com and follow the maze through from the beginning to the end
Record the letters along the correct path
Hmmm, what can we do with a string of words
answer
What is the sword of the television generation?
Copy the link to the image and paste it into the mainframe
- How to use the mainframe image
You've finished Part 1!

Part 2: Deep Thought

Briefing

Good Work Agents!

From your reports it seems that "The Source" has led us to an incomprehensible file. In order to extrapolate any intelligence from this file, enter the location of it to the mainframe (http://mainframe.macheist.com) for analysis.

In the meantime have received another two more messages from "The Source". I couldn't make heads nor tails of it, but maybe one of you mavericks can figure it out. Here's the message:

The Source wrote:
KDNRAAOVSNGTJGZQBQISRBJHSDSQTSLA

The second enigmatic message came from a different point of origin, but was flagged because of it's similarity to another post-mission report.

The Source wrote:
Um das hier zu lösen ist dein Scharfsinn gefragt. Es ist eine knifflige Aufgabe… ein Paradoxon… 
ein Dilemma. Verwende die Walzen Drei, Eins und Zwei. Setze dann die Anfangspositionen auf M,
I und A. Stelle schließlich das Steckerbrett so ein das O mit F, P mit Q, W mit S, E mit R und Z
mit I tauscht. Viel Glück du Armleuchter…Finden die meisten verbindlich Simulator.

I have a sudden craving for schnitzel! Sophia

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=133944#p133944

Solution

Translation:

In order to solve this is your acumen asked. It is a tricky
Task ... a paradox ... a dilemma. Use the three rollers, one and
Two. Set the top positions at M, I and A. body
Finally, the plugboard so the O with F, P with Q, W and S, with E
R and Z with I exchanged. Good luck ... you ??? finding the most
authentic simulator."

Hmmm... German. Looks like some sort of key to a code. Maybe Enigma?
The most accurate Enigma simulator for the Mac
Follow the instructions from The Source to decode KDNRAAOVSNGTJGZQBQISRBJHSDSQTSLA
You should get TFTPWORMZAPPERTHEAPPGETENIGMATXT
Formatted a bit, you get: tftp wormzappertheapp get enigma txt
Remember http://wormzappertheapp.com?
TFTP is Trivial File Transfer Protocol, a minimal implementation of FTP that is built into OSX that is used for file transfers (no directory listing or other niceties).
You might have to open up some firewall ports to use TFTP

$ tftp wormzappertheapp.com
tftp> get enigma.txt

The file contains a link...plug it into the mainframe

Part 3: Over the Waterfall

Briefing

Agents, It appears that you have retrieved a second mysterious file. The mainframe hasn’t finished analyzing the first one yet, but enter the location of what you’ve found to mainframe.macheist.com to add it to the queue.

While you were working we received another tip:

The Source wrote:
Devices β and γ don’t use the small capacitor, but the device that uses ‘Gates’ also uses the medium capacitor, 
while the device that uses ‘Ballmer’ uses the magenta fluid, and device γ doesn’t use the magenta fluid, nonetheless, 
devices β and γ use the ones named after Microsoft board members, while the device that uses the medium capacitor 
also uses the cyan fluid, yet the device that uses ‘Gates’ doesn’t use the yellow fluid, and of course, device α doesn’t 
use the cyan fluid!
Sherlock Holmes once said ”...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth…”
Holmes’ domain was logic, but I find him to be curiously LogicallyIllogical.

“The Source” also included a code word that we can use to verify future communications, I’ll keep you posted as I get them.

Elementary my dear Watsons! Sophia

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=134012#p134012

Solution

Why is LogicallyIllogical capitalized? Must be important.
Elementary, Watson!
Device α uses the small capacitor, allard, and yellow
Device β uses the big capacitor, ballmer, and magenta
Device γ uses the medium capacitor, gates, and cyan
Copy the link to the resulting image and paste it into the mainframe.

Part 4: Polyhedral Pips

Briefing

Agents, Holmes also said: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence.” In light of that quote, please don’t be disappointed that we haven’t uncovered anything concrete from the files you’ve given us yet. It appears that the two files you’ve obtained are related, and that there are more bits of evidence to gather before the mainframe can extract anything meaningful.

We have received another message containing the code word given in the last e-mail from “The Source”. It contained only the code word and EisoptroTriskaidekaPhobia, but these files were attached:

File A

File B

Good luck! Sophia

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=134107#p134107

Solution

File B needs a password. We'll get back to that.
Eisoptro is greek for mirror. Triskaideka is 13. Phobia is fear.
Whoa! http://EisoptroTriskaidekaPhobia.com
We need to find the right order to click on the dice.
You know, the "dice" in File A look a lot like Braille numbers to me.
Translated from Braille into numbers, File A becomes: 3 2 5 1 9 6 7
Try clicking the dice on http://eisoptrotriskaidekaphobia.com in that order.
Now, imagine what you would be seeing from the mirror side of the dice...
Opposite sides of dice add up to one more than the number of faces. With a standard d6, for example, the opposite sides add up to 7, so if you see a 5, the opposite side is 2. We're dealing with 12-sided dice here. So, the opposite sides will add up to 13.
So, from the mirror side, the pattern reads 10 11 8 12 4 7 6
I wonder what would happen if we plugged in 1011812476 as the password for that DMG?
Paste the resulting URL into the mainframe!

Part 5: Pretty Pretenders

Briefing

Agents, I see that you have entered the location of a fourth file to the mainframe. I won’t lie; the data gathering process is slow. Fortunately we have received a direct message on twitter containing the code word -

The Source wrote:
It really sucks when someone pretends to be something they’re not… 
sorry to bring up a sore subject, but you’ll have to solve this.
tangledupinlies

The username was “InverseMoriarty”

See what you can find out Agents! While you’re working on this, I’m going to go ask a pan-dimensional race of hyper-intelligent beings if we can borrow some computing power. Sophia

Solution

interesting... tangledupinlies
Looks like we have to play some sort of song in order to complete this part. What should we play?
Let's look at our other clues. http://twitter.com/InverseMoriarty
He's protected his updates. I doubt he'll let you view them anytime soon.
Maybe the people he's following will point us in the right direction.
ThePerplexer has some very strange updates. Especially the last one.
Cabbage, beef, feedbag! Wait a minute, all those letters are notes on the musical scale!
So we need to play: C A B B A G E B E E F F E E D B A G
The harp strings are (from L-R): F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E
When you've got the notes right, click on the little speaker on the right of the musical staff.
Copy the url of the image and paste it into the mainframe.

Part 6: The Devil's Playthings

Briefing

Agents, What follows is a transcription of a voicemail containing the code word:

The Source wrote:
Have you heard of IDOL HANDS? Here’s a preview of the amazing tips you could read:
‘One of the most often used ‘tricks’ in a GTD user’s arsenal is maintaining a collection of 
personalized shortcuts for different situations, times and places.’
to read more visit:
benwallaby.vox.com

Why do we care what annoying kids have to say? Love, Sophia

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=134289#p134289

Solution

Go to http://benwallaby.vox.com
Read some of his tips. Particularly interesting is the one about the Colemak keyboard:

Enter the Colemak, a keyboard with its key placement based on how often you need to type certain characters. 
The result? I can now type faster with more accurately than ever before. The only real caveat is that I am 
starting to forget the qwerty layout for other times, but it's hardly an issue when I carry my Colemak around 
nearly everywhere I go. (Yes, it's almost that indispensable)

Even more interesting is the first post. Looks like somebody might not have had his Colemak with him...
Use the Colemak keyboard layout to decode the message and link. If the message decodes properly, then you know you're on the right track.
Paste the decoded link into the mainframe!

Part 7: Schillerfest

Briefing

Agents, We’ve received another tip, this time an e-mail with a certain code word from our insider pschiller2@appleinternal.com. Handle this with care, as our insiders are particularly vulnerable. Here’s what it said:

The Source wrote:
Andrew Kaz has updated Delicious Cracker. The new version attacks the server via OpenVPN

Sometimes you lose, Sometimes you win… Good luck, Sophia

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=134500#p134500

Solution

A visit to Apple Internal reveals that we will need a password to get in.
Delicious Cracker? Sounds interesting.
Looks like Andrew Kaz has a website.
I wonder where he would store the latest copy of Delicious Cracker. What about under Files?
That must be it: Krackr.zip. Let's download it and run it.
Weird. Seems buggy. What's all this about Delicious.framework?
Let's see if we can solve this problem. Go to the app in Finder, and Ctrl-click (right click) on it. Select "Show Package Contents"
Oh look! A frameworks folder. Let's just try deleting or moving Delicious.framework.
Now it runs!
So it looks like we're supposed to attack the appleinternal server via OpenVPN. To do that we need three things:
- Doing a ping of appleinternal.com shows that the IP Address is 74.208.14.102
- A quick google search reveals that OpenVPN uses port 1194
- The username is obviously pschiller2
Enter the info and run the program to get the password.
Once you get the password, log into Apple Internal
Read through the postings, particularly the one by Frank Perlman.
Paste the link to the file into the mainframe!

Part 8: Worth a Thousand Words

Briefing

Agents, Awesome work, so far you’ve entered the location of seven files into the MacHeist mainframe. I’m not sure how long this can keep up, but we’ve received another message containing:

Cryptic.jpg Maroon.zip

Psychedelic! Sophia

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=134705#p134705

Solution

Two choices:
- Print out the cryptic.jpg and use your webcam and the software in the maroon.zip
- Use a image editing software to see what's on the red channel.. 'multiply red effect'?
What you will see is a Rebus - puzzle with pictographs
Try to sound them to figure out what it says
Answer

Part 9: おりがみ

Briefing

Agents, This is really starting to come together, the computer has calculated that all of the files in the locations you’ve entered are definitely segments of a larger file.

A delivery service just came by HQ and dropped off a painting. When we unwrapped it, it was a painting of a red fish and signed ‘Molly McFord’

Allons-y! Sophia

Taken from http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=135003#p135003

Solution

The title is japanese, hiragana characters
It spells out o-ri-ga-mi
Go to http://mollymcford.com/
Go to the tour page
Open a map (google maps is fine) and draw straight lines from the cities mentioned on the tour page
Look for a city where the lines cross (Hint: it's in Colorado)
Use the city name as a password on the clients page

Solution:MacHeist 3:Intelligence Gathering

From WikiHeist, the unofficial MacHeist wiki

Contents

Mission Walkthrough

Part 1: URGENT!

Briefing

Solution

Part 2: Deep Thought

Briefing

Solution

Part 3: Over the Waterfall

Briefing

Solution

Part 4: Polyhedral Pips

Briefing

Solution

Part 5: Pretty Pretenders

Briefing

Solution

Part 6: The Devil's Playthings

Briefing

Solution

Part 7: Schillerfest

Briefing

Solution

Part 8: Worth a Thousand Words

Briefing

Solution

Part 9: おりがみ

Briefing

Solution

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