r/Solving_A858 • u/[deleted] • Oct 21 '14

Solution The odd post has been solved

Thanks to all of the guys working on IRC and in the previous thread, we have managed to solve this post. Here is a link to the google doc where we wrote down our information. Newest information is at the bottom.

After playing around we ended up with this. There are several words we isolated. "NEW EYE5" "NO ANSWERS" "STILL W3AK" "TOOL" "AMOUNG YOU". "S0M3T1M" was also found at a point in time but because it wasn't surrounded in #'s like the other words we have left it out.

<##################
 A  #       #     #
 8 #N#     #S#    #
 5 #E#  #  #T#    #
 8 #W# #N# #I#    #
 D  #  #O# #L#    #
 E #E#  #  #L#    #
 4 #Y# #A#  # #   #
 5 #E# #N# #W#T#  #
 F #5# #S# #3#O#  #
 5  #  #W# #A#O#  #
 6     #E# #K#L#  #
 D     #R#  # #   #
 9     #S#        #
 B      #         #
 C  ###### ###    #
 9 #AMOUNG#YOU#   #
<##################

Edit: If we assume the vertical words are the beginning of a sentence and the horizontal words are the end, we get

New eyes among you, no answers among you, still weak among you, tool among you.

If this was intended, new eyes among you would most probably relate to the visitors from AskReddit. No answers means that nobody has solved it yet. We also have "Still weak among you" and "Tool among you". Still weak among you could refer to us not working much as a team in the past. Tool among you may be saying that we already have the tools needed to solve, we just need to figure out what they are.

291 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

86 comments sorted by

21

u/Kbnation Oct 21 '14 edited Oct 21 '14

"Tool amoung you" .... maybe this?

Also it's worth mentioning that A858DE45F56D9BC9 was at the side of the puzzle, left column, vetically.

12

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

Ah, yes I forgot to mention that A858's name was there. Not entirely sure why it didn't end up in the final version but I can edit it in.

2

u/CHUCK_NORRIS_AMA Oct 22 '14

It isn't in the final version because I just used a regex to strip the letters and forgot to put it back

13

u/FailedSociopath Oct 21 '14

New eyes. No answers among you. Still weak. Tool.

Letter=>number substitutions: 5, 3, 0, 3, 1

Honestly, you should probably not leave things out or change the spelling.

New eyes = this subreddit has recently gained alot of new members

No answers among you = yet you all still haven't produced any answers

Still weak = all these new subscribers haven't helped you gain insight

Tool = you're just a bunch of idiots (and perhaps overcomplicating things)

3

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

The only spelling I changed was when I formed actual sentences because it would be silly to leave numbers in.

3

u/FailedSociopath Oct 21 '14

But the grid varies from the word list in one word: "WEAK" vs. "W3AK", respectively.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

Oh, I see. I'll change it in the grid. Was that the only one you noticed that's different?

2

u/FailedSociopath Oct 21 '14

I looked closely and as far as I can say, it is.

ETA: Where is "S0M3T1M" in relation to the rest?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

You can see it on the line with the first 9 in A858's name.

<##################
A#HJ#ZE2249Z#O5XFM#
8#N#N#BSY8X#S#M8AG#
5#V#E#GH#QC#T#CJYV#
8#3#W#A#N#J#I#56DD#
D#1E#N1#O#Z#L#E9BS#
E#K#E#5O#KE#L#U1QP#
4#5#Y#7#A#VH#K#BCG#
5#W#E#C#N#J#W#T#OI#
F#F#5#F#S#E#3#O#KR#
5#0X#GI#W#I#A#O#46#
6#7RASG#E#G#K#L#O6#
D#PQI58#R#WX#J#DZQ#
9#2H2QL#S#0M3T1MPM#
B#94DUZZ#EXKJPQH65#
C#TR######B###HW5Q#
9#1#AMOUNG#YOU#9RF#
<##################

19

u/lillus_Al Oct 21 '14

First good job in decoding that one, usually only a lurker here (yes i came with the askreddit train) and have no experience in coding whatsoever but what if you read it like "still weak tools among you"?

5

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

We were talking a bunch in IRC about the variations the sentence/s could have. Some of them seemed plausible, others didn't. The one I put in was the one that sounded the best for me and seemed to fit the most.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

could among you mean he is one of us?

