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Crack the Code In US Cyber Command's Logo

Posted by samzenpus on from the hardy-boys-wanted dept.

Dan writes "According to Wired: 'The US military's new Cyber Command is headquartered at Ft. Meade, Maryland, one of the military's most secretive and secure facilities. Its mission is largely opaque, even inside the armed forces. But the there's another mystery surrounding the emerging unit. It's embedded in the Cyber Command logo. On the logo's inner gold ring is a code: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a.'"

43 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. md5? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looks like it is the same length as an MD5 sum...

    --
    Palm trees and 8
    1. Re:md5? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      It is a dumb md5 hash and nothing more.

      "USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."

    2. Re:md5? by the_one_wesp · · Score: 4, Funny

      And my misplaced hopes that a government agency would actually do something creative come crashing to the ground and a violent speed....

    3. Re:md5? by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Looks like it is the same length as an MD5 sum...

      The MD5 sum of the secret Cyber Command PR effort to get geeks to talk about it without delving too deep into the actual workings and mission of the Cyber Command. Hmm, I wonder if it will work?

    4. Re:md5? by jimmyswimmy · · Score: 5, Informative

      $ echo -n "USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries." | md5sum
      9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a  -

      --

      Just my $0.55 (US inflation, 1774-2008, for $0.02)
    5. Re:md5? by simcop2387 · · Score: 5, Informative

      whoever you are, you deserve a cookie.

      echo -n "USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries." | md5sum
      9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a -

    6. Re:md5? by Doomstalk · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's because it is an MD5 sum

    7. Re:md5? by DIplomatic · · Score: 5, Funny

      Keep digging, I'm pretty sure this will end up as promotion for a new Halo game. :P

    8. Re:md5? by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Funny

      So what's the maximum length message that an MD5 number can hold?

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    9. Re:md5? by sepelester · · Score: 5, Funny

      So what's the maximum length message that an MD5 number can hold?

      Infinite - 1

    10. Re:md5? by Aphoxema · · Score: 5, Informative

      MD5s don't hold information, they're a trap-door. It's perfectly possible that another combination of characters would lead to the same MD5, but it's incredibly unlikely that those characters would be lingually meaningful.

      Passwords are often "stored" server-side as a hash. Why I quote "stored" is because the password isn't stored at all! The server doesn't know the actual password, you would have to digest every possible combination of characters to find a hash that exactly matches the one stored on the server, but by knowing a string that already does (your password) you're already there.

      MD5 alone is a poor choice for trapping important strings because it is possible to "plan" a collision... for example, if a web-site offered you a file and an MD5 hash to test the source of that file, with enough cleverness and computing power another party could give you a different file with the same MD5 hash.

      --
      "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
    11. Re:md5? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So what's the maximum length message that an MD5 number can hold?

      Holy crap you're stupid.

      No, he's ignorant.

      It's arguably stupid to not google it first to find out what it is, but that's a common failing on /. (and everywhere else in human space).

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    12. Re:md5? by severn2j · · Score: 5, Funny

      Doesn't pretty much every government department make a hash of their mission statement?

    13. Re:md5? by hoggoth · · Score: 3, Funny

      The person who figured this out got a visit from a mysterious man named 'Centauri' who invited him to join the US Cyber Command's fight against the Ko-Dan Empire.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    14. Re:md5? by geminidomino · · Score: 4, Insightful

      against the Ko-Dan Armada.

      FTFY...

      Geez, getting that reference makes me feel very "Get off my lawn"-y

    15. Re:md5? by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Funny

      >>>So it basically means that there is no limit.

      C'mon. You mean to tell me I can take the collected works of Harry Potter and boil them down to a 128 bit MD5 number? Wow that's some amazing test compression. Even ZIP isn't that good!

      Okay no, I really don't believe either you or wikipedia. Given the number carved on the Cyber Command's logo, there has to be a set maximum length the decoded text message could be.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    16. Re:md5? by StikyPad · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There's always kryptos; part 4 has yet to be decoded. Have fun.

