Brute force ZIP

15 points

Grab the zip_url from the problem endpoint, download the ZIP file. Inside, among other things that you can rummage through, is a file called secret.txt which contains the solution to this challenge. But the ZIP is password protected, and I'm not giving you the password.

The password is between 4-6 characters long, lowercase and numeric. ASCII only.

You'll probably need to brute-force your way to the secret.txt file. Oh, and you have 30 seconds until the problem expires.

Go! Use the force!

Getting the problem set

GET /challenges/brute_force_zip/problem?access_token=...

Problem JSON will contain only one key:

• zip_url: the one-time URL for the ZIP file you'll need to brute-force

Submitting a solution

POST /challenges/brute_force_zip/solve?access_token=...

Solution JSON structure:

• secret: the secret value you found inside the secret.txt file

Why this challenge?

It occurred to me I never really looked into what the ZIP format is. Is thre a spec? Is it proprietary? How does it encrypt stuff? It's all pretty cool.

So until I come up with a challenge that deals with the format directly, here's a throwback to the one time we all forgot a ZIP password. Or... downloaded something with a password.

PS. I swear the name of this challenge sounds like a grunge/metal/post-punk/nu-rock band.