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For my first puzzle I made this, everything you need is in the image. The goal is to find the hidden password.
The image

You must look at the image to solve this puzzle, but here's a transcript of the letters on the image anyway.

The product of two
  prime numbers.

  T  S  N  Q  A
  O  E  O  U  S
  K  M  R  H  T
  B  X  W  S  N
  W  L  J  T  X
  M  C  B  G  R
  A  P  Y  Z  I
  J  R  A  V  V
  G  N  F  C  D
  Y  I  U  O  K

Hints:
1)

You do not need to guess anything in this puzzle, not the password nor the numbers.

The first sentence on the image is the first step towards the solution of the puzzle.

This puzzle is not solved just by observing the image. In other words, if the image was printed on a piece of paper, this puzzle would be unsolvable.

The entire puzzle is the image itself and it utilises everything an image has to offer.

The answer is given by matching letters according to a specific pattern. It can not be guessed through random matching or guessing.

Once the first step is complete, creating a table would help solve the final step.

  1. SPOILS THE FIRST STEP PARTLY

You have to download the image and inspect it in a different manner. There is no other way. No processing is required.

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4
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ you can find many passwords in this, As this is the whole alphabet!!... $\endgroup$
    – dumbgeek
    Apr 19, 2018 at 18:27
  • $\begingroup$ This puzzle is too broad. Please add more information so it does not become "guess my thinking" type of question $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    Apr 19, 2018 at 19:45
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    $\begingroup$ @North The puzzle is not based on guessing the answer or looking for it in letter combinations, the steps are shown on the image itself. I will add a few hints to help out. $\endgroup$
    – Lae
    Apr 19, 2018 at 19:46
  • $\begingroup$ I think hint 1 is misleading. "You do not need to guess... nor the password". Isn't that whar we're trying to figure out? Or it meant we won't guess it but find it following a procedure? $\endgroup$
    – Jake OPJ
    Apr 19, 2018 at 23:40

4 Answers 4

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I think the answer is:

WINGS

Because:

The picture is 181 by 271 pixels, which multiplies out to 49051. This is a five digit number, and there are 5 columns of letters, each with 10 rows. Using 0-indexing (the first row is 0, the next is 1 etc), taking the 4th element of the first column, the 9th of the second column, and so on, gives us the letters W, I, N, G, and S.

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  • $\begingroup$ We have a winner! ;) Any comments for me to improve in the future? $\endgroup$
    – Lae
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:39
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    $\begingroup$ @Lae I think it's a well thought out puzzle. If the original sentence had somehow hinted at dimensions or size instead of just "two prime numbers," it would have probably been easier to solve. Also, with hints, it's generally better to start out without any hints, and then add another one once every day or so instead of having so many so soon after the other. $\endgroup$
    – DqwertyC
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:42
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    $\begingroup$ @Lae You didn't need the hints or the textualized matrix; the steganography tag is sufficient indication that the information is hidden in the image. Also, the puzzle (or title) could have contained something related to the solution, otherwise it seems like an arbitrary word. Otherwise, this was a nice first puzzle! $\endgroup$
    – MikeQ
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:43
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For

the product of two prime numbers, there is the image itself, which the "product" or result of a set of pixels. The pixels are arranged in a rectangle of 181 px by 271 px, which are both prime numbers.

Edit: Since

the natural number 1 is neither prime nor composite, the product of two prime numbers is composite. So it is possible that the image itself is a composite, but Microsoft Paint might be insufficient for me to look into this further.

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  • $\begingroup$ Someone is on the right track. Keep it up! $\endgroup$
    – Lae
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:27
  • $\begingroup$ @Lae: Do I need sophisticated equipment for this? $\endgroup$
    – Wafflebaby
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:38
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    $\begingroup$ No, as hint 7 suggests, inspection is enough, no processing is required. $\endgroup$
    – Lae
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:38
  • $\begingroup$ Good. Hint 4 had me worried that this was going to require one of those magical NCIS-type-show algorithms that create order out of chaos by zooming in a pixel with no information and then suddenly out comes a secret. $\endgroup$
    – Wafflebaby
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:41
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    $\begingroup$ I think overcomplicating things takes the fun away, I want my puzzles to be able to be solved by everyone! :) $\endgroup$
    – Lae
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:43
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A first guess

The dimensions of the image are 181 x 271 which are both prime. The product of these two numbers is 49051. If these are indices of the numbers, we get A S T O S. This doesn't seem right though.

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0
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The answer might be

Ten

Because it is the product of two prime numbers and can be found as follows:

enter image description here

I suspect a number of other answers are possible given the vagueness of the question.

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6
  • $\begingroup$ Good try but not that is not the answer, but you are on the right track in some way. This puzzle does not require any guessing at all, once you figure the first step out, it guides you to the solution. $\endgroup$
    – Lae
    Apr 19, 2018 at 19:59
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    $\begingroup$ @Lae Is there anything in the puzzle itself that can be used to prove my answer is not correct? I think you may still need to constrain the problem a bit more to guarantee a unique answer. $\endgroup$
    – Selvek
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:03
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    $\begingroup$ Exactly, you have simply proven again that the answer is not unique :) I will look forward to the updated hints! $\endgroup$
    – Selvek
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:07
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    $\begingroup$ @Lae Actually, that doesn't work, because 1 is not a prime number. $\endgroup$
    – Green
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:30
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    $\begingroup$ @Green I'm sorry, you seem to be right. I was unaware of that exception, but regardless, I think my point stands. $\endgroup$
    – Lae
    Apr 19, 2018 at 20:35

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