-3
$\begingroup$

Jack is a programmer working in an IT company. One day he arrives at his workplace and sees a briefcase on the table with a note attached to it that says: "g00d and 3v1l". He realizes - this must be his coworkers, who put it there. They had a party yesterday and he might have had a little bit too much to drink, so he started bragging about how he hacked his friend's email (even thought he just guessed his secret question), and how he could hack anything if he wanted to. Now to avoid looking like a fool it seems like he has to open this case... The case has a 4-digit code on it.

Help Jack solve this puzzle and pick a code to the case.

Tip 1:

"and" could be spelled "4nd", but why is it not?

Tip 2:

the whole thing could have all sorts of weird symbols in it if it was true leetspeak, but it's limited to letters and numbers...

Added after initial post:

Tip 3:

it would be nice if the message didn't have those pesky "g,v,l" letters, but oh...

Tip 4 (first digit):

the first digit is 3.

The answer:

The code is "3095". "g00d", "3v1l" are in fact numbers with base of 36 (10 digits and 26 letters of English alphabet) so they correspond to "746509", "180201" in decimal. Now the "and" word is of course a bitwise AND operation, which gives decimal 140297. Now you convert that number back to 36 base representation and you get string "3095".

P.S. Sorry if it was too ambiguous. It was hard for me to tell if it was dead easy or very hard because I thought that up. Actually, I knew it was hard, but after Tip #3... not so much. I mean, just look at Mathias711's answer, who would have thought of that :O, that would be definitely a harder way to hide the password.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
14
  • $\begingroup$ 0031 seems to cross the mind, but that would be tooooo easy $\endgroup$
    – skv
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:01
  • $\begingroup$ nope, but I will add more tips as the time passes. $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:04
  • $\begingroup$ E) Not enough information given. I could probably make up a "plausible" explanation for many, many codes with the little there is to go on here. $\endgroup$
    – Set Big O
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:14
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @AndreaGottardi it was my first question here, I just thought of this cool idea and I guess I didn't think enough about giving the right clues. Oh well, at least I tried. $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 16:17
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Good idea for a puzzle. +1 and VTR. I'd suggest some kind of way for the solver to know when they have the right answer (eg a hash/checksum). $\endgroup$
    – A E
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 21:43

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
6
$\begingroup$

g00d has a MIDI representation of 1942 according to WolframAlpha. 3v1l is a bit more complicated, but it turned out to be a molecule! The EC code is 3718. Adding that up gives:

Answer:

5560

or, if you have the logical (and bitwise I suppose it is called) AND it gives :

answer:

0000, because no bits are the same

about the hints:

I used the hints, because 'and' is the + or AND operator (and should not be written as 4nd) and changing any of the other letters to something leetspeek, it will change the whole outcome.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Very clever, but this is not the right code. You are very close in your assumptions about leetspeak though. $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:13
  • $\begingroup$ +1 for showing that the puzzle didn't contain enough information, twice $\endgroup$
    – Lopsy
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:58
2
$\begingroup$

Given the hints we have, it's bound to be 0031 (or a variation of four-digit-numbers containing 0, 0, 3 and 1), as per the "leetspeak" on the note. g00d and 3v1l.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
5
  • $\begingroup$ that would be too easy, nope, not that simple, it is kinda simple if you think about it, but not this simple :) $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:06
  • $\begingroup$ Hence me saying "given the hints we have". Unless of course I am missing something obvious! $\endgroup$
    – No. 7892142
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:07
  • $\begingroup$ It's not that obvious, you might find more tips in the information about Jack. $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:08
  • $\begingroup$ well, I also tried to turn g00d into 7004 and 3v1l into 322112 and AND those, that'd give 0584 but would be a stretch. $\endgroup$
    – No. 7892142
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:12
  • $\begingroup$ 0584 is also not the right answer :) $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:14
2
$\begingroup$

The answer is of course

1337, because every 4-digit code in an IT company is 1337.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ was worth a try, but it's not the answer ;) $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:52
1
$\begingroup$

First (wrong) try:

Supposing AND stands for "sum" I think:
0615
Because i changed all letters with corresponding ASCII code, and sum every letter in the word (147 + 0 + 0 + 144 = 291 and 3 + 166 + 1 + 154 = 324). Adding them gives 615

Second try (thanks to @No. 7892142):

Changing even digits to ASCII, result is increased by 240, giving 855

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
4
  • $\begingroup$ Nice try, but it is a little more complicated. $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:29
  • $\begingroup$ Might wanna change the digits to ASCII, too, in that attempt. $\endgroup$
    – No. 7892142
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:35
  • $\begingroup$ I don't think it is correct anyway, because Rusty said it is more complicated $\endgroup$
    – Andrea Gottardi
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:38
  • $\begingroup$ Still not right, I should have omitted "a little" in "a little more complicated" :) Check the third tip, it might set you on the right path. $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 14:41
1
$\begingroup$

I'm guessing the answer you're going for is

3377

since that's just the decimal form of the hexadecimal

g00d 3v1l (00d31)

However, there's no way to be sure. I'm still not a fan of the ambiguity in this.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
4
  • $\begingroup$ not the correct answer, but this is the hottest answer so far. $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 15:18
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ That illustrates the point I made in the comments above. There's a plausible explanation for basically anything, and no way to know what's right. If it were me, I'd just bust open the case with a screwdriver or hammer. If that didn't work, a four-digit brute force would be a better "hacker" solution. $\endgroup$
    – Set Big O
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 15:20
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ I have to agree with Geobits and must add that the last "hint" didn't help in reaching the answer at all, it just plainly is a part of the answer with no explanation to it. $\endgroup$
    – No. 7892142
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 15:21
  • $\begingroup$ I'm sorry, but I can't think of a way to get any closer to the answer, without making it immediately obvious, the tip #3 comes as close as it gets. I am sure you will find it making more sense when you see the answer. Try and find more sense in Tip #3 $\endgroup$
    – Rusty
    Commented Nov 13, 2014 at 15:30

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.