Crack the Code In US Cyber Command's Logo

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.'"

I got it!

[bsDaemon]

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

Obviously...

[buddyglass]

...its their public key. :)

Next Up

[PixieDust]

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

MD5

[FalconZero]

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.

Re:I got it!

[PrescriptionWarning]

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

What you say?

[oodaloop]

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

Wait, too soon?

Wait!

[multipartmixed]

9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a?!!

That's the combination to my luggage!

Re:md5?

[the_one_wesp]

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

Re:I got it!

[dkleinsc]

Drat, I thought it said "Azh nazg durbataluk, azh nazg gimbatul"

I reckon

[Hognoxious]

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

Nothing to see here, move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:And...

[epiphani]

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

Sigh.

easy

[circletimessquare]

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

UP UP Down Down Left Right Left Right B A

[ZirbMonkey]

It seems pretty obvious.

Daddy, drive slower!

[magusxxx]

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

Silly government!

[scorp1us]

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

Re:Obviously...

[bonkeydcow]

I was thinking the same, only I was going to say it's their private key.

Re:MD5

[betterunixthanunix]

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

Re:md5?

[DIplomatic]

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

Re:md5?

[commodore64_love]

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

Re:md5?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Holy crap you're stupid.

Re:md5?

[sepelester]

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

Infinite - 1

Obviously....

[lattyware]

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

Re:Cyber Command doesn't understand MD5 do they.

[s0litaire]

It's a continuation of the US's "Security by obscurity" policy.

Re:md5?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh God, I think I just had an aneurysm... I... I'm dying... are you happy? Your fucking stupidity has killed me! Now my goddamn cat is homeless.

Re:I got it!

[Verteiron]

Geez, warn a guy before you start flinging that stuff around, will you? My monitor went dark for a second there!

Re:md5?

[severn2j]

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

Re:Unwise

[networkBoy]

hey, on the bright side if they try to change it and say it's always been that way, we can point at their logo (especially any that are engraved) and say: nuh-uh you changed it!
-nB

Re:md5?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you mean "my cat is now servant-less".

Re:I got it!

[spong]

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

Re:md5?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta love when you DO Google something, and one of the search results is a forum where somebody else asked your same question, and the only response is a kind person saying "why don't you Google it?" Argh. Hopefully nobody will end up on this forum when searching for "maximum length message MD5"on Google.

Re:md5?

[hoggoth]

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.

Another level of coding?

[SloWave]

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

Re:Unwise

[darkpixel2k]

Is it wise to put the md5 hash of a mission statement that is likely to be subject to frequent change on a logo which should not?

Yeah--think of poor NASA. They'd have to re-print all their letterhead and fix all their signs after changing their mission from "Explore space" to "Tell third-world countries how awesome their contribution to science and technology are".

Re:md5?

[Squeeonline]

wow that's amazing, although I wish it was something funnier :-/ All glory to hypnotoad or something similar.

Re:md5?

[commodore64_love]

>>>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.

Re:md5?

[ILuvRamen]

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

Re:md5?

[QuantumBeep]

for f's sake, u arrogant bastards

with my students

Let me guess, Irate Text Messaging 301?

Re:Silly government!

[mackil]

I find your lack of Salt disturbing...

Mysteries within mysteries...

[Tetsujin]

When you run the numerical code in the US Cyber Command's logo through a standard two-pass RSA decryption, match it against known quantum fractal ciphers, look at it in a mirror while standing on your head, and de-converge your eyeballs to get the stereo effect, it reads as follows:

"A/S/L?"

But what could it possibly mean?

Re:md5?

[icebraining]

Actually, writing "go google it" takes 16 times less the effort to write (measured in characters typed) than GP's post.

Re:I reckon

[StikyPad]

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!