Beta - Timed 7

Right, timed 7 is up for beta testing, sorry it's taken a while, been extremely busy lately, but hey, who cares, it's up now!

This challenge was created by SwartMumba, have fun and feedback appreciated.

http://www.hellboundhackers.org/challenges/timed/timed7/

This is a wicked challenge :D. Still working on it, but hopefully il have it beat before long :p

edit - Just a small point of criticism/clarification. If the barcode is invalid, the converting process fails (as it should). Do we just return a blank post value for id? I assume this is an intended part of the challenge? For example, one of my groups of 7 chars was '0001110', which isnt a valid UPC code, so we can just return id as blank and validity as invalid?

I believe I have it, but it doesnt seem to accept my answer. Is it 'sterile' at the moment, or will I get a message it I get it right?

I beat the challenge. Yippy! As for how many points I think it is worth, I am not too sure. For one thing, this challenge is harder than the other time challenges and requires more logic and coding.

jjbutler88 wrote: edit - Just a small point of criticism/clarification. If the barcode is invalid, the converting process fails (as it should). Do we just return a blank post value for id? I assume this is an intended part of the challenge? For example, one of my groups of 7 chars was '0001110', which isnt a valid UPC code, so we can just return id as blank and validity as invalid?

You probably have a flaw in your code or you have not realised what sneakyness lies in the challenge. I will test the different input values later - I am busy watching Lord of War. :)

edit: Everything seems to be working.

jjbutler88 wrote: I believe I have it, but it doesnt seem to accept my answer. Is it 'sterile' at the moment, or will I get a message it I get it right?

You'll see a message :)

Swartmumba, can I PM you my code? Im sure ive got it 99% right, I get a 12 digit barcode, and have written a validiy check, and can get a return value like this:

691537227500 invalid id=691537227500&validity=invalid

or

698050430568 valid id=698050430568&validity=valid

Those are in the format barcode, validity, and the post string I am trying to submit (unsuccessfully).

Read the challenge again. You are not corretly sending both post values. edit: Oh, you might also want to double check your validity checker.

If you received this message, you have completed the challenge, please post in the exclusive membership beta testing forum with feedback, and how many points you think this deserves. Thanks.

Sweet. I would say at least 50, this was a very tricky one to get right, a lot of new concepts for most I should imagine.

edit - Thanks swartmumba, code works every time now, amazing what a single digit can do for a program's success :D

well I believe I got my program working now. But now I have to clean it up to speed it up. Get the 'ran out of time' response. What is the time limit with this challenge btw?

Though 99% of my time is spent in commuications between my computer and HBH's server. Im sure I can improve my code a lot, as pointed out by jjbutler88, but even so I dont know how I can make up much time.

Perhaps I will take it to school and run it from their better connection.

What is the time limit with this challenge btw? If I wanted you to know then the challenge details would have told you. Just work on optimizing your code. It's part of the fun. Right? :D

wow tough one !! But luckily perl has all that covered, so I might actually finish it…

Yeah, I think most languages have the tools, I was looking into PHP, but I havnt really learnt enough of it yet. Python was more than capable, it was me that was the problem in the end :P

ok I take that back, I've got literally no idea how to decode the barcode. I've got no problem encoding strings, but reversing the process it impossible for me so far :( It's really tricky ! Damn!

Note: I know no perl what so ever, but im pretty sure this is your starting point:

http://search.cpan.org/~lds/GD-2.41/GD.pm

On that page I can see a function that could be used to decode a barcode….

When is the challenge going to be released?

hehe, it has been a while, wonder when it will come out. also, em beta for moshbat's pentest 2?