How I Solved the ROOTCON 6 Easter Egg Hunt

ROOTCON, an annual hacker conference and Information Security gathering in the Philippines, launched an Easter Egg hunt last night. The first to submit the codes got a 50% discount at the ROOTCON 6 event in Cebu Parklane International Hotel this coming Sept 7 (Fri) – Sept 8 (Sat), 2012.

It was 11PM, and I had nothing better to do. So I challenged myself to the hunt, which involved 5 Easter Eggs. And before I tell you how I solved all 5, here’s a DISCLAIMER: I have no hacking background, and I’m a complete noob when it comes to hacking. I don’t even know anybody in the scene, except for @not_1337, @Chaoz, and @semprix. But we all know I’m just dropping names. #KissAss

Egg #1 was pretty easy. It had something to do with source code. To crack the egg, I did a View Page Source in Firefox. Code: You.

Egg #2 was braille, but I didn’t know that at first, even with the “3 blind mice” clue. So, I just googled for “six dots”, and found… nothing. Then, it hit me to look up for braille. I found a guide, and came up with the code: HACK.

Egg #3 was probably the toughest of them all. I mean… Where does a clueless guy even start with this?

Is that even a programming language? To solve this one, I had to ask for a hint in StackOverflow (BEST tech Q&A site ever!). Armed with the UUDecode clue, I found an online service that gave me the code: therootcon.

Egg #4 was second easiest, cookies! Just use Cookies Manager+ in Firefox, and you’re all set. Code: 3a5t3r.

Egg #5 was second most difficult. How do you undress a picture (I cropped it. Sorry!) that seems to have come out from a Playboy photoshoot? Do you use Photoshop, and do naughty things with it?

Thinking it had something to do with stenography, I downloaded ImageHide and SilentEye. Unfortunately, neither of them worked. As a last resort, after doing fruitless Google and DuckDuckGo searches, I opened up my trusty Notepad++ and opened the image. Blimey! Not exactly the best way to solve it, but there it was, the last code: EGG.

So, the complete code is: You HACK therootcon 3a5t3r EGG. Well, that was fun, especially for a n00b! For @_rootcon_‘s official solution, click here.

:: By the way, I need more Dropbox space for putting up my files on the Cloud. If you would be so kind to register under my referral link, that would be just awesome. You get 2GB of FREE space, while I get an additional 500MB (You will too, when you refer other folks!)