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MacHeist Skunk Works:Skunk Works

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!!! NOTE: The text contained herin only chronicles the first half of skunkworks, the wiki has not been updated for quite some time! Maybe you should add to it? !!!


MacHeist Skunk Works was a new miniheist (not a lead in to MacHeist 2 - Phill Ryu speaks on the subject) released on July 5th, 2007.

  • The page had a keypad, some scrolling numbers, your iSight feed, and a message stating the following: Type together, and the key will come.
    • Before, this was a percentage showing progress on Step 1 out of 2.
  • Later in the heist (at about 72%- at 11:35GMT) the numbers increased the scrolling speed.
The keypad. The numbers scroll.
The keypad. The numbers scroll.
  • There were counting percentages on the main page above the scrolling code, please see the Section 1/2 subsection for more info on what raised the percentages during Step 1.
    • One theory is that after logging in, the key generated at the bottom is part of the "work as a group" we were supposed to do.
  • The key that we had to find was DG256.
  • It is unknown whether Lisa is involved or not, though she has not made an appearance so far.
  • Clicking on a number highlighted it in the scrolling numbers.
  • Comment on the first authentication screen says 10,000 Monkeys.

!!! Note: do not remove your cookies for the Skunk Works website. !!!

Contents

The Email

Old-time heisters found the following email in their inboxes today (July 5th)

Dear Heist Operative,

As you know, activity on MacHeist has been quiet as of late. You'll be pleased to know that the Directorate is hard at work prepping MacHeist 2 for later this year. We had no plans to email our members before then, as such communications present a security risk, raising red flags among our enemies. But we had no choice.

It has recently come to our attention that a prominent force in the Mac community has been actively studying the MacHeist bundle sale, with full intentions to copy it. A declassified screenshot can be seen below:

http://skunkworks.macheist.com/declass3b.jpg

Several MacHeist operatives have made personal sacrifices for this information. The Directorate, of course, plans to take some actions to sabotage this competitor.

To keep our activities private, we have set up a subsite for this mission, accessible only to MacHeist operatives and the most trusted friends. The Directorate needs your help in this mission, and all operatives who join will reap the rewards.

If you believe you can help, please register with your unique invitation URL below.

NOTE: The authorization code is one-time use only, and will be removed from our database after the signup process is complete. In addition, make sure to pick your primary Apple computer, as you will only be able to login from the Mac and browser you signup on.

You will receive access to the subsite as long as your account information checks out, along with more (classified) information over the next couple days.

- The MacHeist Directorate

YOUR ONE TIME USE AUTHENTICATION CODE:

<some code>

http://skunkworks.macheist.com/

Step 1/2

Wiki

  • Step one was to edit the wiki and make the percentage climb.

Timeline

  • July, 5th, 11:07pm ET: Step 1 Progress 41%, Wiki 65%
  • July, 5th, 11:14pm ET: Step 1 Progress 41%, Wiki 75%
  • July, 5th, 11:22pm ET: Step 1 Progress 41%, Wiki 85%
  • July, 5th, 11:30pm ET: Step 1 Progress 42%, Wiki 90%
  • July, 5th, 11:34pm ET: Step 1 Progress 43%, Wiki 90%
  • July, 5th, 11:38pm ET: Step 1 Progress 43%, Wiki 95%
  • July, 5th, 11:43pm ET: Step 1 Progress 53%, Wiki 100%

