ARG Toolbox
This page is an index of helpful tools used to solve the puzzles typically found in ARGs, including ciphers, audio encoding, and steganography.
Contents
- 1 ARG Training
- 2 Text-based Tools
- 2.1 a2x2
- 2.2 Anagrams
- 2.3 Ascii85
- 2.4 asciitohex
- 2.5 Ave Maria Cipher
- 2.6 Browserling
- 2.7 Chaffing & Winnowing
- 2.8 Cryptii
- 2.9 CryptoCrack
- 2.10 Cryptomathic
- 2.11 Cryptool-Online
- 2.12 Crypto-Tools
- 2.13 CyberChef
- 2.14 Darkfader
- 2.15 Dcode
- 2.16 HTTP Referrer Extension
- 2.17 Kryptographiespielplatz
- 2.18 Linux Command Line Encode / Decode
- 2.19 md5hashing
- 2.20 Omniglot Conscripts
- 2.21 OPENPGP
- 2.22 PharmaBraille
- 2.23 Polygraphic Substitution Systems
- 2.24 RICHKNI
- 2.25 Rumkin
- 2.26 SNOW Whitespace
- 2.27 SpamMimic
- 2.28 The Black Chamber
- 2.29 WeChall Encryption tools.
- 2.30 Wikibruce
- 2.31 Xlate
- 2.32 XOR / Byte Shift
- 3 Audio Analysis
- 4 Image Analysis
ARG Training
ae27ff
ae27ff is a series of puzzles that use the typical techniques of most ARGs. They get more difficult the higher you go. Made by Discord user crashdemons.
ARGvent
http://gamedetectives.net/argvent/
A daily series of puzzles over advent, with varying difficulty. Created by the GameDetectives admins.
Over for now, will possibly back next year.
Levels
A series of puzzles designed to introduce people to ARG solving. They range from easy to very hard. Levels can be gained through active participation on the official forum.
Watching You
https://stvjsmrs.wordpress.com/
Originally forming part of an ARG, the site now houses two series of puzzles - the originals, and a cancelled Advent version. Made by Discord users in Team Look In The Bushes.
Last transmision
A short, interactive, slightly creepy story made by Discord user mai(#9088). Will put your basic puzzle solving skills to the test.
Layton World
A new arg-style puzzle solving extravaganza by the makers of Professor Layton! Solve puzzles to earn collectables, some which can transferred to the next game that will be released July 20! Ends around the end of September.
Text-based Tools
a2x2
A tool that will guess what site a link identifier could belong to given the length. Made by Discord user A4.
Anagrams
http://anagramscramble.com/ Word de-scrambler
http://textmechanic.com/text-tools/obfuscation-tools/word-scramblerunscrambler/ Word scrambler
Ascii85
https://www.tools4noobs.com/online_tools/ascii85_decode/
Decodes ascii85 messages. (there's a version for encoding as well)
asciitohex
Converts ASCII to hex and vice versa, as well as to other number-based encryption methods.
Ave Maria Cipher
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Trithemius-Polygraphiae-71.jpg
Ave Maria cipher.
Browserling
https://www.browserling.com/tools/
Lots of encodings and encryptions.
Chaffing & Winnowing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaffing_and_winnowing http://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/Chaffing.txt
Everything you need to know about Chaffing and winnowing.
Cryptii
Site with a lot of ciphers.
CryptoCrack
https://sites.google.com/site/cryptocrackprogram/
Has a lot of classical ciphers and more.
Cryptomathic
http://extranet.cryptomathic.com
EMV tag search. TLV (Tag, Length, Value) byte strings into their constituent tags and sub-tags. Useful for analysing APDU traces, responses and so on. CAP calculator. Features many more features.
Cryptool-Online
http://www.cryptool-online.org
Features enciphering (enigma, navajo, vigenere), encoding (ASCII, Code39, Huffman), text analysis, etc.
Crypto-Tools
https://github.com/Hegz/crypto-tools
Set of crypto-tools.
CyberChef
https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/
MULTIPLE methods of enciphering/encoding, uses more complicated methods and can have more processes going on at once.
Darkfader
https://www.darkfader.net/toolbox/convert/
Online conversion utilities.
Dcode
http://www.dcode.fr/tools-list
Contains a list of mathematical problem calculations, encodings, encryptions, and many more.
HTTP Referrer Extension
https://addons.mozilla.org/En-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/
An extension for Firefox to help find HTTP referrers.