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
    17. Re:md5? by radtea · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's pretty sad that someone had to write a whole story surrounding the mystery behind this md5 hash sum, when it is plainly written in black and white on wiki, hence your link.

      There's a whole school of modern journalism built around ignoring easily accessible answers to relatively trivial questions. If you've followed any of the recent economic debates you'll find that it's full of "but they never say anything about what they mean by XYZ" claims regarding their opposition, only to have the opposition respond with links to where they explain clearly what they mean by XYZ.

      I used to think that the Web would make it harder for people to play this sort of stupid Straw Person type of argument, either postively--by imputing to your opponent an argument they are not making--or negatively--by ignoring explanations and justifications your opponent has clearly made. I thought the Web would improve human communication and engagement in argument. But what it has done is simply reveal the depths to which stupid people will dive to preserve their faith-based beliefs against any and all opposition.

      I'm pretty sure that almost all the argument on the Web is one big game of "let's pretend we don't know anything because the world is more 'provocative' and 'exciting' that way."

      It is increasingly clear that the average person lives their life entirely within the epistemological limits of Humpty Dumpty, to whom words meant what he wanted them to, and nothing else. In the present case, "mystery" apparently means "something that I can't be bothered to google."

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    18. Re:md5? by ILuvRamen · · Score: 3, Funny

      or a trip to another planet to try an experimental stargate dialing system lol

      --
      Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
    19. Re:md5? by idontgno · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sheesh.

      Either you're trolling or you don't comprehend the difference between hashing, encryption, and compression.

      You display a practical understanding of compression: output size is proportionate to input size. But again, since compression algorithms work in blocks or streams of data, there's no theoretical limit to input size. Things like filesystem file size limits may apply, but again, if it's a stream compression with a stream input (e.g., network socket) and a stream output (ditto), there's no limit (other than externals like the finite lifespan of the Universe).

      Encryption's affect on size is different than compression. Without padding, encryption output size should be the same as input size. Many algorithms do pad short inputs, so there may be a small increase in output size. Again, since ciphers can operate in stream modes, there are no inherent limits (other than, for instance, available one-time-pad data for OTP ciphers.)

      Hashing, on the other hand, is in essence an extremely fancy checksum, specifically designed to use cryptographic functions in order to radically increase the likelihood that the hash value derived from any particular input is relatively unique (i.e., the hash of a particular input is radically different from the hash of another particular input which is almost identical to the first--small differences in input yield obvious differences in output.)

      Checksums are, by practical definition, fixed-size, and that size is much smaller than the majority of the potential inputs. The classic checksum is a single check digit: (running total of input) mod 10. Cryptographic hashes (such as MD5--which stands for Message Digest Algorithm 5, btw) are defined to be 128 bits. No matter how long the input is, the MD5 algorithm always produces a 128-bit output, because it iteratively processes bytes of the input 128 bits at a time.

      C'mon. You mean to tell me I can take the collected works of Harry Potter and boil them down to a 128 bit MD5 number? Wow that's some amazing test compression. Even ZIP isn't that good!

      It's not compression. Compression requires reversibility. Hashes are, by definition, not reversible: a "trap door function". The idea is that you can take an input and digest it into a 128-bit number which relatively uniquely represents it, but you can't reverse the 128-bit number and recover the original input. That would be foolish: "I'll reverse the hash, edit the text, re-hash it, and send it on its way; no one will be the wiser."

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  2. I got it! by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't ... forget to... drink... your ovaltine?!?! a lousy commercial!?

    1. Re:I got it! by PrescriptionWarning · · Score: 5, Funny

      funny, I decoded it and it came out "Ph4rma increase your p33nas size today for less $$$$"

    2. Re:I got it! by spong · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's really reads "All your base are belong to U.S.".

  3. Next Up by PixieDust · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sony sues US Cyber Command for posting an AACS key (yes I know it's not).

  4. And... by stressclq · · Score: 5, Informative
    It was quite swiftly found out to be the MD5 hash of (remove quotes): "USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."

    News at 11..

    1. Re:And... by epiphani · · Score: 4, Funny

      Err, I take it back. It's a hash of the string itself, not a file containing the string.