Fora

Timeline

  • July, 5th, 11:47pm ET: Step 1 Progress 53%, Fora 23%
  • July, 5th, 11:52pm ET: Step 1 Progress 53%, Fora 33%
  • July, 6th, 12:07am ET: Step 1 Progress 55%, Fora Garbage Cleaning
  • July, 6th, 12:10am ET: Step 1 Progress 55%, Fora 42%
  • July, 6th, 12:13am ET: Step 1 Progress 54%, Fora 30%
  • July, 6th, 12:16am ET: Step 1 Progress 54%, Fora 32%
  • July, 6th, 12:26am ET: Step 1 Progress 55%, Fora 38%
  • July, 6th, 12:36am ET: Step 1 Progress 56%, Fora 45%
  • July, 6th, 12:43am ET: Step 1 Progress 56%, Fora 50%
  • July, 6th, 12:47am ET: Step 1 Progress 57%, Fora 52%
  • July, 6th, 12:54am ET: Step 1 Progress 57%, Fora 56%
  • July, 6th, 01:01am ET: Step 1 Progress 58%, Fora 58%
  • July, 6th, 01:11am ET: Step 1 Progress 59%, Fora 62%
  • July, 6th, 01:23am ET: Step 1 Progress 60%, Fora 70%
  • July, 6th, 01:30am ET: Step 1 Progress 60%, Fora 74%
  • July, 6th, 01:34am ET: Step 1 Progress 60%, Fora 77%
  • July, 6th, 01:42am ET: Step 1 Progress 61%, Fora 83%
  • July, 6th, 01:46am ET: Step 1 Progress 62%, Fora 83%
  • July, 6th, 01:50am ET: Step 1 Progress 62%, Fora 89%
  • July, 6th, 01:53am ET: Step 1 Progress 62%, Fora 96%
  • July, 6th, 01:59am ET: Step 1 Progress 62%, Fora 100%

Twitter

Timeline

  • July, 6th, 02:01am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 1%
  • July, 6th, 02:08am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 6%
  • July, 6th, 02:11am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 11%
  • July, 6th, 02:19am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 15%
  • July, 6th, 02:25am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 17%
  • July, 6th, 02:30am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 19%
  • July, 6th, 02:34am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 21%
  • July, 6th, 02:39am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 22%
  • July, 6th, 02:42am ET: Step 1 Progress 72%, Twitter 23%
  • July, 6th, 02:50am ET: Step 1 Progress 73%, Twitter 23%
  • July, 6th, 02:51am ET: Step 1 Progress 73%, Twitter 25%
  • July, 6th, 03:01am ET: Step 1 Progress 73%, Twitter 26%
  • July, 6th, 03:13am ET: Step 1 Progress 73%, Twitter 27%
  • July, 6th, 03:19am ET: Step 1 Progress 73%, Twitter 29%
  • July, 6th, 03:36am ET: Step 1 Progress 73%, Twitter 32%
  • July, 6th, 03:39am ET: Step 1 Progress 74%, Twitter 32%
  • July, 6th, 03:46am ET: Step 1 Progress 74%, Twitter 33%
  • July, 6th, 03:57am ET: Step 1 Progress 74%, Twitter 35%
  • July, 6th, 04:15am ET: Step 1 Progress 74%, Twitter 38%
  • July, 6th, 04:32am ET: Step 1 Progress 75%, Twitter 40%
  • July, 6th, 04:37am ET: Step 1 Progress 76%, Twitter 40%
  • July, 6th, 04:52am ET: Step 1 Progress 76%, Twitter 42%
  • July, 6th, 05:11am ET: Step 1 Progress 77%, Twitter 44%
  • July, 6th, 05:30am ET: Step 1 Progress 78%, Twitter 44%
  • July, 6th, 05:46am ET: Step 1 Progress 78%, Twitter 47%
  • July, 6th, 06:05am ET: Step 1 Progress 78%, Twitter 48%
  • July, 6th, 06:24am ET: Step 1 Progress 78%, Twitter 50%

Gathering The 10,000 Monkeys

FROM IRC

(03:33:49) (@phillryu) the three various mini tasks of stage 1

(03:33:56) (@phillryu) have each contributed a 10% bonus in rpogress

(03:33:57) (@phillryu) total progress

(03:33:59) (@phillryu) when 100% completed

(03:34:04) (@phillryu) twitter is now 100% done

(03:34:08) (@phillryu) we cut the goal in half for that

(03:34:17) (@phillryu) because it's going too slow

(03:34:19) (@phillryu) at 6am

(03:34:22) (@phillryu) and I'm getting tired :p

(03:34:30) (@phillryu) part of the percentage for stage 1

(03:34:36) (@phillryu) is devoted to gathering enough of the "10,000 monkeys"

