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MacHeist 2:Heist 3
From WikiHeist, the unofficial MacHeist wiki
Contents |
Mission Briefing
Text Briefing
Mission 3
Things are beginning to become a bit clearer now… the mysterious photo of the box from Mission 1 has turned out to be Apple's Reality Distortion Field (RDF) generator machine.
The Directorate recently came in contact with a source who claims to have inside information about the theft and what they plan to do with it. And our Chicago agents have received more intel in the form of a Zip disk containing a mysterious product box.
In addition, the Directorate recently received a very strange text communication which appears to be in some unusual language, albeit a very beautiful one:
Um das hier zu lösen ist dein Scharfsinn gefragt. Es ist eine knifflige Aufgabe… ein Paradoxon… ein Dilemma. Verwende die Walzen Fünf, Eins und Vier. Setze dann die Anfangspositionen auf T, M und A. Stelle schließlich das Steckerbrett so ein das O mit F, P mit Q, W mit S, E mit R und Z mit I tauscht. Viel Glück du Armleuchter…
We have no clue as of yet what it means but we have a suspicion that it ties-in with the box.
We're counting on you, agent, to get to the bottom of all this. We think it's safe to say at this point that whomever stole the RDF is up to no good and you may be able to thwart their plans with your persistence.
Accompanying Video Message
Transcript of the video message from Monique:
Agents,
As usual the plot thickens.
Thanks to some work last week, we now know what was stolen from the vault: Apple's secret weapon, the Reality Distortion Field generator.
A fews days ago MacHeist received intel from a source who claims he knows the identity of the people behind the theft as well as their plans on how to use it; and, our agents in Chicago were able to recover a Zip disk with shots of a mysterious product box on it.
Add this together with intel we just received from the source, and hopefully we can get in contact with him to clear up what's going on. Presumably, they're up to no good. It's up to you to follow through with their investigation, get in contact with the mole, and make sure that these plans do not go into action.
Good luck.
Mission Progress
Maybe this can be cleaned up, added to and moved to a walkthrough page?
| Warning! Spoilers ahead!
Proceed at your own risk! |
The briefing contains this (German) message.
'Um das hier zu lösen ist dein Scharfsinn gefragt. Es ist eine knifflige Aufgabe… ein Paradoxon… ein Dilemma. Verwende die Walzen Fünf, Eins und Vier. Setze dann die Anfangspositionen auf T, M und A. Stelle schließlich das Steckerbrett so ein das O mit F, P mit Q, W mit S, E mit R und Z mit I tauscht. Viel Glück du Armleuchter…'
translation: 'In order to solve this, you must watch very close. It is a difficult task, a paradox, a dilemma. Use the cylinder 5, 1 and 4. Set the starting position to T, M and A. Finally, set the board so the O is exchanged with F, P with Q, W with S, E with R and Z with I. Good luck, fool...'
this contains clues as to the operation of an 'enigma machine' (http://www.enigmaco.de/enigma/enigma.swf) which, when used to translate 'AFMXFF MTZEDHLJGHWDWQI' (the serial number from the bugzapper box) yields 'GOPHERBUGZAPPERTHEAPP' or:
On that gopher site are a number of files, all uuencoded:
File: 11-12-2007.connected.txt File: 12-12-2007.media.txt File: 14-12-2007.net.txt File: 17-12-2007.dot.txt File: 22-12-2007.net.txt File: 23-12-2007.txt File: BugZapper.txt File: SafetyCheck.txt.lib
Contents of the files:
12/11/2007
Bill Skiller Connected Media Net
Dear Bill,
My name is Todd Dangerson and I work for a new software startup called Delicious-Sofa. I received your contact information from a mutual friend, Bob Gunderson. He told me that you're the person I should talk to if I need to get a Macintosh application developed quickly.
I'll be brief... what my company, Delicious-Sofa, needs is an application to be developed that kills viruses, worms, and trojans. We need something done very quickly.
Please let me know if you are able to take this on as soon as possible. For the sake of efficiency, we prefer to use USPS Express Mail as our communication medium so we can guarantee that things get relayed as fast as possible.
Sincerely,
Todd Dangerson Delicious-Sofa
12/12/2007
Bill Skiller Connected Media Net
Dear Bill,
Great. Basically, what we need is like I mentioned previously being a Macintosh virus / worm / trojan killer. The plan is to name it BugZapper. But we need it as soon as possible. If you can get us something in a week, this would be fantastic. It doesn't even really need to be very thorough. If it can take care of even 10% of all the known Mac viruses, we will be extremely happy.
Sincerely,
Todd Dangerson Delicious-Sofa
12/14/2007
Bill Skiller Connected Media Net
Dear Bill,
OK, we have everything set now and the contract is signed. One thing I forgot to mention previously is that we'll be supplying a library that you'll need to periodically call every 30 seconds. I can't give you much info on exactly what it does because I'm not a very technical person but it's basically just something to make sure all is right on the users computer. For the most part, you can treat it as a black box and expect it to do its job.
Sincerely,
Todd Dangerson Delicious-Sofa
/ enclosure: CD-ROM containing library /
12/17/2007
Bill Skiller Connected Media Net
Dear Bill,
Fantastic. It won't be long now before I can do a search on Amazon and pull-up BugZapper! I'd like you to see the box design we've come up with. We're very excited to get this out.
Sincerely,
Todd Dangerson Delicious-Sofa
/ enclosure: BugZapper box shot /
12/22/2007
Bill Skiller Connected Media Net
Dear Bill,
Fantastic! I can't wait to get it all going.
Sincerely,
Todd Dangerson Delicious-Sofa
12/23/2007
Bill Skiller Connected Media Net
Dear Bill,
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Todd Dangerson Delicious-Sofa
BugZapper.tif:
Delicious Sofa's Bugzapper 2008 Professional
Squashes all bugs!!! WOW
Need Help? Having Issues? Got Worms? Call between 8-10 am M-F and we can help. (Phone) (801) 542-9353
Thumbnail: http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8149/bugzappergd5.th.jpg Small: http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bugzappersmallhz9.jpg Large: http://img210.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bugzappergd5.jpg Original: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PGSABAB5
SafetyCheck.lib:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J7ARA9GB
Calling the phone number given gives this message (recording):
http://abramgornik.com/MHphone.aifc
Here's a transcript of that message:
Hi, You've reached Charlie at connected media net customer support. Nobody's available to take your call right now. If you're calling about our alpha product BugZapper that we announced in November feel free to leave your message here and echo your sentiments. We've been receiving great feedback from our pre-release so far. Following the testimonials from one of our actual testers, "After using the latest delta of BugZapper, I have to say that if there was an oscar of mac software, this should definately win it," says Mike a satisfied BugZapper user.
(some bolded words were stressed vocally; what sets them apart is that these words are part of the Phoenetic Alphabet Table [[1]])
Next, check out connectedmedianet.net (look at the names of the gopher files).
It wants a login and password. Since we're dealing with Bill Skiller, the login is "bskiller" and the password is "canedom" from the bolded words above.
You'll find 5 zip files and a new tif image of the BugZapper box. This box cover is actually on Amazon at [[2]], now called WormZapper.
Contents of the files:
12.12.07.zip
date: 12/12/2007 to: todd dangerson from: bill skiller
todd:
say hiya to bobby for me.
sure, we can take this on. give me some more details and the timeframe you're looking to have this done in.
-b
(picture of blowfish) 8b46du92
p.s. what up with postal mail for comm?! get with the times, man! :)
12.14.07.zip
date: 12/14/2007 to: todd dangerson from: bill skiller
todd:
ok, I've forwarded your details onto the right department who'll be taking care of the biz end of this. we can get this done in less than a week, I'm sure. we can get you up and running with a state-of-the-art carbon mac app. if you talk to some other mac dev houses, they'll prolly try to push that bleeding-edge cocoa stuff on you but we know better than to take risks like that. ;)
once the biz crap is all squared away and we have a contract in place, we'll get moving on it.
-b
(picture of blowfish) 8b46du92
12.17.07.zip
date: 12/17/2007 to: todd dangerson from: bill skiller
todd:
ok, yeah, we're cool with the library.
we've already got an alpha version of bugzapper going. it won't be long now...
-b
(picture of blowfish) 8b46du92
12.22.07.zip
date: 12/22/2007 to: todd dangerson from: bill skiller
todd:
alright, we're wrapping the app up now. not too bad overall considering he short timeframe.
so... i don't wanna sound like a know-it-all but I have a few points to make here... it's going to be almost impossible to get your stuff in amazon being such a new company. i just hooked you up with sarah charleston, who works for our distributor. she'll take good care of you and help you get your sw to the masses.
she'll be setting you up with an account on their server and she'll give you all the details. just beware that they're kinda flaky and are always talking about spacey crap and doing things like setting passwords in ǝƨяǝvǝя, etc. they're also a bit overly security conscious. but you'll get used to them... they're good people.
moreover, that box gotta go. you really have to get with the times, man! i'd even go so far as to say that the name bugzapper doesn't even really fit the app... a bugzapper would be something to debug apps, not kill viruses.
sorry to be blunt, but i like to say what's on my mind.
-b
(picture of blowfish) 8b46du92
12.23.07.zip
date: 12/23/2007 to: todd dangerson from: bill skiller
todd:
ok, you're all set with sarah. she got you going with u:tdangerson/p:NEW-RESET-NOW ;)
-b
(picture of blowfish) 8b46du92
OK, so we've got a name and a password. The marketing company Sarah is part of must be www.supernovadevelopment.com based on the Amazon.com posting. Looks good. Wants a login ... didn't work.
After much puzzling we noted in the note from Todd on 12/22 that they liked "doing things like setting passwords in ǝƨяǝvǝя, etc." Taking NEW-RESET-NOW and reversing the characters gives:
username: tdangerson password: WOИ-TƎƧƎЯ-WƎИ
There were a number of messages - all encoded - in the messages tab of the client login area. Download the encoded messages as an RTF here: http://www.mediafire.com/?cn3bt09wmgn
Decoding all the messages with the Blowfish code given above in Todd's messages didn't work, but it turns out it did work for the ones Bill sent (1st and 3rd - makes sense)
Use this decoder for blocks of text: http://webnet77.com/cgi-bin/helpers/blowfish.pl
You'll get this:
sarah,
ok, fair enough... it's definitely over the top and out there. nevermind.
-b
sarah,
i had sort of an idea for your about page. this totally fits in with the supernova theme! i think you're gonna love this...
"oh, how we at supernova love the stars!
some of the ones we're very connected to are 111 tau, 119 tau, 69 ori, ngc 2186, 60 ori, mintaka, 23 ori, bellatrix, and betelgeuse.
but even better, the view from aldebaran is beautiful. once you get there take a good look at antares, sol, altair, fomalhaut, shaula. maybe even take a second look at antares.
at midnight, the day of the experiment in philadelphia, a glorious sight was to behold in the night sky where it all happened! take note especially of 118°41'20"/11°27'32", 104°31'31"/11°41'34", 102°59'14"/24°05'21", 107°36'53"/33°12'20", 131°15'59"/11°17'36", 137°04'25"/6°34'57", 145°57'40"/-0°59'41", 162°13'57"/3°50'38", 148°28'08"/28°07'01", and 118°41'20"/11°27'32"
and finally, you'll find another magnificent sight at the coupling of 16h6m48.4s/-20°40m9.0s, 15h35m31.6s/-14°47m22.0s, 14h50m52.7s/-16°2m30.0s, 15h4m4.2s/-25°16m55.0s, 14h6m22.3s/-26°40m57.0s, 14h6m41.0s/-36°22m12.0s, 14h35m30.4s/-42°9m28.0s, and 15h21m48.4s/-36°15m41.0s"
-b
- unsure of the following - someone please edit **
I believe that GoogleEarth/Sky and Wikisky.org were then used to map the star points given, and a connect-the-dots method was used to find the code for the safe.
Final Information
The final loot was:
- Voice Candy (normally $12.95)
- Freeze Frame (normally $13.45)
- Podcast Maker (normally $29.95)
- $2 bundle discount
- A PDF from the Mole outlining Microsoft's plans to incorporate the stolen RDF technology into Microsoft products.
