The Mighty Houdini and Cracking PIN Numbers
The Mighty Houdini and Cracking PIN Numbers
And, so, Harry Houdini takes to the stage,
“I need a volunteer from the audience”,
Bob puts his hand up, and is chosen, and joins Houdini on the stage, “My name is Bob.” Houdini then says,
“From my brain waves, I have determined the PIN numbers for the bank cards for everyone in the audience, and I will demonstrate this by revealing Bob’s PIN number on the screen behind me!”
The audience gasp!
“Now, Bob. Write down your PIN number so that we can check, and lay it face down”.
Bob writes down his PIN number and places it face down on a table. Houdini has a small peak to see that he has written it down correctly.
“And, now, as I speak to you. I pray that I can quickly tell you your PIN number, and pray that it can be quick to discover it”
There’s a drum role, and then Houdini asks for the curtain to be taken down. It reveals the code of:
718510
“Please, Bob, reveal your PIN number”.
Bob’s face goes white, and reveals the PIN code of “719510”.
The audience gasps, and start making plans to change their PIN number for their bank accounts.
So, how did Houdini do it? Well, he created a secret cipher of:
Pray = 1 or A
Answer = 2 or B
Say = 3 or C
Now = 4 or D
Tell = 5 or E
Please = 6 or F
Speak = 7 or G
Quickly = 8 or H
Look = 9 or I
Be Quick = 0 or 10 or J.Thus, if we pick apart from what Houdini said:
“And, now as I speak to you. I pray that I can quickly tell you your PIN number, and pray that it can be quick to discover it”
One of his assistants is then listening to this, and quickly gets the code of “719510”, and writes it down on the board behind the curtain.
Conclusions
Can you find the plaintext numeric value for the Houdini ciphertext for the code of Answer Pray Please Be Quick Pray Be Quick?
If you want to try your own, I’ve created a Houdini cipher here:
https://asecuritysite.com/ctf/ctf_94
And, there are 92 ciphers to solve here: