- Solved Puzzles
- Unsolved Puzzles
- Phase I
- Phase II
- Phase III
- Miscelaneous Information
- ComTek Information
Phase I - MonstersOS
Phase II - ComtekOS
- Extract message from gifshuffle_talia_holds_the_key.gif
- Extract image from 48-65-61-72-74-62-65-61-74.png
- Decrypt console output to view song lyrics
Phase III - ComtekEnterprises
- Significance of 06.07.2022 (July 6th) mentioned in Comtek.Life update
- Significance of 05.08.2022 (August 5th) mentioned in MONSTERS OS page
- Album Artwork code
- Whether or not 'sail on in my memory' from avalanche.jpg is anything of value
- If there is a meaningful order to the BFL filenames
- The missing 2 rows?
Twitter user @lost_boy84 posted a burning heart emoji, the first tweet since 2020
Users viewed website previously used for ARG.
It had been updated, showing a Unix interface. The interface needed a specific update command to be entered to get the right output.
sudo apt full-upgrade -y
This command runs an update package that provides an error message
A riddle was provided
One of the final lines of the page was a riddle
https://183010165.com/mdnght/I'm at the centre of your blue heart. A drink will kill me. What am I? mp4-include InRelease
There are two clues to the answer here
I'm at the centre of your blue heart
Refers to the Change Your Heart Or Die vinyl record, which is blue, and has the word 'fire' etched into the center
Image courtesy of Discord user cpsedmonds
A drink will kill me. What am I?
Is an old riddle. Adding water to fire will kill it, giving the answer 'fire' again.
The solution was to add 'fire.mp4' to the clue URL (clueRL?)
fire.mp4
note: Is now at https://183010165.com/fire.mp4, not clear why it was moved
Opening fire.mp4 in a text editor reveals metadata (information about the file)
- Audio is
01_Golden Gate (Instrumental)_24bit_96kHz_Final_Master_3.18.22_LS_Edit.wav heroes-bg-notext.pngis referenced
Golden Gate is a song by Tyler Lyle, and the audio in the video sounds like a synth cover of that. The Midnight has covered Lyles music before, with Brooklyn (Lyle, The Midnight) and Lost & Found (Lyle, The Midnight). The cover of Golden Gate* was included as a secret track in the Change Your Heart Or Die vinyl release
heroes-bg-notext.png is not a known reference like this, but is suspected to be named in designer shorthand for the background art (bg) of the next album (Heroes, not confirmed), and might be important
The old website has an update available, and the text has changed slightly from 'New Release' to 'Hot Fix'
This is a unix command used to upgrade packages on a system
Running the command takes you to a new website advertising an unknown upcoming release by The Midnight
Several things were found in here
The gif on the page is seen glitching stylistically
Using the 'inspect element' feature of the browser, the name of this gif can be seen as gifshuffle_talian_holds_the_key.gif
Talian here is a reference to Discord user Talian, who was the first to find the metadata in fire.mp4 and alert the chat. The team behind the ARG are known to monitor the Discord, explaining the inclusion of this.
Gifshuffle is the name of a command line utility, included in Ubuntu (more info here). Gifshuffle is used to hide messages in gif files, and the inclusion of it in the name here suggests it needs to be used to extract the message.
Part of the metadata is 'heroes-bg-notext.png', which seems unrelated to anything seen so far.
Running the command
gifshuffle -C -p "heroes-bg-notext.png" gifshuffle_talian_holds_the_key.gif (you need to download the file from the website, then run this command in the same directory as where it is saved) reveals the hidden message
/heroes/48-65-61-72-74-62-65-61-74.png
Adding this to the comtek.life URL provides you with an image
By inverting the colours on this image and rotating 180 degrees, it becomes slightly more legible, and 'heart beat' can be slightly made out
The name, 48-65-61-72-74-62-65-61-74, is also a hexadecmial string that translates to 'heartbeat'. This decoding can be done using online tools.
The LostBoy account tweeted a hint that something was yet to be discovered
Tyler Lyle tweeted a clue out to assist in the next step of this clue
The use of 'stego' here is a hint at 'steganography', the process of hiding content within other content, much like the Gifshuffle tool earlier.
OpenStego is a free tool available to extract data hidden in images, but it needs a password. The text in the image, as well as the filename, are both 'heartbeat' which is worth trying
This succeeds, and reveals the hidden image; a full resolution copy of the 'Heartbeat' image. This will be saved to the output folder, the desktop in this case.
