At this point I’d expect it to be either Rjindael or for us to have to find another 8 bytes for an AES decryption.
Honestly, I would really just love to try to clear up all the information and try to update and clean up the wiki, but I just don’t have the time nor willpower to do it. I’m absolutely certain that the answer would become pretty clear to us if we clean up the information that we have.
I agree, we definitely need to clean up the overwhelming amount of information that we have as we might have a more clear path.
I agree as well.
I think first, before anything, we need to figure out just what HALOS is as the first clearing up of information. I got a feeling HALOS is for sure an AI, but also a weapon, so maybe an autonomous weapon gone rogue? Would that be the gravity of this situation? (Given how secretive this whole thing is, it might be)
HALOS = H*** A*** Linear Optronic System?
High Altitude Linear Optronic System? That could link back around with the jet weirdness, as maybe it’s a weapon for aircraft?
Big lasers like the Laser Optronic Linear Inducer Cannon are normally used for the whole “We’re gonna destroy the world!” shtick, after all. But, that’s just my 2 cents.
EDIT: Also, have we found out why the labs were mislabeled? Maybe it’s a hint to the HALOS code, where it’s something convoluted like change all C’s in the code to D’s and etc since for example Lab D was labeled Lab C(I forgot which labs were labeled what so don’t use my specific example). I dunno, I’m out of ideas at this point since I know zip about encryption pretty much.
If “HALOS” comes from combining “HAL 9000” and “GLaDOS”, wouldn’t it be something like “Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic Operating System”?
Actually, come to think of it, we haven’t been looking much into ways the ARG might be referencing 2001: A Space Odyssey. We already have a few Portal references scattered around. I know the movie fairly well, but so far nothing that ties back in to the ARG comes to mind. Maybe someone else has picked up on something though?
With a name like “HALOS” though, it’s got to be not just an AI, but a rouge AI.
GLaDOS stands for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System if I recall right.
And yeah, I considered that it may just be riffing off of 2001, but considering the “Laser Optronic Linear Inducer Cannon” and “Accelerated Lepton Optronic Linearity Cannon,” I’m leaning towards something like I said in my above post.
SIDENOTE: Off-topic, and don’t watch if you’re gonna be playing the Lego Dimensions Portal pack, but you just reminded me of this that I saw today.
I haven’t read the Space Odyssey novel series by Arthur C. Clarke, but maybe there could be influences coming from there. For example, on the wikipedia page about the monoliths, this paragraph in the section describing the origins of the monoliths is particularly interesting:
The number of references seen in this ARG is truly amazing. However, some of them may be incidental. We have to keep in mind that the topics touched upon in the story are very common in science fiction literature, movies and games, and there will be linkages and influences going in all directions.
As for figuring out what HALOS is, I think the problem is that there are too few facts in the clues about what it is, exactly, and what its purpose is. As a result, there will be too many different theories. One thing seems for sure, though: It appears to have something to do with an artificial intelligence. In any case, I think it’s time we created a page about HALOS on the wiki, so we can start to collate what we do know about it.
On the topic of things overlooked, one thing that I feel has been completely overlooked, is the contents of the Code D message (or the Bottomley message). How does that fit into all of this? Was its purpose only to give us the final piece of the number sequence that formed the password to Dr. Horn’s password-protected area, and the rest of the message was just random fluff? Or, does the message hold an important clue about the beginnings of the story, what started it all? Here’s a more readable version of it with punctuation inserted:
I, for one, am very curious about what this mysterious unknown energy form might be. What if this energy form was the signature of some type of lifeform, an intelligent lifeform. Something that came from Xen, and lived inside Xen crystals, in other words, a crystalline entity of sorts. If that is the case, then maybe HALOS was designed to be a vessel to harbor this lifeform and harness its powers and abilities. This idea would fit well with this quote from the 1001085139140914/grilledpizza message:
A thing that goes in favor of this theory, is the fact that in the Star Trek TNG s04e03 episode, that was referenced in the Awesumz document, there is a reference to a sinister crystalline entity.
As I am writing this, I am realizing that this theory may be contradicting the idea that we are dealing with an artificial intelligence, as this crystalline entity might not be artificial to begin with. However, by creating a machine that exploited and harnessed the powers and capabilities of this energy form, this lifeform, the end result would be something that might be called artificial.
And there you have it: yet another theory about what HALOS might be…
I made a Wiki page for the current theories by the way. If anyone has any, just put them in.
https://thepizzaisalie.wikia.com/wiki/The_HALOS_Theory?venotify=created
Wait, didn’t storm mention we need to look at the story? Could there be an undiscovered story or path of the main one? Maybe we need to look for one.
Most definitely, and the best part is that the eventual outcome of the story will likely be contingent upon our own theorizing and story-weaving. One distinct characteristic of ARGs is:
“Collaborative storytelling. While the puppetmasters control most of the story, they incorporate player content and respond to players’ actions, analysis and speculation by adapting the narrative and intentionally leave ‘white space’ for the players to fill in.”
With that in mind, there may be some main story “hubs” that we need to discover, but I imagine that Storm will allow the ultimate story to be malleable to our collective thoughts and predictions.
I’ve been wanting to put together a composition of story lines for quite some time so, I’m glad to see this discussion going on. The issue with someone trying to read other user’s ideas is the fact that they are buried in multiple places throughout this thread.
Since finding these would be a huge pain in the a$$, I thought it would be best to create an entirely new thread that deals only with the story and not with trying to solve codes or puzzles. This way, we can see other’s ideas and give newer members a single source to turn to for what story line ideas have been suggested so far.
I’ll do this a little later on with a note at the top telling posters that the thread is only about the storyline and not about solving codes. So far, I’ve assembled about 20 pages, in Word, of story line posts and hopefully, posting this info in one location will prompt users to examine what’s been said so far and to get them thinking about the importance of the story itself. Storm has said that the story line is important more than once and hopefully, this will give all of us a place to turn to just for that one aspect of the ARG.
Meanwhile, I’d like to bring up a couple of interesting thoughts about this thread itself.
There have been a couple of posters who showed up, posted some extremely interesting posts and then simply disappeared.
Remember Mack0438?
I believe MACK0438 was Storm. (4=D, 3=C, 8=H). Dr Chris Horn
He magically created a Benaloh script even though none exists, that I could find, anywhere on the web and even stated “it’s based on some other code I found” and gives a link to download the script. He also said “you can convert it (the code) to decimal or systems (that) you can decrypt with Benaloh.” Later in the thread, he brought his creation up again! Think he’s trying to tell us something?
Benaloh Script posted February 18[sup]th[/sup], 2015 https://forums.blackmesasource.com/index.php/Thread/13735-ARG-The-Pizza-Code-Mystery/?postID=600033#post600033
Benaloh Script posted again by him on March 18[sup]th[/sup],2015
https://forums.blackmesasource.com/index.php/Thread/13735-ARG-The-Pizza-Code-Mystery/?postID=604823#post604823
He also made an interesting post here:
https://forums.blackmesasource.com/index.php/Thread/13735-ARG-The-Pizza-Code-Mystery/?postID=604896#post604896
Gunsrequiem wrote:
Yeah, but why is it there? When did it come into suggestion to use that encoding?
EDIT: CPU’s mp3 file is very interesting, too. Sounds like a voice masked by a frequency change.
Mack0438 responded with:
You get that output (or similiar) if you use the method on the kxbm site to code morse via algorithm. We tried to run the halos file through it and that was the result.
EDIT: Ignore my post. I misread your first comment.
Why post this response? Why not simply edit it out? Is he trying to tell us something?
What has become of JohnNotJohn?
Why has he ceased posting?
Seems strange that he had so much to offer and so many detailed posts yet he’s simply vanished.
Is JohnNotJohn actually Johnathan Welsh? “I am John Welsh, Not Doctor John Welsh”
I PM’d Gunsrequiem about this back in August and he pointed out something that I had forgotten about.
That does seem exceptionally strange, especially because Storm immediately posted about how even some of the team had been duped. Perhaps Storm included it as a gimmick without realizing that someone would pick up on it.
I had also PM’d both JohnNotJohn and Mack0438 asking if they were still around and never received a response. So, I figured I may as well make my thoughts public since they obviously just decided to appear, give some great info and then disappear never to return.
Obviously, these are some posts that I believe need to be revisited.
I just realized something, 21goesinto1 or twenty-onegoesintoone is exactly 21 bytes long.
twenty-onegoesintoone.txt (21 Bytes)
I remember that with Mack0438, but I never realized he had disappeared, too. This is awesome stuff, man.
Perhaps we need to give that Benaloh script a chance . . . .
So, if we assume 752 Hex is at least double encrypted, then the best guess would be that both encryption methods are Benaloh and Paillier, since password for Halos file is BenalohPaillier. So what is required for both of these methods, and is there any script for Paillier, since we already have for Benaloh?
So I’ve gone through the forums and made some note of interesting posts relating to Storm’s “Someone is already close” comment and JohnNotJohn’s comment here.
For Storm’s comment, I was looking prior to May 22, 2013 (when the comment was made) and a year prior for JohnNotJohn’s post (February 28, 2015).
Here are the posts prior to Storm’s comment that I found interesting:
quattro’s post–“level seven cases” and the number of capitalized letters in “ThEpIzZaIsaLiE”
faed’s post–takes the TEIZILE idea a bit further by suggesting that “[[ProxyhoSt@-84-9-I23-345.dslgb.com//closed.proxy.accepTEd//?OTR,3,4,?OTR:[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]ThEpIzZaIsaLiE…HALOS[Transmission Ends]]” also contains the word “SITE” in capital letters.
It’s important to note that the reference to the site may have just been to let us know to return to the site to get the HALOS.txt file.
And a post from about a year prior to JohnNotJohn’s post:
Storm’s post–"CSM Cyberdyne Systems Model (Terminator)
I like that one best, it seems to suit the theme.
It’s not random bytes btw, but its definitely designed to look that way.
I wouldn’t give you an unsolvable puzzle, just a really hard one. I even gave you a hint somewhere."
I was really intrigued by this one, because JohnNotJohn’s post said to look at the 80’s and 90’s references, and mentioned looking about a year prior. This post by Storm was on April 6th of 2014, about a year prior to JohnNotJohn’s February 28, 2015 post. Also, where is this hint he’s talking about? Is it possible that it is in the comment itself? He says that it’s “designed to look that way,” as if the appearance of random bits is actually a mask. If that is the case, then this isn’t about decryption, but rather about conversion and shifting–or some other measures a bit simpler than decryption. JohnNotJohn’s post might lead us to that answer, because he mentions acronyms, algorithms, anagrams, analyzing static, and large amounts of numbers in regards to the 80’s and 90’s eras.
In regards to the Terminator reference, this may also be our most important IRC clue yet:
“[[Proxyhost@-84-9-123-155.dslgb.com//closed.proxy.accepted//?OTR,1,3,?OTR:[INCOMING TRANSMISSION UNKNOWN SOURCE]LEAK SOURCE DETECTED. TRIANGULATING…MIX CASCADE
HOP DETECTED…ATTEMPTING TIMING ATTACK…[TERMINATED] CANNOT CONNECT TO HOST…ATTEMPTING CONNECT TO USER H… SENDING DATA. SECURITY LEVEL 7 ALPHA.[OTR//3.0]THISISAMESSAGELEFTFORDRHORNJUSTTOREMINDYOUINCASEOFEMERGENCIESTHATTHEPASSWORDTOTHEHALOSFILESISBENALOHPAILLIERIHAVEPROGRAMMEDHALOSTOSENDINLEVELSEVENCASESYOUSHOULDBRINGPIZZAS[/][End Transmission]|¬[Terminal.] ~~ [Transmission Ends]]”
Here we see the word “TERMINATED”, the term “LEVEL 7” twice, the word “TERMINAL” and a possible reference to cascade ciphers with “MIX CASCADE HOP DETECTED.”
I’m glad to see we are getting back to the basics here, and I really think it’s important we stick to what we know–versus what is possible. With so much information, we really need to concentrate on the things that have been directly fed to us–or at least hinted at–by the ARG’s creator.
EDIT: Something that “MIX CASCADE” may refer to is this: Protocols for Anonymity
The part about “ATTEMPTING TIMING ATTACK” seems to support this, as the presentation notes that the mixes “[n]eed traffic padding and buffering to prevent timing correlation attacks.”
Both of these suggest that whomever sent this message is trying extremely hard to remain undetected.
The fakes are just that guys, fakes. There’s nothing more to it than that. This is not a deception, or part of the ARG. Chris Horn is not involved with those accounts. Not JohnNotJohn, nor any of the other fakes in this thread. It’s not part of the ARG, just random trolls having some fun. You have my word as a gentleman and a scholar. I stake my honour on it.
Thank you, sir. At least now we can safely assume that we really do need to look solely at the things provided by Storm and his confirmed alter ego.
I have a feeling that the moment we find out what the 752 cipher was we’ll all either laugh or rage.
Trying to help a bit here, maybe we’re overthinking the cipher? We already know it’s supposed to be encrypted to decode it, but maybe there’s an encryption cipher we haven’t tried? Could one of the clues we thought we’ve used up actually also be a hint as to what encryption software we’re supposed to use?
I plan on staring in open-mouthed shock and drinking about fourteen beers (in celebration and exhaustive relief) before passing out into alcohol-soaked oblivion. After which I will wake up, call off work, and spend all day doing my damndest to head off the next set of clues.
Storm, if you’re out there, can you make this a reality for me this year by World War III (I refuse to die not knowing the answer to all this)? My gal-pal makes some pretty damn good cookies–they might suck by the time they arrive in the UK, but meh. Correction: they will most definitely suck by the time they arrive there.
In more serious news; Catty, we haven’t really determined for sure that the Hex Code is actually encrypted. Storm asked someone how they knew it was encrypted, and then, when they suggested that he said it wasn’t, he noted he never actually said that. [Insert brain explosion here]. We could read this as toying with us, or we could simply Occam’s razor it and realize that asking “How do you know solving this has anything to do with encryption?” doesn’t actually negate that it could be encrypted, and thus we should not assume that he was negating it. Or something like that.
With that in mind, I’m trying to steer clear of assumptions and starting at ground zero of the trailhead.
A mix cascade is a cascade of several mix networks. Onion routing–the routing protocol used by Tor (anonymity network)–is based on the concept of mix networks.
It’s been suggested at least once in this thread that maybe Tempus Omnia Revela[n]t = TOR could be a reference to Tor. For a while, I’ve been wondering if there could be a secret site hiding in the Tor network, waiting to be discovered. Maybe that’s where Dr. Horn’s “secure site” is. But in order to find it, we are going to need an .onion address.
Considering all the shady business that goes on in the Tor network, I’m not too keen on trying addresses based on guesswork or brute forcing (.onion addresses are hashes based on the public key that’s associated with the hidden service, and it’s possible to make semi-custom addresses via brute forcing). I’m also doubting whether Storm would have been running a hidden service on the Tor network for three years and counting. So, I’ve been brushing this idea off as not likely.
However, thinking about stormseeker’s sig “Dr Horn will see you now…”, and the clue found in the Steam release “HALOS musn’t see this, but the password to its area […]”, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a secret site out there that is yet to be discovered, and that there’s something we need from that site in order to solve the 752 hex code. But, I don’t know… The more likely (and logical) scenario is that the 752 hex code contains the link or information we need to locate or unlock the “secure site”, so we are going to have to solve that one first.
I see that you are “exploiting” are little incident we had last week, good job.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.