I am gonna slap one of them when I meet them.
I will be revising this soon but just wanted to share the process as it worked but wasn't until more intel was released that it was seen that the solution was right in front of me most of the time.
I will not be posting the PROLOGUE and BRIEF for this, as it will make for a very long read — so skootch over to the link below and see if you can solve it.
SOURCE: https://hacktoria.com/contracts/return-of-the-krohndahkyr/
NOTE: I will not solve this for you. But you can use my technique with the intel on the site to solve.
The objective is to translate the below text and then identify the author and the name of the text.
Looking at the above, you will see single-strike and double-strike characters. I will let you know now that you can ignore this.
Analysis of the text reveals that there are 25 lines of text and, 1118 characters of unknown translation. Some could be letters or punctuation; even numbers — but we do not know.
THE PROCESS
I started by using a cryptographer's mindset — converting each unique character to a known letter. The first unique character became A the next B and so on…
You may notice that the spacing of the characters is not able to be completely identified. This was my first impossible hurdle and in the end, I removed all spaces and just ignored them until I had a solid transcription.
The first pass looked something like this:
ABBCDEAFGBHHGIJCDEKGLMNECDEOAJPGDEADQDHMDJ?HGRCGBJMDSCHRCGLTBHCUMDSCHVUADEGBKMDAUMDHKGHJMDBAJCHKMNQDHHALTHHCJMDA.RCAGVADQDUMDAGRCGHJPMDHGKAKDETKCDEKMDCGHOPAGJGIJAJTKGHOTBHAJAVCGPAJ.LTPBGUMDADELMDBBAGRCAJGPLTBHCUMDHVMDUMDADEKCIMDJCITPGDE.GIRCAMDUUMDDETIMDCUMDABAJAGHJ?BGRCGCJPGOCKMDAPGJLTDEOGUUMDAKMDLAJTPGHCUUACUUTDETKTOTJCMJ.RCAPGGJHALGPKTJMDTGJCITPMDHKTJGGJFGBJMDUMDLMDHWGPGKMDJAJMDSCHDECUJAJCHKMDCGPHAPCDEOAPJMDCDEWASGSAJCP.CJGJMDADEKMDHLGKGPGGDEGKMDTGJRCADERCADEDETPSTRCAPJABAGAKFPACABJGOPTOGOGPHMDBFCUAHBTLJGHLTDEDECJAPGUAJGSPAHLTFGPGJCPHGRCGASMDBRCMDHMDJTPMDSCHOGLCBMDAPGKMNEGPGJ.KTBGLOGPCMDPFMDBGH?GHJAUGHOGPRCGDEADEGPLCDEAGDAAUMDCDEGJACPGUMDCDELTJJADEOPTOMDBRCTHGJAKVMDBGHHCTHCGBMDADEMNEOGJPACMDJ.HAJMDHLTBHJAJHCUUADE.LCDEKGOPGLABJMDSCHADQDLMDHHMNQDHGJTPBAJMDHHMNQDHCMDPMDHAUMDRCADEKMDCKGBGFAHHGJAJRCGMDUUMDOGPJMDBALMDJGPLTBJGBKGPGBJ.GIOCFBAJCDEJABKGDEOPTLUADEAHHGHMDCGKMDCMDBMDJCHHMDCGAUMDRCALTBMDGLJCPA?CMDBLGPGBJALHMSSMDWASGPGBJ,KCDEDETKTHLMDPGBJGCDE.RCGDEMDBLTUCDEGDEJABJTTOGPGLCOGPGBJ.RCABKTRCGTOJMNEAJMDCDEOAPJMDSCS.RCAHHGLCDEHMNECUKGVGBKMDHHGBJ.GIMDJMDTVCJCPCDE?BADELAGHAPMDDECUJTHDEAPMDTHMDBGHHG.
Don’t get excited because I later find out that no less than 4 of the symbols were pairs and that broke everything.
FACTIONS REVEALED
At some point, more intel was released at Hacktoria, and we learned something informative, but I will tell you that you don't learn what you think you learn. (just my 2c)
Analysis of the images and the symbols/alphabet will give you some words that directly translate to ENGLISH.
Party city… right? NOPE!!!
I say that because you still need to transcribe the characters to something. But at least now you know the character breaks and can re-transcribe the text.
Pulling It All Together
I re-transcribed the symbols based on new intel, then passed my no-spaced text to DCODE.FR mono-substitution tool, as well as QUIPQIUP, and I got my decoded language.
Had it not been for 1 word in the last sentence being readable to me, I would likely still be futzing with this. But in the end, that word told me the translation language, and after passing some of the characters to another tool… I had the solution.
BUT WAIT….
I refuse to take all the credit — because had it not been for BoNeShAd0w and I working on the creation of a new challenge and deciding to share thoughts… I would have kept spinning my wheels locked into what I thought the text should be rather than what it was… and the list of possible passwords for the flag file would have exceeded 25. So thank you to my friend and peer for allowing us to spitball this challenge to get…