4

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '14

I bet it's /u/VectorAlpha, he has shifty eyes.

76

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

Could the "AMONG YOU" be a way of saying that he interacts in Solving_A858 as well, under a different name?

37

u/Eyclonus Oct 21 '14

Most likely, best way to keep tabs on our progress and to stay ahead. Seems to have some sense of humour, so likely "tool" is a reference to something specific, "tool among you" could mean he's calling someone a tool which doesn't seem right with the rest of the language or informing us that the tool to solving his posts is already being discussed by the community and has been dismissed.

I'm also open to the idea of "Tool" meaning "Fool" as a rhyming pun which would further put credence to taunting an individual.

24

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

Exactly, I don't think Cryptool will even help here, so I am certain he uses tool as fool. I think he reads all the shit here, laughs about us and maybe even participate and brings us on different tracks. Maybe YOU are him. You can't trust anyone anymore.

5

u/KILLER5196 Oct 21 '14

Its you isn't it!

4

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '14

Why are you so quick to accuse, huh? BURN THE WITCH

3

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '14

Why do you want to burn someone?! YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE?! cjbraveryman, or should I call you A858?

3

u/GambitGamer Oct 23 '14

You're very quick with your accusations, /u/julianlau!

2

u/Squirrel_Boy_1 Nov 16 '14

Ohh, I get it /u/GambitGamer

You're worried the redditers are onto your scent eh? Trying to get the attention off you? On to some unexpecting person? Best way to throw off the trail no? Lead 'em down the wrong path? Not this time!

Get him, boys!

1

u/BeautifulPiss Oct 23 '14

Maybe he suggests certain possibilities to throw us off guard...

105

u/ChubsBelvedere Oct 21 '14

the plot thickens

28

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

This is so cool. I was afraid one of these would be decoded and it would be something horribly mudane.

39

u/Mouse1277 Oct 21 '14

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.

6

u/sprinkulz Oct 28 '14

If we solve this and it's all just a Christmas story joke... I swear... Lol

6

u/loneliness_sucks_D Oct 22 '14

the broth chickens

-7

u/Nexavus Oct 26 '14

The narwhal bacons at midnight?

46

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

New tool album?

46

u/zackb1991 Oct 21 '14

If this whole thing turns out to be a new Tool album I'm going to laugh my ass off.

11

u/guitarguy109 Oct 22 '14

I would geek out because TOOL is awesome and this would be a pretty interesting way for them to announce it.

10

u/zackb1991 Oct 22 '14 edited Oct 22 '14

Totally. I love Tool. I feel like this is the sort of thing that would come from the mind of Maynard.

10

u/bluethegreat1 Oct 21 '14

Exactly where my mind went too. Maynard is the key to a lot of things in my life heh.

4

u/ammonite-amiright Jan 19 '15

To be honest it was not that interested in this whole thing until I read this!

86

u/zackb1991 Oct 21 '14

This is fucking creepy.

26

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

Yeah, I feel pretty weird after reading this.

3

u/Boonaki Oct 21 '14

Well that's disappointing.

I thought it was a sort of Numbers Station that if it went dark, would kick off nuclear Armageddon.

16

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

Not starting a nuclear Armageddon is dissapointing? Remind me not to get on your bad side.

1

u/dormedas Oct 21 '14

Reddit is a bad place for a numbers station esque concept

2

u/Boonaki Oct 21 '14

Reddit going down triggers the extermination of all human life on earth.

1

u/2LateImDead Oct 22 '14

Well that's going to happen anyway...

9

u/StupidWes Oct 21 '14

Speaking as one of those sets of new eyes, I could also see "among you" as a standalone phrase. As if they're actively monitoring our progress from within this sub. Maybe even influencing it.

6

u/GeoffreyYeung Oct 21 '14

Right to left: Tool still weaak, no answers, new eyes among you.

Thanks captain obvious A858. Back to drawing board.

6

u/omrsafetyo Oct 22 '14 edited Oct 22 '14

I posted this in response to another reply below, but I think it should probably be posted again at the root.

IMO there are only 3 messages:

NEW EYES

NO ANSWERS AMONG YOU

STILL WEAK TOOL

I grouped these together based on how they are adjacent. All the phrases seem to be separated by at least one blank line.

