zacheller@home:~/blog$

eps1.91_redwheelbarr0w.txt - Newspaper Solution


Inside eps1.91_redwheelbarr0w.txt, there is a newspaper clipping with Wellick sightings on the front and a word search on the back that Mr. Robot wanted to get his hands on.

Front: newspaper-front Back: newspaper-back

My first observation was that the word search has suspiciously short words. I then noticed that the first 5 letters were ROTXV and the last 8 letters were ENDROTXV.

# Original
ROTXVDETGPIXD
CWFIDQTSTITGB
XCTSJEDCRWDXR
TDUTKXARDGEQP
RZJEUPRXAXING
TFJTHIHIPIJHD
UQPRZSDDGXBEA
TBTCIPIXDCADD
ZUDGCTMIBTHHP
VTXCEGPNTGEPB
EWATIENDROTXV

# One Line
ROTXVDETGPIXDCWFIDQTSTITGBXCTSJEDCRWDXRTDUTKXARDGEQPRZJEUPRXAXINGTFJTHIHIPIJHDUQPRZSDDGXBEATBTCIPIXDCADDZUDGCTMIBTHHPVTXCEGPNTGEPBEWATIENDROTXV

# One Line, removing ROTXV and ENDROTXV
DETGPIXDCWFIDQTSTITGBXCTSJEDCRWDXRTDUTKXARDGEQPRZJEUPRXAXINGTFJTHIHIPIJHDUQPRZSDDGXBEATBTCIPIXDCADDZUDGCTMIBTHHPVTXCEGPNTGEPBEWATI

# Use my rotsolver script for plaintext
$ rotsolver DETGPIXDCWFIDQTSTITGBXCTSJEDCRWDXRTDUTKXARDGEQPRZJEUPRXAXINGTFJTHIHIPIJHDUQPRZSDDGXBEATBTCIPIXDCADDZUDGCTMIBTHHPVTXCEGPNTGEPBEWATI | grep 15
OPERATIONHQTOBEDETERMINEDUPONCHOICEOFEVILCORPBACKUPFACILITYREQUESTSTATUSOFBACKDOORIMPLEMENTATIONLOOKFORNEXTMESSAGEINPRAYERPAMPHLET ; ROT15

The cleaned up final message reads:

Operation HQ to be determined upon choice of Evil Corp backup facility. Request status of backdoor implementation. Look for next message in prayer pamphlet.