      Sigh.

      --
      .
  5. MD5 by FalconZero · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's (obviously) MD5 length. The results of a quick reverese MD5 lookup are as follows :

    USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.

    However, as we all know, MD5 isn't 1-1. It could well just be a conincidence, or something completely different.

    --
    Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
    1. Re:MD5 by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, it turns out that every paragraph USCYBERCOM publishes will have the same MD5 hash; they are showing off their ability to find collisions.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
  6. What you say? by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's "All Your Base Are Belong To Us!"

    Wait, too soon?

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  7. Wait! by multipartmixed · · Score: 4, Funny

    9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a?!!

    That's the combination to my luggage!

    --

    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
  8. I reckon by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Help, I'm being held prisoner in a logo factory"

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:I reckon by StikyPad · · Score: 3, Funny

      REPEAT 360 [FD 3 RT 1]
      RT 90
      PU
      FD 100
      PD
      REPEAT 360 [FD 1 RT 1]
      HIDE TURTLE

      That's no LOGO factory -- it's a Death Star!

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  9. Nothing to see here, move along. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's no secret. Somebody called their office and asked what it was. It's the mission statement.

    I'm sure the conspiracy nuts will just say that's a convenient hash collision and that the real message is the date and time the Loch Ness Bigfoot Anti-Christ from Betelgeuse heads up the New World Order.

  10. easy by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    that's the US government's Windows Product Key

    and the purpose of Cyber Command is to keep track of all software activation and licenses, and make sure no bonehead buys a region 2 dvd disk

    the only reason Cyber Command's mission is opaque is that the government fears being sued by the BSA and MPAA because they installed windows xp on every government computer from a cd they bought in hong kong for $12, and they put an avi of "The Hangover" they got off of pirate bay on a network drive

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  11. Daddy, drive slower! by magusxxx · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you don't know : whose data not to touch : you must not value : your freedom very much : Burma Shave

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
  12. Silly government! by scorp1us · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't they know MD5 is deprecated. They should be using SHA-1. Off to a disappointing start already...

    --
    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
    1. Re:Silly government! by debrain · · Score: 4, Informative

      Don't they know MD5 is deprecated. They should be using SHA-1. Off to a disappointing start already...

      SHA-1 is deprecated, too. They should be using SHA-2, or if they really want to show off SHA-3.

    2. Re:Silly government! by mackil · · Score: 5, Funny

      I find your lack of Salt disturbing...

  13. Wait a minute... by natehoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's written in an obscure script on the inside of a golden ring?

    Well, duh. Isn't it obvious?

    "Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
    Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
    Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
    One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
    In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
    One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
    One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
    In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

    Quick! We need some midgets and an active volcano!

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  14. Beware the word "cyber" by SlappyBastard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Where you see the word cyber, there is an idiot nearby waiting to waste your money.

    --
    I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
  15. Obviously.... by lattyware · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's the WEP key for their WiFi. Handy for all staff who forget easily.

    --
    -- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
  16. Another level of coding? by SloWave · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's more interesting is if you take the first letters of each word in their mission statement and parse them correctly, you get 'UPC is a cat' followed by a list of acronyms for all sorts of shadowy secret organizations and technologies...

    upc is a cat dto ados dod in a pta wd cfs mco io tea ia de UA foa i cad tst oa

  17. MD5 - supposed to be pretty basic by Firethorn · · Score: 3, Informative

    I almost replied before I saw the GP's post explaining it, but was hesitant because I was wondering if you were trolling.

    'googling it', in this instance, or looking it up on wiki is fairly logical because it will give you a well written description without us going through the effort of writing it ourselves.

    I didn't realize it was essentially a random, unrecoverable number.

    It's deliberate that you're not able to recover the original message from the MD5 sum, but 'random' is very much NOT true. It's used as data verification - a small change, even just a bit, in the message stream will result in a vastly different number. But feed it the same data, and you'll get the same number back, every time.

    This allows you to verify things like messages and binaries haven't been altered from their original verified state.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right