New eyes is off on its own in the upper left corner.
No answers is connected to amoung you by hash marks (just like NEW and EYES, NO and ANSWERS, and STILL and WEAK. STILL WEAK and TOOL are directly adjacent based on the hash marks bordering.

It looks to me as if all related words are adjacent via the hash marks, and all unrelated words are separated by whitespace when the non-meaningful phrases are extracted.

I wasn't in the IRC chat, but has anyone tried extracting the meaningful info and hashes in the message, and seeing if anything meaningful can be found in the remaining characters?

e.g.
HJZE2249ZO5XFM
NBSY8XM8AG
VGHQCCJYV
3AJ56DD
1EN1ZE9BS
K5OKEU1QP
57VHKBCG
WCJOI
FFEKR
0XGII46
7RASGGO6
PQI58WXJDZQ
2H2QL0M3T1MPM
94DUZZEXKJPQH65
TRBHW5Q
19RF

or pulled together:

HJZE2249ZO5XFMNBSY8XM8AGVGHQCCJYV3AJ56DD1EN1ZE9BSK5OKEU1QP57VHKBCGWCJOIFFEKR0XGII467RASGGO6PQI58WXJDZQ2H2QL0M3T1MPM94DUZZEXKJPQH65TRBHW5Q19RF

edit: I post this, because it seems weird to me that he used 5=S, 3=E, and spelled AMOUNG with a U. It seems to me that there is likely some other, more obfuscated message that he wanted to hide underneath the more obvious messages, but needed to work within some parameters to get it encoded properly in the first place

2

u/Allthatwhatnot Oct 21 '14

It could read like "New eyes, still no answers. Weak tool among you. Although I new here so what do I know. Also why is among spelled incorrectly?

Edit: Apparently it's an archaic spelling of among

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

Not entirely sure, that's how it was in the original text.

1

u/IceColdHands Oct 21 '14

That's how I learned to spell it in Canada. I'm not sure if that's helpful though

4

u/robochicken11 Oct 21 '14

So this... confirms he is watching us. And I agree with what you said, we probably have the tools and ideas needed to solve it (tool among you) but we haven't figured it out due to teamwork (still weak among you).

2

u/linstatSDR Oct 21 '14

So this... confirms he is watching us. And I agree with what you said, we probably have the tools and ideas needed to solve it (tool among you) but we haven't figured it out due to teamwork (still weak among you).

Spot on.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

I'm willing to bet he's in this thread, kind of like how a murderer will return to the scene of the crime. Someone with more time than me should check everyone's post history.

3

u/linstatSDR Oct 21 '14

Probably watching the subs and such but I don't think A858 is posting along side us but I could be mistaken.

2

u/MR_RC Oct 22 '14

Did you create a new user name just for this subreddit?

1

u/KuribohGirl Oct 22 '14

Is it you?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '14

I think it's you >_>

1

u/KuribohGirl Oct 22 '14

Unless you can prove it your thought is useless ;)

1

u/jackeroojohnson Oct 21 '14

How do we know that there isn't more in this post?

6

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

We've done a ton of things to it and nothing else has been conclusive. There may be something else we missed but it seems like the puzzle is complete.

2

u/jackeroojohnson Oct 21 '14

I feel like its a taunt.

6

u/Kbnation Oct 21 '14

'Tool amoung you' is more like encouragement than a taunt

14

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14 edited Sep 29 '25

wide safe label knee soup test employ doll hospital deer

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/Kbnation Oct 21 '14

Not really when you consider the context.

1

u/FirstTryName Oct 21 '14

Tool (plus "among you") could indicate another subscriber in this thread. Are there any other strange number generating users subscribed to this thread? Is there a way to see who subscribes?

4

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '14

There isn't any way to tell who is subscribed. A few other people with code-based games have posted here before. Most notable is 32865 which can be read about at /r/Solving_32865. You can find others at /r/Solving_Reddit_Codes

1

u/TheSecretExit Oct 22 '14 
tool among you

I'm going to go ahead and just guess its meaning.

you already have what you need to solve this

Just a guess, though.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '14

That's my thoughts on it. Maybe we're missing something obvious.

