Mucking around with the 2019 SAINTCON Enigma Badge

So thanks to Kyle, I’ve got a 2019 SAINTCON Enigma Badge to play with for a while.

I’ve been mildly frustrated by the fact that I haven’t gotten anything to decrypt on it yet using the 2019 instructions, sample messages and code sheet. I had just gotten comfortable with that fact when the Hackers Challenge CTF came up during this year’s SAINTCON. I lost quite a bit of time to trying to solve an ENIGMA challenge, because I HAVE the badge right here in front of me but still had a knowledge block that was preventing decryption. Had I learned before the CTF, I would have gotten another 300 to 400 points.

So now, even though the challenge is over, I was even more determined to see this through.

Here are the 2019 instructions, with my commentary following:

Okay. Instruction 1 says “Apply the daily key from the code sheet to your Enigma machine.” This is a sample of what the Code Sheet looks like. While it is unclear from the instructions AND the Code Sheet, I assumed that “daily key” refers to the “ring settings” or Ringstelling.

What threw me was the plugboard. When I entered settings, there was a PLUGBOARD section on the badge that wouldn’t accept any input. Naively, I assumed that was an unimplemented feature. Boy was I wrong. I wasn’t at SAINTCON last year, so I missed a critical piece — the critical piece is that the plugboard is a PHYSICAL plugboard on the badge, just as it is on the real thing.

Once that Eureka moment came (thanks to atru5 and kfeuz for clueing me in), it was smooth sailing all the way to the finish line. God I want one of these of my own.

Here’s the sample message and the code sheet for that day, followed by the images of the message decoding after setting all the rotors, ringsettings and encrypted message key, and connecting the plugboard up properly with jumper wires:

October 27 1942
0801 = 1tle = 1tl = 107 = SYN VAB

SCZOT GULGK VHBJQ WILJA CBSZG YUUYC VYLFV YPEFZ SMLNR DFPEO HYHNB JFSYV JFJJP QGKRV MUJLS TLESD IISMW POMJT JBYNL LLOIC YFNWK VU

If you want to play with the Enigma yourself, you can use the simulator on Cyberchef. For the SAINTCON simulations, you will need a custom rotor. When the code calls for rotor IX, use the following: BASHCOMPUKIDZERGYJWLQTFXVN