LostBoy then replies to their earlier tweet, confirming this was solved
By clicking the Presave bar in the middle of the screen, a long string is output to the browser console. This can be viewed through inspect element
The text of this is
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
This text can be reversed, and decoded as Base64 (online tools can do this)
Decoding the text reveals song lyrics
If the world is made out of love
Then the pain is proof that it isn’t done
When you’re empty you can use me up
You won’t run out there is love enough
Everybody wants to walk away sometimes
Some believe they can fly
Either way,
Coming down is still a hell of a ride
If you can feel your heartbeat
You’re not done yet
You can’t be
If it hurts, it’s working
There is love enough
For you and me
If the world is made out of love
Then a heart can change in anyone
I was nearly dead when you shared your cup
You’re the proof to me there is love enough
Everybody wants to walk away sometimes
Fools believe they can fly
Either way
Coming down is still a hell of a ride
If you can feel your heartbeat
You’re not done yet
You can’t be
If it hurts, it’s working
There is love enough
For you and me
If you can feel your heartbeat
You’re not done yet
Just keep going
There is love enough
For you and me
If the world is made out of us,
All our shadows suggest a sun
Every desert heart that wants the flood
Come and bring your need
There is love enough
Keep going ‘cause we can’t go back
Keep going ‘cause we can’t go back
Keep going ‘cause we can’t go back
If you can feel your heartbeat
You’re not done yet
You can’t be
If it hurts, it’s working
There is love enough
For you and me
If you can feel your heartbeat
You’re not done yet
Just keep going
There is love enough
For you and me
June 6th, LostBoy tweets a link to comtek.life, with an attached video
lostboy_june6_tweet.mp4
After several days of, the comtek.life page updated to link to the Heroes album information page, and now redirects to this automatically
Yet to be understood:
- If the 'Comtek X-MP' is a significant reference to the Cray supercomputer
- If the repeated 'I <3 NY' images are relevant
-
What the audio isBacking track is Heartbeat -
What is coming on June 8th. Suspected to be Heartbeart, given the cover & lyrics revealed so farHeartbeat was released
The new single, Heartbeat is released on streaming platofrms, and a video is uploaded to YouTube. This video features a TV frequently changing channels, visible in the top-right corner:
48 12 07 55 36 55 36 07 12 48 36 48 36 19 12 03
It is unclear what, if any, significance these numbers have at this point
Update: They are used to decrypt a file released in Phase III
The Comtek.life homepage has been updated, featuring a new version number and a new release date. The new date is for July 6th, and the version number is a youtube video ID
The ID can be added to youtube.com/watch?v= to view
The name, 01000001 01110110 01100001 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100011 01101000 01100101, can be decoded from binary to read 'Avalanche'
Extracting the audio from the video and viewing it through a spectrogram, you can do this with Audacity, reveals the message 'Who Are Comtek Enterprises"
Following this, LostBoy tweets asking to know more about this 'organisation'
the '.org' top-level domain (TLD) is used for organisations. Using this, the website 'comtekenterprises.org' is found
The homepage is just a gif
Inspecting the page, in a browser like chrome, reveals a comment.
Adding this to the URL gives an image, avalanche.jpg
The bottom right corner of the image holds a QR code
When scanned, this gives the URL https://comtekenterprises.org/6176616C616E636865/avalanche_intro.enc
The directory used here, 6176616C616E636865, is the Hexadecmial equivalent of 'avalanche'
This file is encrypted. Running the file utility on it, in Linux, reveals it is an OpenSSL file with salted password
OpenSSL requires a key to decode files. LostBoy tweets a hint about 'staying on the one channel'
This refers to the channel numbers seen in the previous stage, in the Hearbeat video
The command to decrypt the file is
openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -md md5 -d -in avalanche_intro.enc -out avalanche_intro -pass pass:48120755365536071248364836191203
A breakdown of this is:
openssl - the command line tool
enc - working in enc mode
-aes-256-cbc - specifying the cipher to be used1
-md md5 - the md flag is the 'message digest', which we set to md52
-d - set to decrypt mode
-in avalanche_intro.enc - specify the input file, the encrypted one
-out avalanche_intro - specify where the output should be saved
-pass pass:48120755365536071248364836191203 - specify the password, the pass: part is to tell the program you're using a passphrase, rather than a file or certificate\
- This is the default cipher for OpenSSL, and was an educated guess\
- This was a quirk of luck. A discord user just happened to be using a version of OpenSSL where md5 was the default, and it wasn't specified. Nothing, to date, indicated this was needed, as the default is SHA256
Running this command gives no errors.
Running file on the output reveals it has MP3 header information
The .mp3 extension can be added to view the song properties and play it in your choice of MP3 Player
On July 29th, the homepage was updated, with the avalanche comment replaced with the path for a zip file, bfl.zip
This file can be opened, revealing 231 image files and 231 mp3 files.
Each of the images is a 2796x12 pixel strip. Each of the mp3s is a small snippet of audio. The file names appear random, 3 characters of numbers, uppercase letters, and lowercase letters. Each png has a corresponding mp3, suggesting they are related. Each mp3 has metadata with the name of 'Brooklyn, Friday, Love (Instrumental)'
By painstakingly assembling the strips like a sadistic jigsaw puzzle, the cover art for 'Brooklyn, Friday, Love' is revealed, seemingly with 2 rows missing. Image courtesy of Discord user MysteryPotatoGuy.
