Code that helped end Apartheid

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jgrahamc ◴[18 Oct 24 13:35 UTC] No.41879323[source]▶

So when he DM’d me to say that he had “a hell of a story”—promising “one-time pads! 8-bit computers! Flight attendants smuggling floppies full of random numbers into South Africa!”—I responded.

Ha ha ha. Yes, that was literally my very short pitch to Steven about Tim Jenkin's story!

The actual DM: "I think this has the makings of a hell of a story: https://blog.jgc.org/2024/09/cracking-old-zip-file-to-help-o... If you want I can connect you with Tim Jenkin. One time pads! 8-bit computers! Flights attendants smuggling floppies full of random numbers into South Africa!"

replies(7): >>41879480 #>>41879695 #>>41880079 #>>41880391 #>>41883112 #>>41884701 #>>41885135 #

jefb ◴[18 Oct 24 13:52 UTC] No.41879480[source]▶

>>41879323 #

Did you end up discovering the original password to the zip file? (was it, as I'd hope, `TIMBOBIMBO` ?)

replies(1): >>41879498 #

1. jgrahamc ◴[18 Oct 24 13:54 UTC] No.41879498[source]▶

>>41879480 #

No, I did not. I threw quite a lot of compute power at it using bkcrack (CPU) and hashcat (GPU) but never found out what it was. It was definitely not TIMBOBIMBO, sadly!

I also ended up sponsoring the bkcrack project because the maintainer added a new option for me: https://github.com/kimci86/bkcrack/pull/126

replies(1): >>41880027 #

2. latchkey ◴[18 Oct 24 14:57 UTC] No.41880027[source]▶

>>41879498 (TP) #

How much was "quite a lot"?

replies(1): >>41880186 #

3. 1970-01-01 ◴[18 Oct 24 15:14 UTC] No.41880186[source]▶

>>41880027 #

I did a pass with bkcrack. The password is over 13 char.

bkcrack.exe -k 98e0f009 48a0b11a c70f8499 -r 1..18 ?p bkcrack 1.7.0 - 2024-05-26 [11:07:33] Recovering password length 0-6... length 7... length 8... length 9... length 10... length 11... length 12... length 13...

replies(2): >>41880384 #>>41880416 #

4. jgrahamc ◴[18 Oct 24 15:36 UTC] No.41880384{3}[source]▶

>>41880186 #

I can tell you it's over 14 ?p, and over 16 ?u?d, and over 17 ?u.

replies(1): >>41884378 #

5. ◴[18 Oct 24 15:38 UTC] No.41880416{3}[source]▶

>>41880186 #

6. SG- ◴[18 Oct 24 23:24 UTC] No.41884378{4}[source]▶

>>41880384 #

where's the original encrypted zip for this?

replies(1): >>41886428 #

7. jgrahamc ◴[19 Oct 24 08:14 UTC] No.41886428{5}[source]▶

>>41884378 #

If you want to try to crack the password you don't need the ZIP file. Just the key (which you can see in the bkcrack command above).

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