Here is the solution to the easy version of the Crypto Kitchen Packet Challenge from Alec R Waters (@alecrwaters on twitter). Thanks for the challenge Alec. By the way, Alec’s blog is http://wirewatcher.wordpress.com.
Alec writes:
Everything needed to discover the secret ingredient is in the email,
hidden in plain sight – all we have to do is look hard enough!
The first thing to notice is amongst the list of ingredients. The recipe
calls for:
“30 ml Balsamic vigenere”
“Vigenere”, huh? That’s not an ingredient, that’s a cipher!
Now we have to look for something that could be ciphertext. The most
likely thing is the Message-ID:
Message-ID: <Pmjeyeglwfh7F@i.eat.packets>
So our current theory is that Pmjeyeglwfh7F is the product of a Vigenere
cipher. All we need is the key (or enough time to brute-force it!)
Fortunately, the key is provided in the message too:
“discretion is the key”
Decrypting Pmjeyeglwfh7F using the Vigenere cipher and a key of
“discretion” gives us:
Merchandise7X
…which is apparently the secret ingredient in a certain brand of soft drink 🙂
Chris continues:
I’ll post the solution to the hard version tomorrow.
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