(03:34:41) (@phillryu) we're close to getting there

(03:34:50) (@phillryu) then stage 2 begins, stage 2 should be relatively short

(03:34:54) (@phillryu) few hours

(03:34:56) (@phillryu) we'll see

(03:35:00) (@phillryu) then, entry


Timeline

  • July, 6th, 06:33am ET: Step 1 Progress 88%
  • July, 6th, 06:34am ET: Step 1 Progress 89%
  • July, 6th, 06:37am ET: Step 1 Progress 90%
  • July, 6th, 06:43am ET: Step 1 Progress 91%
  • July, 6th, 06:46am ET: Step 1 Progress 92%
  • July, 6th, 06:55am ET: Step 1 Progress 93%
  • July, 6th, 07:00am ET: Step 1 Progress 94%
  • July, 6th, 07:04am ET: Step 1 Progress 96%
  • July, 6th, 07:06am ET: Step 1 Progress 97%
  • July, 6th, 07:09am ET: Step 1 Progress 98%
  • July, 6th, 07:12am ET: Step 1 Progress 99%
  • July, 6th, 07:21am ET: Step 1 Progress 100%

The Monkeys

The 10,000 monkeys hint refers to the philosophical idea: "Given enough time, 10,000 monkeys could type the written works of Shakespeare by banging on keyboards." Also, it could be referring to Hubert's children.

Monkeys writing Shakespeare is referring to them typing randomly. Typing randomly creates entropy, needed when creating key pairs as in: "We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number generator a better chance to gain enough entropy." As a group we're trying to obtain the key I think that creating entropy by typing randomly on our keypads would speed this up (though it could waste our time).

User Generated Misdirection

  • Eniregnat's decyption attempts.
    • Using both simple Ceasar Cypher, variable scrambling, and vignere have failed. Using manbearpig as a key failed. Others should still try these techniques again.
    • Analysis of code set frequency from a sampling of 126 code sets. A-55-8.7%, B-70-11.1%, C-58-9.18%, D-77-12.18%, E-60-9.49%, F-44-6.96%, G-59-9.34%, H-63-9.96%, I-74-11.70%, J-72-11.39%. Concording the code sets revealed that there were no repeats of digit grouping of 10.

Step 2/2

  • The second step was composed of only one task, and was exclusively based on using the "10,000 monkeys" that were "gathered" during the first step. **During this step, the "10,000 monkeys" (the Heisters) were faced with the same keypad, and were required to hit the keys it was composed of.
  • DrTaru over on the IRC revealed that the server recorded each time a key was hit, and the resulting log was therefore a continuous string of all the keys hit by all the active monkeys. This meant that when a monkey hit "A", there was a great chance that a split second later, another monkey would hit "1", therefore producing "A1" in the log.
    • The "type together" part of the message on the webpage meant that all monkeys were typing as one.
  • As a result, punching random keys did not make a difference from punching keys in a sequence for any given monkey.
  • The key was found at approximately 1 pm EST, and the sequence "DG256DG256" appeared repeatedly instead of the scrolling numbers.
Note: the code below the text was of no importance whatsoever. The characters, except for the ones you 'typed' and that were therefore in white, were random.


Important hint

On IRC, Phill Ryu let slip that there were some keys the monkeys could ignore, after stating the log (tens of thousands of pages long) had shown 80% of the possibilities had been covered, but that the solution was still in the remaining 20%. To make things easier on the Heisters, there were thirteen keys that could be ignored: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, A, B, E, F, H, I, J

The keys to hit were therefore: 2, 5, 6, 0, C, D, G

Things Of Unknown Importance

  • yes The six little orange and green lights
  • The scrolling numbers
  • The code in the picture
  • Al Gore spreading manbearpig awareness
  • The first picture from Twitter: http://macheist.com/img/headertease.png
  • The second picture from Twitter: http://macheist.com/img/headertease2.png
  • The link between the half crossed-out text in the declassified picture (Incredible bundle. I use many of these.) and the interview (Steve Wozniak saying that the bundle was “incredible” and that he used many of the titles himself.)
    • The above reference may link The Woz to the theft.
  • The tapping sound in the "They’re on to us?" video. Sounds like Morse Code (...---... x3). EDIT: It's actually "SOS SOS SOS".

