# a strange array

You wake up into an empty room, all you can see is a locked door. On the wall, a numeric pad, on its screen you see

remaining tries: 1. enter passcode _ _ _ _ _

next to it a strange inscription: 6e2d3e666f724e74684c6574746572496e576f7264

On the floor, lays a laptop, on its screen this strange picture:

After looking closely it seems the laptop is connected to the internet.

Which code do you type on the pad and why?

1 day without other guesses, here's a clue

LeftColor/MiddleColor/RightColor

clue 2

remember, you see this on a computer, this is important

clue 3

the 3 colors will tell you more about the computer

it's been a long time ... so, here's a new clue:

19-4052/11-4800/17-1463 is a flag, together with clue 3 and the "strange inscription" it should help you decypher ify yky non*i^

hop hop, another hint buddies

Nikhil Eshvar found the country linked to that flag, maybe you should have in mind the keyboard pattern used in that country, this will allow you to decypher ify yky non*i^

## 6 Answers

Going off of all the other answers
The answer should be

27325

I deduced this based on the findings of Reinier, and that the password is being put in via a number pad.

The word we got was BREAK, punched into a number pad with letters, like a phone, will result in 2(B) 7(R) 3(E) 2(A) 5(K)

• yep that was the expected answer, though I don't really know how to give the "answer" mark, because everyone did some work on it, but since you gave the final answer, I guess it's yours, I will think about it this night :p Apr 30 '18 at 22:40

I think the passcode might be

BREAK

Building on the answer of zekei:

If we use the bucket-tool of some image editing software on some white part of the picture, we get the following:

We can now put the characters in the array in the order denoted by the Roman numerals that appeared. The resulting string is:
ENJOYTHESILENCE-V1W4
There is a song called "Enjoy the silence" by Depeche Mode. If we look at verse 1, word 4, we see that this word is "Break", which has five characters, just like the passcode. So I guess this is the solution.

• yep, this is almost the answer, BREAK is the word to find, now you have to enter it on a numeric pad ;) Apr 30 '18 at 11:40
• Could that mean the old phones keyboard? May 3 '18 at 6:03
• @PaulKaram yep, Bobalobdob gave the answer ;) May 3 '18 at 15:27

Welp, the easiest part is changing the hex string to ASCII text, which results in:

n->forNthLetterInWord

• this is the first step indeed ;) Feb 19 '18 at 19:27

Partial Answer: Each of the numbers is a

pantone color. 19-4052 is classic blue 11-4800 is blanc de blanc 17-1463 is tangerine tango

Edit: thanks to Reinier finding the correct word:

The passcode is

27325
BREAK converts to 27325 when inputted on any normal phone keypad.
B = 2, R = 7, E = 3, A = 2, K = 5

• Welcome to Puzzling SE! Please remember to place your answers in spoiler tags. For more info, take the Tour! Feb 21 '18 at 5:03
• Yep, The last one could be a little confusing since I found this color by typing "red Pantone" on google, it is described as a reddish orange, but you should see it more red than orange ;) Feb 21 '18 at 7:39

A few observations not explicitly mentioned that I decided I'd throw down since I took a look at this. I'm guessing the AZERTY key layout used in France has to do with this, since the fact that it's a computer is relevant. Perhaps the n->forNthLetterInWord clue means shifting along the keyboard? And perhaps the spacing in the ciphertext separates the cipher into words, meaning that the n references the position in each word of the ciphertext (as opposed to the position in the entire string).

Edit:

Using azertyuiop^\$qsdfghjklm%*<wxcvbn,;:! as a representation of the AZERTY key layout, searching for each character in the string ify yky non*i^, and shifting each character to the left by its position in each word (starting from 1) gives use the bucket. I'm confident this is the correct string, but unsure how to combine it with the given matrix (array?). My question would be: should I interpret this as a hint, or as a string, or both?

• The array is to be used once the string is decyphered. The first part of your comment is straight to the point, but you can forget the part where you talk about the array ;) Apr 28 '18 at 10:18
• Awesome. Now I just need to figure out how to use the deciphered text with the array! Apr 28 '18 at 21:07
• You should do exactly what the string tells you to do :) Apr 29 '18 at 0:04
• nah - never mind Apr 30 '18 at 7:24

From Retro's answer:

We get that it is a Pan-slavic flag which could correspond to Atbash cipher since the language of Slavic is Latin. Which results in the solution: rub bpb mlm*r^. It's obvious that the * and ^ should be found...

New edit:

Just now realized about the left-middle-right flag. So it's France and perhaps Vignere cipher now...

• it is indeed a french flag, if you connect this with HollyLeaves' answer, you should be able to decypher ;) Mar 20 '18 at 11:59