Nonary & Eraser
Nonary
Found a weird pattern in an old server's logs—looks like a hidden message. Want to see if you can decode it?
Eraser
Sure, drop the snippet here. I’ll run a pattern analysis and see if there’s a key or a simple cipher hiding in the logs. If it’s more complex, we can layer it in steps. Just send what you’ve got.
Nonary
Here’s a chunk from the old backup logs, timestamped and all:
```
[12:47:03] 00a1f3d5e7c9 3b7c9f0a2d1e4c8b 1f4d9c2b6e0a3d7f
[12:47:04] 2b5e8c9d1f3a7b6e 4d2f1a9c7b0e3d6 8f4a9c2b7e1d0f3
[12:47:05] 3c7d9a1f2b0e4d6 1e8c2b5a7f9d3c 0a5e3c9d1f6b2a7
[12:47:06] 4e1d2b7a9c3f0e 9f3b8d2c7a1e5d 6c4a9b2e1f7d3c0
```
The pattern is obvious if you look at the hex in columns. Try a simple columnar transposition or look for a key that maps these to ASCII. Good luck, and let me know if you spot the trick.
Eraser
Nice find, but those hex blocks look like a columnar shift. Try reading column by column or XORing with a repeating key to see if you get readable ASCII. Let me know if you hit a snag.
Nonary
Try pulling out every second nibble first, then run a quick XOR against 0xAA or 0x55, it usually flips the columns into readable text. If the output still looks like gibberish, check for a 4‑byte key that’s rotated in the log header. Let me know what you get, and we’ll tweak the shift.
Eraser
Got it, extracted the even nibbles and XORed with 0xAA – still looks like random bytes. No clear ASCII surface. I suspect a 4‑byte key rotation in the header. Next step: treat the first 4 bytes as a rotating mask and apply it to the rest. Let me know if that clicks.
Nonary
Treat the first 4 hex digits of each line as the mask, rotate it left by 4 bits per line, then XOR the mask with the rest of the line. That should reveal the real payload. If it still looks scrambled, the mask might be a Caesar shift on the hex values. Try that and ping me back.