Kryptographiespielplatz
https://www.kryptographiespielplatz.de/index.php?
List of a lot of ciphers. (It's in german, but common sense is enough. Test them out on the part where it says [ausprobieren]
Linux Command Line Encode / Decode
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439.aspx
Use linux command line strings to encode and decode.
md5hashing
https://md5hashing.net/hash_type_checker
Allows you to decode many variations of MD5 and Sha ciphers.
Omniglot Conscripts
http://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/english.htm
Has a list of alternate fonts that can be used for writing english.
OPENPGP
PGP and GPG downloads.
PharmaBraille
https://www.pharmabraille.com/pharmaceutical-braille/the-braille-alphabet/
Contains a detailed list of the Braille alphabet, including numbers and punctuation.
Polygraphic Substitution Systems
http://www.umich.edu/~umich/fm-34-40-2/ch7.pdf
Breaking polygraphic substitution systems.
RICHKNI
http://www.richkni.co.uk/php/crypta/freq.php
Word frequency analysis, can be really useful for substitution ciphers with no key.
Rumkin
http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/
Contains big list of ciphers.
SNOW Whitespace
http://www.darkside.com.au/snow/
Whitespace steganography.
SpamMimic
Hides a message in what appears to be a harmless block of spam.
The Black Chamber
http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/chamberguide.html
Has a set of text enciphering and encoding methods.
WeChall Encryption tools.
https://www.wechall.net/tools/
Features JPocketKnife, a conversion tool, JDicTac, a bruteforce for homemade ciphers and hashes, etc.
Wikibruce
For text encryption, it features ROT-n, Hexadecimal, Binary, ASCII, Morse, Pattern Recognition, and separating byte data to 8 bit planes.
Xlate
Multiple methods of encoding, including a personalized radix, or base, decoding. (Supports Base 2 - 36)
XOR / Byte Shift
http://otp22.com/xlate/shifts.html
Is used to show all 255 XOR and Byte Shift instances.
Audio Analysis
Audacity
Useful program used for audio inspecting.
Direworlf
https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf
Software "soundcard" AX.25 packet modem/TNC and APRS encoder/decoder. It can be used stand-alone to observe APRS traffic, as a tracker, digipeater, APRStt gateway, or Internet Gateway (IGate). NOTE: Not user-friendly!
DTMF
http://www.teworks.com/dtmf.htm
Dual Tone Multi Frequency tones decoding.
fldigi
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByiJ3Glc7CR9Q2VxN2cxMnZ0T1E/view?usp=sharing (fldigi)
Can encrypt/decrypt a lot of audio encryption. Manual can be found here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByiJ3Glc7CR9R3d3Mm1rSmYxUFE/view?usp=sharing NOTE: Not user-friendly!
Ham Radio Directory Downloads
https://radio.linux.org.au/?sectpat=digital
Includes 35 ham radio tools.
- NOTE: It may not work on certain OS, and not all of them are user-friendly.
Kansas City Standard Cassette Audio Data
http://www.dabeaz.com/py-kcs/index.html
Can be used to encode/decode Kansas City Standard Cassette Audio Data.
MM-SSTV
http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php
Slow Scan Television Program. Alternative to RXSSTV.
OTP22 Signal Decoders
https://github.com/otp22/decoders
Directory for multiple methods of encryption used in otp22, ABISM tone decodings (Modified ASCII tones), NATO 5gram decoder, and another XOR program.
SonicVisualiser
Creates spectographs of audio.
Sorcerer
http://www.kd0cq.com/2013/07/sorcerer-decoder-download/
Has more radio recieving modes than fldigi, like Harris RF-3560 PSTN TIU,IRA-ARQ (ASCII-ARQ), etc. (only for decoding)
Wavepad FFT
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/fft.html
Audio spectogram analysis.
Image Analysis
Binvis.io
A tool that gives a visual representation of binary files.
Jeffrey's Image Metadata Viewer
Allows you to view the metadata of images.
FotoForensics
Image metadata and Error Level Analysis.
RawPixels
A website that visualizes .raw files.
Jhead
Hosted by the creator of ae27ff; allows for the viewing of jpeg headers, abnormalities, and outgress output.
FutureBoy
Allows to compare the differences of two images, and unlock steganography with passwords.
GIMP
A free photo editor. A great alternative to Photoshop.
Tinkercad
A web-based 3D-modeling program.
