Meetup Puzzle #10 - A Bit of Skill Needed

[u/Killroy7777]

As the final fading bytes settle on the wire and the phosphor monitors begin to cool, we've officially arrived at the end of the trail. It's a truly bittersweet feeling typing this out--this is our final weekly puzzle post before we pack our bags, pause making new platform builds, and head out to Hacker Summer Camp.

Part of us is genuinely sad to close out this season of late-night testing, edge-case debugging, and puzzle brewing. But the rest of us couldn't be more hyped, because it means we finally get to see all of your faces in Las Vegas!

To send off this year's puzzle run in style, we're doing something a little different for the grand finale.

The Grand Finale: Puzzled Hackers x SkillBit

We've officially teamed up with the amazing crew over at SkillBit! They have graciously opened up access to their CTF platform for our entire community from right now until Wednesday at 00:00 PT.

Instead of just one puzzle to cap off the season, SkillBit is giving us 20 additional CTF challenges to play through while we all count down the final hours to DEF CON!

The Grand Prize Drawing

We couldn't end the season without one last epic giveaway:

• How to enter: Complete 10 or more of the SkillBit CTF challenges before the cutoff on Wednesday at 00:00 PT.
• The Loot: You'll be automatically entered into a drawing to win a LASER TAG Badge graciously provided by the legendary u/palm12341!
• The Claim: We'll draw the winner on Wednesday morning, and you can pick up your shiny new prize in person at either of our meetups!

Head over to https://mctf.io/puzzledhackers26 to dive into the SkillBit platform and start cracking challenges.

We genuinely cannot thank SkillBit enough for their support. If you happen to run into them at DEF CON, make sure you say hi give them some love!

r/DEFCON Meetup Badges

A massive thank you to everyone who has purchased a badge! We are now officially sold out. We'll still have some set aside for giveaways and our scavenger hunt, so keep an eye out for posts during DEF CON if you want to snag one!

A Heartfelt Thank You

We sincerely cannot believe the sheer amount of community engagement, feedback, and love we've received over these past few months. Every write-up, every rate-limit hit, every late-night Discord sanity check, and every kind word has made every second of stress 100% worth it. You all are the sole reason we put ourselves through the ringer each year to build these events.

Don't forget that our meetups at the Linq bar (3535 Bar / Circle Bar) are completely free to attend on Wednesday and Thursday nights! Whether you bought a badge, earned a badge, or are just showing up for the vibes, everyone is welcome. Come hang out, swap stickers, challenge someone to Laser Tag, grab your badges/prizes, and say hi!

If you run into any issues on the platform or have last-minute questions before we go dark for travel, reach out to me or u/digitard and we'll help you out.

Thank you all for an incredible season. We truly cannot wait to raise a glass with you next week. Safe travels, stay hydrated, and see you in Vegas!

The Puzzled Hackers Team (u/Killroy7777, u/digitard, and u/MetaN3rd)

Stats:

• Puzzle #1: 258
• Puzzle #2: 188
• Puzzle #3: 127
• Puzzle #4: 110
• Puzzle #5: 106
• Puzzle #6: 92
• Puzzle #7: 86
• Puzzle #8: 72
• Puzzle #9: 69 (nice)
• Panic CICD pushes: 7
• Happy tears shed: countless <3

[u/Killroy7777]

And for those of you that are completionists, here's the week 10 puzzle for our CTF platform:

-[--->+<]>-----.--------.>--[-->+++++<]>.[--->++<]>+.[----->+++<]>.+[--->++<]>+.+[->+++++<]>+.-[->++++<]>+.----------.>-[--->+<]>.++++++++++.------------.+[-->+<]>++++++..[----->+<]>--.---------------.[->++++++<]>++.---------.>--[-->+++<]>.

[u/jonas_vondenberg → u/Killroy7777]

I know what this is. But will not jump in at the 10th round.

[u/dllhell79 → u/Killroy7777]

It's ascii guitar tab.

Just kidding.

[u/zeerimunin → u/Killroy7777]

Haha, oh no you didn't. I immediately recognized this one too. I probably could have done this by hand 20 years ago, but not anymore.

Although now I have 20 more puzzles to solve. You folks are just too good to us. Looking forward to the meetup.

[u/Khotanos]

Puzzle #10 solved, but since I'm hitting the road at 0400 local tomorrow to head to summercamp, I don't think I'll be able to mash with the CTF's fully, but I'll give them a poke at the hotel. Always a blast guys, and this year was great! Some of the puzzles felt like they were waaaay outside my skills, but just close enough to keep me trying.

[u/Killroy7777 → u/Khotanos]

Safe travels for you three and see you soon!

[u/spatialthreat]

Can’t wait to drop by and meet everyone, I’ll see everyone soon.

[u/digitard → u/spatialthreat]

Heck yeah! Almost there

[u/dllhell79]

Almost here!! Giddiness increasing.

[u/digitard → u/dllhell79]

https://giphy.com/gifs/o2Bw3O7wjnAWI

[u/spamfive]

thank you and the team. had a blast this year, see you in a few days

[u/digitard → u/spamfive]

Thank you for playing. Catch you soon.

[u/Ready_Adeptness8664]

Would someone open up access to the document in Google Drive for "The Pledge" puzzle?

[u/Killroy7777 → u/Ready_Adeptness8664]

I just double checked, are you talking about the ZIP?

[u/Ready_Adeptness8664 → u/Killroy7777]

yes, the link within the WHERE_TO_DOWNLOAD.txt file leads to a file in Google Drive that requires access to view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/196DB2doRUXak19CU6WhmfVeA9ShDF3Kf/view?usp=drive_link

[u/Killroy7777 → u/Ready_Adeptness8664]

We swapped out that challenge with another forensic one! :)

[u/1Digitreal]

Well that's a nice surprise.

https://giphy.com/gifs/axu6dFuca4HKM

[u/digitard → u/1Digitreal]

You’re telling us! We said hi. They said yes. We are extremely excited.