[MISC] Crime

I think that the hardest part is getting the correct numbers. That is the worst part because it is slow and prone to errors.

After that, the last part of the message already says everything.
It is not something you have to “view”, you can already imagine what you have.
Think about what the message asks you to do with what you have and don’t overcomplicate it.

After that, what you get can be easily interpreted.

Even when collapsing the numbers to equilibrium, it is still quite a blur what to do with the new location… for me anyway…

I had to put this Challenge aside for a few days because I had let myself get unnecessarily frustrated, had stopped thinking clearly, and backed myself into a corner logically which meant there was no way I was going to solve it.

Here are some guiding thoughts for thinking about this Challenge so you can be a better hacker than me:

  1. Solutions to challenges do not require commercial, specialized tools unavailable to everyone for free.
  2. You can solve it. Maybe not right now, but eventually you will. It’s ok to step back or even start fresh.
  3. You will likely always /facepalm yourself once you get it.
  4. Writing good hints that are not spoilers is hard.
  5. The word “equilibrium” may be throwing off some here as it did to me. Try thinking along the lines of a “middle,” and «cough» stop trying to project «cough» a solution.

I would like to apologize this Challenge’s creator @ajdumanhug for being an overbearing, bombastic ■■■■ in earlier messages in this thread, which I then edited to be “-” and acting like a petulant child. I let what is a fun and different challenge get to me because I stubbornly hung onto an idea that did not fit the data available (that it was a geospatial puzzle). Therefore, @ajdumanhug and everyone else here, I apologize. Respect+

Also, thanks and respect to @NikoASR for being extraordinarily patient and calm in our pm’s about this challenge. (He’s owning all of the Challenges on HTB like a total boss.)

Type your comment> @f00l8r1t3 said:

I had to put this Challenge aside for a few days because I had let myself get unnecessarily frustrated, had stopped thinking clearly, and backed myself into a corner logically which meant there was no way I was going to solve it.

Here are some guiding thoughts for thinking about this Challenge so you can be a better hacker than me:

  1. Solutions to challenges do not require commercial, specialized tools unavailable to everyone for free.
  2. You can solve it. Maybe not right now, but eventually you will. It’s ok to step back or even start fresh.
  3. You will likely always /facepalm yourself once you get it.
  4. Writing good hints that are not spoilers is hard.
  5. The word “equilibrium” may be throwing off some here as it did to me. Try thinking along the lines of a “middle,” and «cough» stop trying to project «cough» a solution.

I would like to apologize this Challenge’s creator @ajdumanhug for being an overbearing, bombastic ■■■■ in earlier messages in this thread, which I then edited to be “-” and acting like a petulant child. I let what is a fun and different challenge get to me because I stubbornly hung onto an idea that did not fit the data available (that it was a geospatial puzzle). Therefore, @ajdumanhug and everyone else here, I apologize. Respect+

Also, thanks and respect to @NikoASR for being extraordinarily patient and calm in our pm’s about this challenge. (He’s owning all of the Challenges on HTB like a total boss.)

Hey, you’re fine. Thanks for solving the challenge. I hope you had fun.

Pm if you need a nudge

No, dont think Cartesian coordinates/physical location. That’s a rabbit hole. You just need the 3 points you’re given.

I am genuinely stumped with this challenge. I’ve listened to the audio. I’ve thought its told me dozens of different things.

Anyone who has solved this is pure ninja IMHO.

x and y.

■■■, what is this! I doesn’t speak English but this is what? The IBM whatson tool extract very different text in each analisys, get no numbers or coordinates
Tried the stego approach, but no clues
Completely lost with this Challenge.

I tried to use IBM Watson free and didn’t get any number. After that, I tried to change Model and get some numbers but couldn’t understand what to do with this…

I just spent three days wondering why I was only getting part of the flag.

If you are lazy like me, and you are using Python3 (I was using Python3.8) to handle the big numbers, you won’t get the correct result.

I checked, and the exact same logic with Python2 does produce the correct output, while Python3 spits out a slightly different answer (different enough to not be able to extract the flag).

So, I learned something with this challenge after all…

Tried IBM watson - tried some other models, still nothing?

Type your comment> @wolverine said:

Tried IBM watson - tried some other models, still nothing?

Same…

Type your comment> @Andro6 said:

Type your comment> @wolverine said:

(Quote)
Same…

Just slow down the recording and transcribe it by hand.

And what to do with the resulting point? Concatenate the coordinates or add them or … ?

If anyone needs any help on this, LMK. I validated that this can be done in both python2 and python3.

This was definitely an interesting challenge, although I do feel that without the hints given here, the wording at the end of the recording would have made it more difficult.
So my tips for this.

  • Free IBM Watson
  • Fix obvious mistakes
  • Like in yoga, find your…
  • A little conversion here…a little conversion there…

PM me here or Discord for more tips (not the HTB site, notifications are not working for me).

I have the text, I have the numbers, I found out some “equilibrium” numbers yet I cannot seem to move on from here. Any nudge would be nice :frowning: