[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

quattro · November 25, 2018, 3:16am

Also note that the Wikipedia page on “The Philosopher’s Stone” mentions:

“[…] useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality.”

We have already heard from Dr Bottomley about being cloned and alive and kicking somewhere else!

Another interpretation may be more literal. Is the philosopher’s stone the niobium itself? Is the niobium the key to this cloning operation they have going?

Edit: But why pizza? Did the scientists know something was going down and try to smuggle in niobium via pizzas? [Sounds crazy I know, but hey, this is an ARG]. This might explain why Horn did not want the security officer eating the pizza! Additionally we see several dead scientists near these pizzas. Were they cloned/teleported elsewhere?

Edit2: Thinking more about the cloning and HALOS/AI. What if the scientists wanted out? For whatever reason we know that HALOS was observing the scientists. Watching their every move.
What if it was supposed to observe them to learn about them. Not for some pursuit of science, but in case it needs to trick someone. That is, what if the scientists managed to create clones of
themselves via some mechanism (niobium based?) which are then controlled by HALOS. They would simply be meaty automatons controlled by this elaborate AI that observed everything they did around Black Mesa. People not in on the scheme would be none the wiser. Here are people that look exactly like their real counterparts, and act like their real counterparts. Bottomley does mention how HECU thinks they killed him.

KyuuGryphon · November 25, 2018, 3:16am

I’m pretty sure the pizzas are just a cover-up for the costs related to HALOS.

As for niobium… Something that caught my eye on the Wikipedia page is this:

“[…] The temperature stability of niobium-containing superalloys is important for its use in jet and rocket engines.”

There’s a rocket engine in Blast Pit, and there’s the rocket-satellite thing in On A Rail. I think it’s… a bit of a stretch for things to be connected like that, but I thought that was interesting.

Regardless, I think our main goal right now is cracking the HALOS cipher text-wall. I would take a crack at it myself, but I know bugger-all when it comes to ciphers and encryption and stuff.

quattro · November 25, 2018, 3:16am

I dunno. It would seem outrageous to rack up a bill like that on pizzas alone. This is Black Mesa for darn sakes; their funding is HUGE. Part of me believes niobium was being purchased and smuggled in via pizzas. But you may be right in that I am over-thinking things.

Edit: As far as the cracking the cipher goes: We need to fill in the story gaps. Otherwise we will have no idea on hints/clues to use to decipher it.

Was anything about the mislabeling of QE map ever used? Lab D -> Lab B and Lab C -> Lab D or whatnot?

Primadog · August 11, 2020, 10:12am

Glad to see people still working hard on this ARG.

Niobium is toxic, so that smuggling idea isn’t too far fetched. “Niobium chloride was one of the most toxic of the rarer chemicals… immediate cardiovascular collapse and respiratory paralysis.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niobium#Precautions

So imagine a few hapless security guards hiding out in the aftermath of the resonance cascade. After a couple hours, they get hungry and found boxes of pizzas lying around. Thank god! They wolf down the pizzas, even though it tastes a bit funny. Probably just a bit stale and cold, they thought, but they sure as hell not going to search for a microwave while those things are about. What they don’t realize is that the flour has been adulterated with Niobium, and they all have consumed a lethal dose. A few minutes later, the poison takes its effect. Trouble breathing, heart attack, one by one they collapse, bleeding profusely from all orifices. The last guard standing, knowing his doom will soon come, draws “The Pizza is a Lie” in his own blood to warn the unfortunate chaps that may stumble upon what’s left of them.

Sounds reasonable to me.

Toxyn · November 25, 2018, 3:16am

You can only slice a pizza so many ways.

Poisened pizza which is why horns eating tacos in his hut?

ysrael214 · November 25, 2018, 3:16am

Toxins in Black Mesa? This reminds me of GLaDOS’ neurotoxins.

Toxyn · November 25, 2018, 3:16am

someone bought something from a wal-mart for 666 bucks, seen it in the shack.

Flavrans · August 11, 2020, 10:12am

@quattro, @Primadog, an interesting theory. Perhaps “grilled pizza” is somehow referring to the process of extracting the Niobium from the pizzas. However, in the real world, if a pure Niobium isotope is what they need, I’m not sure how easy/difficult it would be to extract and purify it from a Niobium salt baked into pizzas.

About the Horseshoe Pub & Pizza, I’m not sure if it is related at all, it could just be a coincidence, or a gag like the Domino’s Pizza gag in IRC clue 2. However, I noticed that not far from the Horseshoe Pub & Pizza, there’s a restaurant called Guenther’s Creekside Grill. This made me think of the grilled pizza. Could this be a hint telling us that the grilled pizza is significant somehow?

In the obscured text in the 1001085139140914 file, Dr. Horn mentions something that “holds the key to all things…”. Is he talking about the grilled pizza or the binary triangle? Does the binary triangle with the red triangle at the top represent something? After all, stormseeker did add the solution to the binary puzzle embedded in the triangle under “Handy info” in the OP, so the grilled pizza/binary triangle could still be significant in some way.

On another matter, I was looking at the “science” part of the Code D message again:

I then realized that terms like “axis”, “modulator” and “focusing” are also used in relation to teleportation, Xen and Xen crystals. From the Half-Life wiki’s article on teleportation:

(Also read the the article on Xen crystals)

Perhaps teleportation is related to the story somehow. And what is this unknown energy form that Dr. Horn discovered?

At this point, we’re still not sure exactly what the Niobium might be used for, but considering that an artificial intelligence seems to be involved, perhaps the most interesting application of Niobium can be found in the emerging field of quantum computing. In 2011 the Canadian company D-Wave Systems announced what they claim was the first commercial quantum computer. It’s powered by liquid Helium cooled quantum processors where Niobium form the superconducting qubits in the processor chips. Read more about the hardware here: https://www.dwavesys.com/en/dev-tutorial-hardware.html

One of their employees is a scientist with a peculiar fondness for cake.

EDIT:
A more modern scientific interpretation of The Philosopher’s Stone could be that it represents the “Theory of Everything”. When Dr. Horn uses the phrase “this holds the key to all things…”, it seems as though he is referring to something that will unlock the secrets of the universe.

But whatever it is, Dr. Horn seems to believe that it will enable him to find Dr. Stone and Dr. Welsh, wherever they are hiding, so he can exact his revenge on them, for whatever they did.

About the taco shack: I’m not sure if it means anything, but the fact that you can only reach the shack through a portal, could be a clue. Also, on the table outside the shack, there are three plates and three forks, on the ground there are three soda cans. Inside the shack, there’s a plate with three tacos and there are three soda cans in the trash can. This might suggest that Dr. Horn had a meal there with two of his colleagues (possibly Dr. Bottomley and Dr. Junek?) while privately discussing the secret project (HALOS?). The shack also seems well connected to the outside world with the two satellite dishes on the roof. But then again, this could just be an easter egg with no relevance to the ARG.

About this quote (also from the 1001085139140914 file):

I’m wondering if Dr. Horn could be talking about a “cage” for the AI here?

There’s a concept for an artificial intelligence called an “Oracle AI”, which is a kind of a “boxed” AI, designed for answering questions, with no networking capabilities or connections to the outside world, except for a simple human interface. The idea is to create a “friendly” AI that is safe to use and operate, by limiting the AI’s ability to reach and/or expand beyond its confines and do things we don’t want it to do.

Perhaps “Satan’s cage” is an allusion to this concept. The AI could have been active and running for quite some time before they had finished installing it in its intended operating environment. Maybe they needed to keep it busy with a complex problem while they finished the installation. But something didn’t quite go according to plan, possibly due to something Dr. Stone and Dr. Welsh did. Instead, the AI turned its focus on the scientists, observing them and the environment.

But I have no idea how the pizzas could fit into to this scenario.

EDIT 2:
Maybe Dr. Horn was using pizzas as part of a reward system for the AI. In order to train the AI and keep it goal oriented, he needed to introduce a reward system. At the same time, the AI could have been given the capability to grow and expand its own circuits by consuming raw materials like Niobium. Furthermore, in an attempt to give the AI human like characteristics he introduced the concept of food in the form of pizzas. But the real sustenance was primarily Niobium, so he had to season the pizzas with Niobium salt. He referred to these specially prepared pizzas as “grilled pizzas”. Every time the AI successfully solved a problem or completed a task he gave it, he would reward it with a “grilled pizza”. Hence the phrase “congratulationsyouwonthePIZZA”, it was not meant for us, it was in fact meant for the AI.

However, the minute Dr. Stone and Dr. Welsh decided to steal all of Dr. Horn’s “grilled pizzas” with the Niobium, they unwittingly set in motion a chain of events that quickly spiralled out of control.

It’s a crazy theory, I know…

quattro · November 25, 2018, 3:17am

I dont have time for full writeup, but what if the AI is doing some sort of paperclip optimization, but with the Pizzas. Ordering tons of pizzas.

Primadog · August 11, 2020, 10:13am

Sorry if this has been discussed already, but I checked Gunsrequiem’s take of the plot and he didn’t seem to have mention it.

IRC Clue 3

We know Dr Horn escaped from BMRS, then who sent out this message? Is it the AI? If it isn’t (assuming the AI was offline during this message), then who’s left alive in BMRS to message Dr Horn? Bottomley? Welsh? Freeman himself?

Flavrans · August 11, 2020, 10:13am

Yes, the dreaded paperclip maximizer problem.

I can imagine a scenario where this could have started with something innocuous, and then escalated out of control.

For example:

While working on an active prototype version of the AI, priming and testing it for its intended purpose, Dr. Horn could have fallen for the temptation of using the AI as his personal aide, so to speak, so he could work more efficiently. One of the tasks he gave it was to order a pizza for him once a day. But then one day, Security Officer Sisk ate one of Dr. Horn’s pizzas. The next day, Dr. Stone stole one of his pizzas. The AI somehow sensed that pizzas were disappearing and adapted to this situation by increasingly ordering more and more pizzas. And thus, a “pizza maximizer” was born.

While Dr. Horn was trying to correct the problem and get the situation under control, Dr. Stone and Dr. Welsh started their campaign against Dr. Horn, and prevented all pizzas from being delivered to Dr. Horn’s lab. The AI would now completely lock itself into this “pizza maximizing” loop, and the situation would get completely out of hand. The AI would start exhibiting unpredictable and dangerous behaviour, and the health and safety of the other scientists and employees working in the facility would be at risk.

The problems with the AI would now have posed a serious threat to the HALOS project, and Dr. Horn would blame his “malevolent” colleagues for turning “a minor glitch” into a serious setback for the project. The HALOS project seems to be very important to him on a personal level, and that is probably why he swore he would pay them back for what they had done.

This scenario, however, doesn’t explain why the pizza is a lie. Unless the lie is referring to Dr. Horn not admitting he made a mistake when he used the AI as his personal aide, which caused the problems to begin with, and then tried to cover it up and proceeded with the project despite the problems with the AI. I’m not sure if this is the right story, though.

I can’t say I have a good idea exactly who sent out this message, but to me it looks like it could be someone coordinating the HALOS project, or someone in the field, who recovered the Niobium supplies and transferred it to the new site, where the HALOS project were going to be set up. Note that this message is not from an “unknown source”, while most of the other messages are, except the HALOS file, which is from a “classified source”.

ysrael214 · November 25, 2018, 3:17am

Maybe Horn’s message to the one making the pizzas. Pizza is a lie so they wouldn’t make them anymore.

Flavrans · August 11, 2020, 10:13am

This pizza baker must have made a sizable profit during the time these events took place.

Dr. Bonami?

Looking back at the Code A message, if it was not incorrectly enciphered, then who is this Dr. Bonami? Yes, it was a hint to do the Konami code, but what if Dr. Bonami is part of this story?

We know that Dr. Welsh was complaining about the endless lists of tasks to complete that Dr. Horn was handing out to him and Dr. Foreman, and we can find one example of such a list on Dr. Foreman’s desk. Therefore, it is not inconceivable that Dr. Horn would also have given the AI various tasks to do if he saw fit to do so, even if these tasks were not directly related to his work (like ordering pizzas). But maybe Dr. Horn developed some sort of relationship with the AI. With the mounting friction between him and his disgruntled colleagues, it is not unlikely that he would come to consider the AI to be his only trusted friend and colleague. And so, he would call the AI by the name Dr. Bonami, or maybe vice versa.

This, of course, assuming the AI was already an active entity from very early on in the story.

Eion_Kilant_739 · November 25, 2018, 3:17am

I don’t even know what to make of this now… I sure hope it’s not delaying the mod.

Best of luck, [COLOR=‘Black’]I don’t care about it anymore.

Flavrans · August 11, 2020, 10:14am

I had another idea about something in the wiki clue.

In the wiki clue, we have:

Italicized characters that spell out “Seek [COLOR=‘Lime’]code out he is watching”.
A section with what looks like metadata for a HALOS Automated Intercept Data report, written in BibTeX format. BibTeX is a LaTeX related tool for managing and formatting bibliographies. It is usually used to create the list of references at the end of a [COLOR=‘Lime’]book or a paper.
A list of Niobium isotopes, most of which exhibit beta minus decay. Beta minus decay is a type of nuclear decay that produces an [COLOR=‘Lime’]electron emission.

The reason I’ve highlighted the words [COLOR=‘Lime’]electron, [COLOR=‘Lime’]code and [COLOR=‘Lime’]book, is that if we put these words together, we get almost literally the name of one of the possible block cipher modes of operation, namely the Electronic Codebook (ECB) mode.

If we assume that the HALOS code could be a 64-bit block cipher like DES (64-bit key) or Triple-DES/3DES (128 or 192-bit key), one of the problems is which block cipher mode of operation to use. Some of these modes also require an Initialization Vector (IV).

In the HALOS file itself, the word “ABORTIVE” could also be a clue that points to the ECB mode. ABORTIVE could be interpreted as [COLOR=‘Lime’]ABORT [COLOR=‘Lime’]Initialization [COLOR=‘Lime’]VEctor, and that could be a hint not to use an IV based mode of operation, and the only mode that does not use an IV, is the ECB mode.

If this interpretation of the clues holds water, it would help narrow things down a bit. But as usual, it’s hard to tell; I could be grasping at straws.

Primadog · November 25, 2018, 3:18am

That’s the best idea I have heard so far.

Adam_Jensen · November 25, 2018, 3:18am

My first post on the forums.
Anyway, I don’t know if this has been discovered before, or it has any significance at all, but if you look on the small cardboard boxes in some places, it has the number 190 on it. It’s quite basic, and it might not be related to the ARG at all, but I think it’s worth a look.

StereoBucket · November 25, 2018, 3:19am

I’m pretty sure that was already discovered and it had nothing to do else than being a number on the cardboard box.

EDIT:Is it me or is the IRC channel dead?

quattro · August 11, 2020, 10:15am

EDIT EDIT: Was using the wrong password for sure. It is mispelled on page1, but should definitely be “BENALOH PAILLIER”. Go back to the original text and you will notice the space. Still messing around. I’m wondering if padding matters.

EDIT: No path needed now. Just hardcoded the base64 halos data.

I wrote a small script that can do the decryption if you supply a key. Right now BenallohPaillier is not giving any meaningful output. Hopefully this script will ease future attempts.

Assuming the script is called decode.py, on unix-based terminals just

chmod +x decode.py

then

./decode.py key

to run.

NOTE: you need pyDes installed for it to work.

[code]#! /usr/bin/env python
#-- encoding: utf-8 --

import sys

halos = “\xB3\x2B\x00\x3A\x35\xBA\xDD\x66\x57\x7C\x24\xC1\x4F\xC9\x19\x06\x43\x46\xD1\x31\xA7\xC5\x4B\xB8\x2F\xFE\x03\xE0\x22\x61\x57\x77\x24\x79\x23\xDC\x21\xF6\x2C\xD4\x18\x2E\x91\xC3\xB2\x67\xB5\x45\xAB\xCA…”

def main(args):
“”" main method. Decodes the supplied ciphertext with the given parameters.
“”"
import argparse as ap
from os import linesep

# build argument parser for nice ui
argp = ap.ArgumentParser(description="Decode the cipher text")
argp.add_argument("key", help="Key to use in decoding.")
argp.add_argument("-m", "--method", choices=['des', '3des'], default="3des",
        help="Which decryption method to use.")
argp.add_argument("-o", "--output", type=ap.FileType("w"),
        default=sys.stdout, help="Where to output the decoded ciphertext.")

# grab command line args
pargs = argp.parse_args(args)

# grab the cipher
ciphertext = halos

# decode the actual cipher
decoded = ""
try:
    import pdb
    pdb.set_trace()
    decoded = decode_cipher(ciphertext, pargs.key, pargs.method)
except ValueError as ve:
    sys.stderr.write(ve.message)
    sys.stderr.write(linesep)
    return 1
finally:
    pargs.output.write(decoded)

return 0

def decode_cipher(ciphertext, key, method):
“”" Decrypt the cipher text with the supplied key by the requested
method.
“”"
import pyDes as pd

# get the requested method
dm = None
if method == "des":
    dm = pd.des
else:
    dm = pd.triple_des

# build decoder and decrypt the cipher
decoder = dm(key, pd.ECB)
return decoder.decrypt(ciphertext)

if name == “main”:
args = sys.argv[1:]
sys.exit(main(args))
[/code]

Final EDIT:
I am getting different output from my tool and the php tool posted earlier. I modified the earlier tool to use ecb and no IV to obtain:

d63546e5 4b56d647 304072fd e41c1be 71c2791 42f1c5a9 a6e02240 39fa4919 82b8dc14 59668c7f 523dafe1 e86235a 332cf1b6 7d5fce75 78fed85 24b7cc94 48a8d99f 8ef53df9 787b1168 364612b4 12697d69 1d1fd90 16aad723 ca60416e 5af0fed5 bc8f462d 90deb0ca ddd2183 6b806bef 817364ce 42e2e2d fd1b4b18 b6972feb b4279313 cf781add ac6e81fa 97cc9039 fc34d6ca 2d153aee ecf1f910 a8859667 7a6972b5 bcefbe92 bb51b64 19b45555 1a813c9f 13708554 6e1f795 4217a667 f4e7aac7 35c88c72 44c26818 5b6ceb0 5f907195 94222f2d d9f6c1ae e9309ae4 30b61427 b0f2eeb2 e0e4d48b e99c4cec 064f9de eb8e11cf b65e2e4d 9f39d96 19fe5429 4d2f63a7 77735a78 8da3ca25 df65faf1 1c42a938 8791af13 294086c5 2d985055 c62763b4 f1e2b06 92b27aa 33fbb825 9e545de3 71984731 ac562ce 8ace9838 676fe52c f74365e5 b1fa2c41 f5b85dae ed14e1b2 affc212f 2b3ec6d 54bac2bc 317447fd f874bd1f 5a24399e b79875cb

While my tool outputs:
446cc15b7c77e92467936815f8d99528809a6e739d2887fe5799cf206a75d22cc36a5338ddd6705b2f9c514aa5d12f42b598954d021e314d645aa75cd62aded089ee5745358537172c4802c19de24b9cd3de6174f8a866d0b4b1cf65d0b5c7b61412ff38…

I’m not sure which to use; however, I’d wager that the php-standard function would be more bug-free than the non-standard pyDes implementation.

UPDATE:
Using openssl I got the following output:

��
2i��]Eq�9�4�1@�i�B��=&0��
��
�K�"��]��U�3H7A�ibl��K��S��B��;�’Ear{�� G�I,�z�b9�7TwP;��2��ޓ�_�u��N��4��%�TϬjO��=�Y޺��S��9 �
Q�u>��S;ƽ
�.��Wj��X(�]^��~u�N��.� UWe
�15��z��’��O��x��X�=��W�[[�*3��&+�M��’�H�l^�W��ht��ެ�cI�ƅ~Z�Ƽ��?]�xwQL��+i`�Qc4ѳp��+}ؕ�["ec�vSSH��m��

Its corresponding hex:
a8f8f4d7c00b3269b7d4f18ccc185d7f4571c139c5348d3140d569b142a30890903d2630ece8d7ce04910adcbaa2961a0b854b878e81c11b229fca5d8385d855bc33483741eb69626ca3cc4b02edd8decf5392fb42dde23b0eef274561727be290ee1a8a…

I think I am getting close as you notice the “vSSH” in the output and “Eq 9 4 1”. Maybe a different encoding?

This kind of looks like code. “Ear” => “for” and we have some kind of a for loop in there…

alexwmd · November 25, 2018, 3:19am

There are several spaces in the text between each 50th character so it’s not clear that the space should be a part of the password. It would make sense though, because with space the password is 128 bit which is the key length for 3DES. (EDIT: actually, there are several key size variations for 3DES: 192, 168, 64 (with parity bits))

Also, I’ve just noticed that in the first post stormseeker mistyped the password as “BenallohPaillier” (note the double L in Benaloh). I wonder if that was intentional or not.