11
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you are finally here! We need your help, a group of terrorists have been talking to each other on their newly developed "HackerChat" app and we think they are up to something. Here are the logs:

Turn on logging... DONE
Pre-initializing...
LC: SET PROTOCOL... HTTPS.
AC: Encryption: OFF.
[Your network is not secure... consider enabling encryption] [WARNING]: [TURNING OFF ENCRYPTION IS DEPRECATED]
FileLock: ON.
All previous logs are being wiped......... 100%
IDB browser side enable.............. DONE
Removing IDB entries.......... DONE
Logging in previous users.... FAIL
[WARNING]: [LOGGING IN PREVIOUS USERS. NO PREVIOUS USERS FOUND. IS THIS THE FIRST LAUNCH?]
----------------------------------
======== HackerChat v0.0.1 =======
----------------------------------
User "Admin" logged in.
Admin: test
Admin: does this work?
Admin: right gonna get my other acc
User "Admin" logged out.
User "Rob" logged in.
---- 1 minute later ----
User "Jack" logged in.
Rob: right, is it working?
Jack: it's workin for me..
Rob: great, I spent all of last night working on this thing.
Rob: i've disabled encryption since we wont need it.
Rob: our net is private
Rob: and it's faster to get stuff in plaintext
Jack: mk
Rob: when are you ready for the missile launch
Jack: the what? what are you talking about...
---- 1 minute later ----
Jack: im worried about security..
Rob: oh right! Rotten apples!
Jack: can you fill the others with the remainin ones?
Rob: yes
Jack: ok
Jack: that reminds me of that other thing..
Rob: sure does
Rob: KCLFGKXASKARXNEGNBNOPMEOKXGLRYQMRLYFCLDXGWIHTPRY
Jack: CZFTQVLMMOCLLXZE
User "Rob" logged out.
User "Jack" logged out.
User "Admin" logged in.
Admin: FORCE_SHUTDOWN+WIPE
----------------------------------
======== HackerChat v0.0.1 =======
----------------------------------
Shutting down...
Deleting logs... FAIL
[WARNING]: [LOG FILES HAVE NOT BEEN DELETED DUE TO AN INTERNAL ERROR]
Shredding logs... FAIL
Awaiting action...
------------------
Admin: FORCE_DELETE
------------------
Force deleting logs...
FAIL. Force command line: rmdir /log
SEGFAULTAdmin: CANCEL
PROCEEDING WITH SHUTDOWN....Admin: CANCEL
LC: SET PROTOCOL... OFFLINE.
AC: Encryption: OFFLINE.
FileLock: FAIL.Admin: CANCEL
Removing IDB entries....... 100%
IDB disable...... 100%
Kicking users...Admin: CANCEL
----------------Admin: frick this is why i need to test this stuff
User "Admin" was kicked.
----------------
Disabling logs... DONE

Can you figure out what they are planning on?

Hint:

Always
cross eyes
on the
seemingly redundant
thing on P.SE
in most puzzles
come on it's in every puzzle

Hint 2:

Acrostic

Hint 3:

The acrostic will tell you the encyption

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  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Have a +1 just for the super-relatable end of the log. $\endgroup$ Nov 14, 2018 at 19:50

2 Answers 2

3
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More complete answer working from @CodeLikeBeaker's answer.

(thanks for all the hints)

The cipher used is the playfair cipher got it from the the first few lines around where it mentions that encryption is disabled and the hint - (PLAYFAIR)

From KCLFGKXASKARXNEGNBNOPMEOKXGLRYQMRLYFCLDXGWIHTPRY

we get COMEATTENCENTRALPARKSHOXOTMISXSILESCOMEWITHGUNSX

We can break that into:

COME AT TEN CENTRAL PARK SHOOT MISSILES COME WITH GUNS X

and from CZFTQVLMMOCLLXZE we get -

OKAYIWILLCOMEROB or - OKAY I WILL COME ROB

so we know that

somethings going to go down in central park at 10, with guns and missiles

I Think I still have a few issues from how the first encrypted line was broken up with needing to clean it a bit, so i'm happy for any suggested improvements.

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  • $\begingroup$ Well done, we will all be safe from the terrorists now $\endgroup$
    – kepe
    Nov 22, 2018 at 12:50
1
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Partial Answer:

going to take a stab at rotten apples. I'm guessing this is using rot10 on the word apples which gives the decode key (kzzvoc) for the encrypted text.

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1
  • $\begingroup$ Close, but what's the encryption method? $\endgroup$
    – kepe
    Nov 19, 2018 at 10:37

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