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CodeWalrus Website => Contests => Topic started by: KermMart̕ian on December 16, 2015, 12:14:39 AM

Title: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on December 16, 2015, 12:14:39 AM
Last month, we resurrected Cemetech programming contests with Cemetech Contest #14: TI-BASIC Connect 4 AI Challenge (https://www.cemetech.net/news.php?id=768). In that short contest, designed by Cemetech members jonbush (https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=10880) and earthnite (https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=10179), entrants were tasked with writing an AI to play Connect 4 in pure TI-BASIC. We congratulate JWinslow23 (https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=8090) for winning that contest, and are happy to announce a longer, more elaborate contest. Cemetech Contest #15 is entitled Crypto Golfing, and is a multi-part contest. Starting today, and continuing every Tuesday until January 12th, we will release encrypted data with possible hints for a new challenge. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a program to decode each piece of encrypted data, be it a string, a number, an image, or something else, in as few bytes as possible. The top two overall winners will win a TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition and a TI-Nspire CX (with the first place winner getting first choice).

As in previous Cemetech contests, we'll have a number of categories; the sizes of entries from each category will be weighted at the discretion of the judging panel. The usual rules apply: So what are you waiting for? Get coding, solve Challenge 1, push yourself to learn something new in the process, and win some calculators!

Challenge 1: GSVHVXIVGNVHHZTVRHLOWDRAZIW

More Information
(http://www.cemetech.net/img/icon/dl.gif) Contest #15 Rules (https://www.cemetech.net/files/contest15/rules.txt)

(https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15.png)

Both of the two remaining of these six generously-donated calculators will be awarded as prizes. A special thanks to our anonymous donor for making this contest possible!
(https://www.cemetech.net/img/news/cc12_prizes.jpg)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Yuki on December 16, 2015, 12:57:59 AM
Oh, that's nice, I'll enter for sure. Provided I can figure it out...
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 16, 2015, 01:26:53 AM
So I assume it's kinda like Code Golf but with cryptography instead? It should hopefully be popular, since in the past, code golf contests on Omni were.

Interestingly enough, the deadline date is identical to CW Contest II :P (except by five hours)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: alexgt on December 16, 2015, 01:30:03 AM
Ohh.. that first challenge is hard O.O
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on December 16, 2015, 01:37:57 AM
DJ_O: Yep! It has the additional challenge that you have to figure out what the algorithm actually is before you can write a minimal solver for it.
Juju, Alexgt: Best of luck!
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Yuki on December 16, 2015, 02:23:26 AM
Hmm, by decoding, I assume it's a symetrical algorithm and you don't have to crack any keys? Also, I assume the result of the challenge is something meaningful in English?

Quote from: KermMartian on December 16, 2015, 12:14:39 AM
Submit entries by emailing them, in a zip file, to contest at this domain name.
Sending your entries at this actual domain name is probably not a good idea :P (I know, you meant Cemetech's domain name :P)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on December 16, 2015, 02:46:08 AM
Quote from: Juju on December 16, 2015, 02:23:26 AM
Hmm, by decoding, I assume it's a symetrical algorithm and you don't have to crack any keys? Also, I assume the result of the challenge is something meaningful in English?
Correct on both counts.

Quote from: Juju on December 16, 2015, 02:23:26 AM
Quote from: KermMartian on December 16, 2015, 12:14:39 AM
Submit entries by emailing them, in a zip file, to contest at this domain name.
Sending your entries at this actual domain name is probably not a good idea :P (I know, you meant Cemetech's domain name :P)
Good catch.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: JWinslow23 on December 16, 2015, 05:07:45 AM
Juju and Kerm, you ruined it for me, I figured it out now! :P

I might enter with TI-BASIC, unless lirtosiast does too.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: alexgt on December 16, 2015, 02:38:40 PM
I am still trying to figure it out :P
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on December 17, 2015, 07:37:08 AM
Good luck to all! And thanks for front-paging this.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 17, 2015, 07:40:02 AM
No problem. :) I waited a few days since I wanted the CW contest to remain at the top for at least a week before promoting more news.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: alexgt on December 17, 2015, 02:39:09 PM
Yeah, I don't think I will have time to figure it out so I don't think I will participate. I will keep on trying though :)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: p4nix on December 17, 2015, 07:37:28 PM
Yay, I solved it! Only my code is c :c
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Snektron on December 19, 2015, 12:04:06 AM
Woah this is a really cool contest idea! Will the hints be dropped here too? And do we need to send in entries before every tuesday or at the end?
And how is the encrypted data inputted?
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on December 22, 2015, 05:42:21 AM
The earlier you send them, the higher your score, but you can send all of the solutions together on the very last day of the contest if you so desire.

I'm happy to announce that another Tuesday is upon us, so Challenge 2 of Cemetech Contest #15 is also here! If you haven't completed Challenge 1 yet, you still have time, and the only thing you'll lose is the (up to) 5 bonus points you get by submitting your solutions quickly. Challenge 2 adds a few additional rules that we learned from seeing how people worked with Challenge 1: Challenge 2: VPUOUGHUVYUOOSIUWOPSTTEPMRWNSEOBHMYGUYUVUGP

Good luck!
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Yuki on December 22, 2015, 05:51:36 AM
Yay another challenge~
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on December 26, 2015, 02:53:09 PM
Quote from: jonbushIf you haven't figured out Challenge 2 yet, here's a hint:

%26
I'm Kerm Martian and I approve of this message. :D Good luck, everyone. I notice we haven't quite gotten as many entries as for the first challenge, so I hope everyone who is stuck on this one (or forgot to enter so far this week) will redouble their efforts.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: c4ooo on December 26, 2015, 09:18:24 PM
[spoiler=Cancer Causing All-Caps and Smily abuse :P]
OMG O MY cING OMG O I GOT IT I GOT IGOTIGNUNVIRNGINRUVNIRQMVIDNCIMEOCNIM!!!!!  :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:  :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:  :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:  :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:  THANKS FOR THE HINT!!!
[/spoiler]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO CEMETECH AND KERM! (not the solution btw)

Edit:  35 bytes in axe, although the IO is via stdIn / out and not ans <_<

Edit: stdIn stdOut hehe XD
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 28, 2015, 07:31:02 AM
c4ooo not to nitpick, but all-caps and smiley abuse (can probably cause cancer and) should be avoided. <.< I'm glad that you got the solution, though. Good luck for future challenges.


I wonder if anyone else on CW is still participating and how well they are doing so far?
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: c4ooo on December 28, 2015, 03:10:04 PM
Yea its abnoctus and best not abused :P
It reminds me of my favorite MC PvP server avicus (avic.us iirc). They have good players / maps ect but when ever anyone uses one capital letter all the mods yell at him :P So after a long haitus i joined and shouted out something in caps about being excited to come back, i was greated by like 3 "Watch the caps please" messages  :-\
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on December 30, 2015, 04:46:38 PM
c4ooo: Please try to avoid posting hints about the cipher. Note that the rules posted for the last challenge specify that things like constants should be changeable in the source. :)

For the past two Tuesdays, we have announced increasingly difficult challenges as part of Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing (https://www.cemetech.net/news.php?id=773). This five-part contest tasks programmers with solving cryptography puzzles, then creating programs that can decode messages in the cipher used for each challenge. We received an overwhelming number of entries written in many different calculator and computer languages for Challenges 1 and 2, although the field has started to thin. Since another Tuesday is upon us, Challenge 3 of Cemetech Contest #15 is here! If you haven't started entering the contest yet or if you haven't completed one of the existing challenges, you still have time, and the only thing you'll lose is the (up to) 5 bonus points you get by submitting your solutions quickly. Challenge 3 is the last pure-text cipher, and if you're still stuck with it on Friday, we'll be publishing an extra hint on Friday afternoon at 5pm, Eastern Time.

Challenge 3: OEEJCYKL WK AU LTMY L WXOJWN

Good luck! To repeat the incentive, besides prestige and glory: a TI-Nspire CX and a TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition await the top two contestants.

(https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15.png)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: c4ooo on December 30, 2015, 05:00:53 PM
" I GOT IGOTIGNUNVIRNGINRUVNIRQMVIDNCIMEOCNIM!!!!!" is random text and i clearly stated that "HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO CEMETECH AND KERM!" was not the solution. :P If you mean what i said in IRC to juju, i can understand, although to me it seemed basically a restatement of your "%26" hint  ;)

Edit: conflict solved over PM's :)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 31, 2015, 09:08:58 AM
I would agree that we should keep hints to a minimum. The challenge is the fun part of this contest so if someone posts the solution online, then for this particular kind of contest it might ruin the fun. :)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 01, 2016, 10:13:28 PM
*bump* Contest #15, Challenge #3 hint time:
You wouldn't put calculators on your salad
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 04, 2016, 08:36:08 PM
*bump* Noting how much people are struggling with Challenge 3 and with jonbush's agreement, we have decided to release one additional hint at this time: Challenges 1 to 3 have all used ciphers that can be found in the "Classical Cryptography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cryptography_classical)" template on Wikipedia. A special congratulations to the >=2 contestants who solved the challenge before this hint!
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: novenary on January 04, 2016, 08:40:00 PM
I'm a little late on this but it sounds like a fun challenge, I'll see if I can take a try at it. :)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: c4ooo on January 04, 2016, 08:41:11 PM
@KermMartian you should probably note that said wiki page does not render all of its content in mobile <_<
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: p4nix on January 04, 2016, 08:44:52 PM
@KermMartian so I guess I can get a senseful answer with OneTime-Pad? :trollface:
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 04, 2016, 10:55:45 PM
Quote from: KermMartian on January 04, 2016, 08:36:08 PM
*bump* Noting how much people are struggling with Challenge 3 and with jonbush's agreement, we have decided to release one additional hint at this time: Challenges 1 to 3 have all used ciphers that can be found in the "Classical Cryptography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cryptography_classical)" template on Wikipedia. A special congratulations to the >=2 contestants who solved the challenge before this hint!
Will contestants who solved the challenge before the new hint was given get bonus points?
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 05, 2016, 04:26:00 PM
DJ_O: As noted at the beginning of the thread, solving the challenges closer to the announcement of the ciphertext gives you up to 5 extra points.

