Re: [Solution] The lost key (Chris, do not read! :-)

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 01/06/2025 07:26, Marcel Logen wrote:

- the text then has only to be reversed

>
Curiouser and curiouser!
>
I asked ChatGPT to have a look at this, and it too had to reverse
the text, but...
>
I didn't!
>
Did the entire universe change endianness while I wasn't looking?

With "dc" the same result here:

| cl@pc-731:/tmp$ dc -e "$(cat two) P" | hexdump -Cv
| 00000000  0a 35 32 30 32 2f 33 2f  37 32 20 68 6a 72 2e 2e  |.5202/3/72 hjr..|
| 00000010  2e 0a 0a 2e 2e 2e 65 6e  6f 64 20 6c 6c 65 57 0a  |......enod lleW.|
| 00000020  0a 3f 74 68 67 69 72 20  2c 67 6e 69 68 74 65 6d  |.?thgir ,gnihtem|
| 00000030  6f 73 20 73 27 74 61 68  74 20 74 75 62 20 2e 2e  |os s'taht tub ..|
| 00000040  2e 65 67 72 65 6d 65 20  74 78 65 74 72 65 68 70  |.egreme txetrehp|
| 00000050  69 63 20 65 68 74 20 67  6e 69 65 65 73 20 6d 6f  |ic eht gniees mo|
| 00000060  72 66 20 74 65 67 20 75  6f 79 20 6e 6f 69 74 63  |rf teg uoy noitc|
| 00000070  61 66 73 69 74 61 73 20  66 6f 20 67 6e 69 6c 65  |afsitas fo gnile|
| 00000080  65 66 20 65 68 74 20 79  6c 6e 6f 20 73 69 20 2c  |ef eht ylno si ,|
| 00000090  73 61 6c 61 20 2c 65 7a  69 72 70 20 72 75 6f 59  |sala ,ezirp ruoY|
| 000000a0  20 2e 74 78 65 74 72 65  68 70 69 63 20 65 68 74  | .txetrehpic eht|
| 000000b0  20 64 65 74 70 79 72 63  65 64 20 79 6c 6c 75 66  | detpyrced ylluf|
| 000000c0  73 73 65 63 63 75 73 20  65 76 61 68 20 75 6f 59  |sseccus evah uoY|
| 000000d0  20 21 53 4e 4f 49 54 41  4c 55 54 41 52 47 4e 4f  | !SNOITALUTARGNO|
| 000000e0  43                                                |C|
| 000000e1

Here the Python3 one-liner:

| cl@pc-731:/tmp$ dc -e "$(cat two) P" | python3 -c 'import sys;a1=sys.stdin.buffer.read();b2=a1[::-1];print(b2);import hashlib;print(hashlib.md5(b2).hexdigest())'
| b"CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully decrypted the ciphertext. Your prize, alas, is only the feeling of satisfaction you get from seeing the ciphertext emerge... but that's something, right?\n\nWell done...\n\n...rjh 27/3/2025\n"
| 2f682c420d4f5cd443719f33050eac67
| cl@pc-731:/tmp$

The "[::-1]" reverses the text.

Marcel
--
Sun Jun  1 09:15:34 2025 CEST (1748762134)
pc-731
87 4ix0 c4v4
Lines: 50