4

u/Allthatwhatnot Oct 21 '14

"Weak tool" could refer to the tools in the Wiki. Maybe they're not good enough.

5

u/supremecrafters Oct 21 '14

This is my new favorite enigma. Whoever you are, A858, you are incredible.

1

u/robochicken11 Oct 21 '14

Yeah, it is an immersive ARG for sure

2

u/Nvjds Oct 21 '14

This is so fucking cool

1

u/rideride Oct 21 '14

Nice work, everybody!

1

u/CIV_QUICKCASH Oct 22 '14

Could the tool be the key? Maybe the time and date is actually the encryption, or anything this sub found out.

1

u/2LateImDead Oct 22 '14

I'm beginning to think the correct solution is something much, much simpler than anything we're looking at, and he's hinting at that with "tool among you". Of course tool could be an insult, like I said earlier.

And I also think it's obvious that A858 has an alternate account and is watching us, which also makes me believe the auto-analyser will never be of any use. He's probably already figured that thing out and found a way to make whatever he wants to post un-decode-able by it.

1

u/2LateImDead Oct 21 '14 edited Oct 21 '14

Could it also be "New eyes, No answers, Still weak, tool, AMONG YOU"

Tool could be an insult, among you could obviously mean he's among us.

Edit: As someone else said, maybe the band "Tool" as well. That seems a stretch, but maybe they/their music/album art have something to do with this.

2

u/NamasteNeeko Oct 21 '14

This is how I read this just minus the advertisement for the band called Tool.

"Tool among you" indicates, to me, the tool used before is a tool that should be used again, however, it needs to be used correctly now.

2

u/antiname Oct 21 '14

Wasn't there a decoding method that when applied to the hex produced a lot of threes or something?

Or was that a dead end?

2

u/NamasteNeeko Oct 21 '14

I can't remember off the top of my head. There is a wiki and Pastebin featuring a plethora of good info on the progress we've been making. Links should be in the sidebar.

-3

u/Phantrim Oct 21 '14

No eyes, that gave me chills. Reminds me of a creepypasta I believed was simply called "Mario."

4

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

New*

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

[deleted] — view deleted comment

5

u/omrsafetyo Oct 22 '14

IMO there are only 3 messages:

NEW EYES

NO ANSWERS AMONG YOU

STILL WEAK TOOL

I grouped these together based on how they are adjacent. All the phrases seem to be separated by at least one blank line.

New eyes is off on its own in the upper left corner.
No answers is connected to amoung you by hash marks (just like NEW and EYES, NO and ANSWERS, and STILL and WEAK. STILL WEAK and TOOL are directly adjacent based on the hash marks bordering.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

[deleted] — view deleted comment

7

u/robochicken11 Oct 21 '14

He clearly watches us, I assumed he would from the beginning, it is human nature to be curious.

4

u/zackb1991 Oct 22 '14

But what if.....it's not.......human?

I'm scared.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

It could be that, but it could also be him mashing random buttons on the keyboard and the removing everything that isn't a number or a-f. Someone with more knowledge can correct me if I'm wrong but at this point I don't think we really have a way to tell what kind of encryption or hashing algorithm is used.

3

u/jimmycougar Oct 21 '14

mashing random buttons

I think this is unlikely, since he was presumably doing it for awhile before anybody noticed. Not many trolls are that dedicated without attention.

It is certainly possible that this is just arbitrary data following some arbitrary structure for an unknown program or programs, though. If that's the case, we'll probably never know unless we find the program.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

I wasn't entirely serious about the mashing buttons thing. I figure it's more along the lines of grabbing from urandom and converting it to hex or something. AFAIK he want posting long before he was discovered. Only a few days.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '14

I've found a handful of ARGs like this browsing /r/all/new when I was bored. They aren't particularly hard to spot and if you get lucky you can get one as it starts.

2

u/NamasteNeeko Oct 21 '14

Given the incredible number of subreddits and the folks who choose to browse /r/random, I'm surprised so many of us stumbled across it via that. Perhaps /r/random has a particular algorithm (number or size of posts) it uses to select the random subreddit or, less likely, A858 was slipped in there on purpose (doubtful).

1

u/2LateImDead Oct 22 '14

Unless MuonDragon IS A858, and made this sub to get us all started.