Description
You intercepted a message from a destroyed Fire Nation warship. The message consists of two parts: one made up of a string of random characters, while the other is a set of seemingly indecipherable symbols.
Decrypt the parts and determine the complete message.
Message:
*:(!9-l5/#.b6!7*)
Flag Format:
HACKFAX{deciphered_message}
Hint 1
Sometimes numbers are easier to understand.
Hint 2
What value could there be in being exclusive?
Solution
1. Decipher PIGPEN:
2. Convert first message from ASCII to HEX:
*:(!9-l5/#.b6!7*) → 2A 3A 28 21 39 2D 6C 35 2F 23 2E 62 36 21 37 2A 29
3. Perform XOR decryption with the hexadecimal message as the input and "ZHAO" as the key:
"2A 3A 28 21 39 2D 6C 35 2F 23 2E 62 36 21 37 2A 29" ^ ZHAO → prince-zuko-lives
Flag
HACKFAX{prince-zuko-lives}