Tabs in Starting Image

First Tab

  • filename: Image(5eK).jpeg
  • jpeg image
  • width = 728 px
  • height = 7?? px

Second Tab

  • ...get (widget?) testbed
  • bundle dupe

Third Tab

Fourth Tab

  • filename: Image(u7w).jpeg
  • jpeg image
  • width = 957 px
  • height = 7?? px

Origins Of The Term Skunk Works

Note: loosely adapted from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/skunkworks.html
A typically small and loosely structured group of people who research and develop a project for the sake of innovation. The term typically is used in regard to technology projects. A skunkworks often operates independent of a company’s normal research and development operations and therefore often is subject to limitations in resources. Skunkworks projects often are undertaken in secret with the understanding that if the development is successful then the product will be designed later according to the usual process. A famous example of a skunkworks project is the first Apple Macintosh computer.

Notes

  • Although http://skunkworks.macheist.com/ uses your iSight, it doesn't appear to be an essential component of the heist.
  • Also, no data is being sent from your iSight to the server. Only you can see what's there.

MacUpdate Website

On the Mac Update website, a post was found by DrTaru regarding July 9th:

What happened next

After the key was found, heisters waited, and eventually the plans were revealed, after the election of a security chief (the glorious nfreader) and behind the scenes planning involving several elite members of the Mac Community (developers and the like.)

And to make a long story short, we hacked into MacUpdate and are stealing their money, adding more apps to their bundle. We don't think Joel knows.

The Plot Thickens

Ah! Joel found out and moved in for the kill. Phill called a meeting to decide what to do about it on July 11th, 2007 9 PM EDT which was held on the #skunkworks IRC channel (an impromptu pre-meeting was also held in the #macheist room); following are some notes from that meeting:

MEETING NOTES 

* According to Phill, this is more "real" than we thought,
  although we did not do anything illegal.
* All notes of MacUpdate ripping off MacHeist to be taken down
* Phill proposed to Joel that they team up and work together and
  offer freebies to all parties, both MacHeist and MacUpdate
  customers. If all devs agreed AND Joel agreed.
* Joel did not leave on vacation, he stayed and watched everything happen
  _without intervening_ therefore providing tacit consent.
* Phill does not want legal troubles brought down to the buyers.
* He is willing to sign the negotiation, but he wants to find any possible
  way to push the limits to our gain, without breaking the contract. (fishy)
* Phill desires that the end result build up the Mac community.
* Phill sank most cash into apps - I can confirm
* Will continue to do so, providing for us, "heisters".
* Contract will be signed.
* Discussion of patenting - Phill argues that it is "too late" and "lengthy
  and expensive." - and it's also too late for this legal dispute, even
  should he patent it.
* MacHeist an "affiliate" of MacUpdate
* Minimal cut of each sale carried out via MacHeist's link
* Joel is unwilling to negotiate contractual terms,
  rejected 50/50 partnership.
* "Real" story will go up on the MacHeist page.
* Phill is currently prevented from revealing the contract terms.
* Phill held a vote regarding whether MacHeist would become the bitch
  of MacUpdate or to try and subvert the deal via contractual loop holes.
* People voted to not be the bitch, decided to find contractual
  (and legal) loopholes.
* It's been suggested that the devs involved in MacHeist's "loot" bundle 
  give their app to MacUpdate for their bundle.
* Phill stated that he feels it is best to stick with apps that aren't
  exactly "well known."  Small time apps' developers would generally
  be more interested in receiving numerous payments of a small amount,
  whereas larger developers are already earning enough.
* It was suggested that the MacHeist.com homepage be replaced
  with the "pitch page" discussed above.
* Potentially the pitch could include teasers for upcoming
  added apps, once they are negotiated.
* The agreement has been signed and sent as of 19:37:15 EDT July 11, 2007.

These notes were compiled by MacHeisters on SEEs graciously hosted by Kenneth, Dustin, and Ari. You can see the complete document here: http://home.seosoft.info:120/macheist.txt (mirror: http://winxblog.com/macheist.txt).

A poll is being held to see which applications people would be most interested in seeing included in any deals made (though questions as to the accuracy and fairness of the polling system have been raised in the #macheist channel): http://www.misterpoll.com/80074346.html

Retrieved from "http://mhwiki.channelblue.net/wiki/MacHeist_Skunk_Works:Skunk_Works"
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