The second-to-last challenge is here, and I think it's one that you guys will have fun with. Instead of providing a ciphertext for Challenge 4, we are providing a 95x63-pixel monochrome image (of an Enigma machine!) in three formats: .8xi, .8ci, and .png. Solutions must take at least one of those formats and produce a plaintext (not image) output from the image. Programmers working on the color calculators can assume that any .8ci passed to the program will also only have black and white pixels in the top-left 95x63 pixels of the image, and those writing computer programs should only look at the top 95x63 pixels of any image passed to the program. As with the previous challenge, we will publish a clue on Friday afternoon at 5pm ET, but we encourage you to try to solve it before Friday to earn maximum points.

Challenge 4: (https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15_chal4.png)

Download:
(https://www.cemetech.net/img/icon/dl.gif) Contest #15, Challenge 4 input image (PNG) (https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15_chal4.png)
(https://www.cemetech.net/img/icon/dl.gif) Contest #15, Challenge 4 input image (8xi) (https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15_chal4.8xi)
(https://www.cemetech.net/img/icon/dl.gif) Contest #15, Challenge 4 input image (8ci) (https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15_chal4.8ci)

(https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15.png)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 08, 2016, 11:13:04 PM
*bump* Hint time: The encoding scheme used in this challenge can encode no more than 63 characters.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 12, 2016, 03:29:42 PM
*bump* hint time #2: Not every member of a group has equal value, and numbers that come around, wrap around.

Edit:
The fifth and final challenge of Cemetech Contest #15 is here, which means you have just over one week to submit all five solutions for the contest. Like Challenge 4, this challenge is related to images, so we suggest you think long and hard about possible ways to interpret the number (numbers?) below. When you figure out the cipher and create your solution program, make sure that as in the first three challenges, it takes a string as input via Ans or stdin. It's hopefully enough of a clue to tell you that the output for this challenge should be an image either on the graphscreen, in a picture variable, or for computer programs, as a PNG or GIF image. As with the previous two challenges, we may publish a clue on Friday afternoon at 5pm ET, but we encourage you to try to solve it before Friday to earn maximum points, and we will decide whether to post a clue based on how many entrants have figured out the cipher. Good luck!

Challenge 5: 1111144444444433333333333211112223321122223333333444444444322222222233444
3222334444444443333333321111122233321112222333333333333334111144444444333
3333333333321111112223332111222233333333333333341111114444444433333333322
2222222344443332222344444444444441111111111111111111111111111111111111111
1444444444444444444444434333333333332322222222222222222222211111111111444
4433333333344141211412114121144434323343233432334441412114121141211444343
2334323343233344414121141211412114

Note: line breaks are for clarity, NOT part of the clue

(https://www.cemetech.net/img/contests/cc15.png)
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 15, 2016, 10:26:48 PM
Challenge #5, Hint #1 time! Knobs and a red rectangle.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 16, 2016, 06:59:46 PM
Challenge #5, Hint #2 time: the object described is an Etch-a-Sketch, which lets you generate an image by using knobs to move a cursor.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 16, 2016, 08:06:26 PM
I hope someone can solve the challenge before the deadline. O.O
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: KermMart̕ian on January 17, 2016, 05:49:31 AM
At least one person has solved all five challenges, and only for one challenge did it take more than 24 hours for the first entry to be received.
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: c4ooo on January 17, 2016, 09:25:06 PM
Hehehe not me. You guys lost me after the second chalange :P
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 17, 2016, 10:52:53 PM
Quote from: c4ooo on January 17, 2016, 09:25:06 PM
Hehehe not me. You guys lost me after the second chalange :P
There are chalanges in Cemetech contest? I thought there were only challenges, not shalanjes nor chalanges. :P
Title: Re: Cemetech Contest #15: Crypto Golfing
Post by: Yuki on January 18, 2016, 05:53:38 AM
Quote from: c4ooo on January 17, 2016, 09:25:06 PM
Hehehe not me. You guys lost me after the second chalange :P
Yeah, same, sadly. I lost you guys after the 2nd challenge. Maybe the fact I didn't felt to do anything after Christmas didn't helped.