The order of the pngs can then be used to combine the mp3s to get the final audio track
bfl_temp.mp4
Note: I have filled in the missing rows using Photoshop for this video
At this time, the LostBoy twitter account was updated to have the ComtekEnterprises image as a banner
TODO: GET LSIT OF FILES AND FFMPEG COMMAND
This phase started on August 24th and contains a series of YouTube videos with characters hidden in spectrograms
The videos appear to be the artwork for the suprise release single 'Heart Worth Breaking', with various glitch effects
The comtek.life website has been updated with a new video ID
tPy3swBXYLc
Which can be added to the standard YouTube video URL to get
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPy3swBXYLc
This video, when viewed as a spectrogram, reveals
stu3
The description for this video provides a link
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbG5SczlaaERKMFMyakZwQm8wNWQ0SUVMMmRfQXxBQ3Jtc0trSnNKdWVqNElVRWE2OWtubS1PV29xZVJWdzR1ZURMalh4SVpRSEFmV3dUNllLOF9HaVcwalVwdTBPMy1qSjBUWUpfUThMejNuQ3ZQWkg3dmZhenhEcXExUG01UHMyRGdkUllfdzR1Z1JmYzFVUDNvbw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fcomtekenterprises.org%2F786F666569676874%2Fhwb.data&v=tPy3swBXYLc
Which downloads a file, hwb.data, from the comtek enterprises website (see below)
Lostboy tweets a link to an unlisted YouTube video on the Comtek channel
This video, when viewed as a spectrogram, reveals
hujo
Following this, viewing the Comtek youtube channel homepage reveals a third video is available
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSzdPt2_mgg
Viewing this as a spectrogram reveals
tuwr
Viewing the 'About' section of the Comtek channel provides a link to a fourth video
https://youtu.be/lLWfltAyrck
Which when viewed as a spectrogram reveals
frlf
The 'links' section of the Comtek channel provides a link titled "???" which directs to a fifth video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPUDg9Pf2jo
The spectrogram for this video reveals
asto
It was discovered that the SoundCloud page for The Midnight contains a "???" link, to another YouTube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtxkpUi0CCc
The spectrogram for this video reveals
TODO
gitu
Viewing the developer console of The Mindights website provides a youtube link in the console output
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kto3QRV0QiY
The spectrogram of this video reveals
TODO
uguc
The description for the previous video contains
ItYMCVZHXL0
Which can be added to the Youtube URL to obtain another video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItYMCVZHXL0
The spectrogram for this reveals
TODO
rlhi
The encrypted data file can be decrypted using the information in the spectrograms
The order is fairly random, but the permutations can be generated using a wwebsite like https://www.dcode.fr/permutations-generator to use elements in a list for the permutations
The command to decrypt the file follows that in the BFL puzzle
openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -md md5 -d -in hwb.data -out hwb.mp3 -pass pass:stu3ugucrlhifrlfastohujogitutuwr
This reveals an instrumental version of Heart Worth Breaking, which was released as a surprise single in early September.
The URL
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbG5SczlaaERKMFMyakZwQm8wNWQ0SUVMMmRfQXxBQ3Jtc0trSnNKdWVqNElVRWE2OWtubS1PV29xZVJWdzR1ZURMalh4SVpRSEFmV3dUNllLOF9HaVcwalVwdTBPMy1qSjBUWUpfUThMejNuQ3ZQWkg3dmZhenhEcXExUG01UHMyRGdkUllfdzR1Z1JmYzFVUDNvbw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fcomtekenterprises.org%2F786F666569676874%2Fhwb.data&v=tPy3swBXYLc
Contains mostly technical aspects which are probably irrelevant. The core part is
q=https%3A%2F%2Fcomtekenterprises.org%2F786F666569676874%2Fhwb.data
Where the location for the link lives
This contains some formatting, the %2F for example is a way of representing the forward slash
The directory, named in hexadecimal as always, is
786F666569676874
Which decodes to readable text as
xofeight
It is unclear what this refers to
The file itself is an encrypted data file, like what was given in the previous stage.
Hidden Message
The album artwork has a secret code visible in it, which was decoded to 'see you on this other side'.
This has yet to come into play, but LostBoy responded to it when tweeted at
The release of Avalanche is teased with a video in a tweet, and subsequent video posted to YouTube
Information in the video:
- CH03
- 'PLAY SLP' -> Super Long Play or Slow Play on VHS players
- Date is 06/21/88 (June 21st 1988)
- Final runtime in the video is 4:32:02
- 'Sail On In My Memory' appears before the video plays
- Video shows an ocean scene at sun up/down
- Various colour distortions, getting more intense as the video goes on
- Video ID is mg0RAEZ-Md0
- A spectogram of the audio contains nothing of note
Not much is known about this entity/organisation. What we do know is:
- comtek.life was the first website found for them. This had hidden files relating to Heartbeat, the second single from Heroes. It now redirects to the presave information
- comtekenterprises.org was the second website discovered. This currently has a gif for a homepage, and hidden files relating to Brooklyn, Friday, Love, a released song from Heroes. The source code has been used to provide files at various stages thorughout the ARG
- A YouTube channel was discovered, which hosts a series of unlisted videos and one public video