Home Hackvent 2016 Dec 4: Language of Us
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Dec 4: Language of Us

Challenge

You all should know this language, but this one is not that consequent as it should be.

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st3g4|/|o9ra|*h`/ !s 7he |*r4(t!ce 0f (0n(ea£i|/|9 a |=il3, m35s4ge, !m49e, 0r v!d30 w!th!n 4|/|o7he|2 f!£e, /v\es5a93, i/v\ag3, o|2 \'i|)eo. 7h3 \/\/o|2d s7e94n0gr4p|-|`/ c0mb!n35 t|-|e g|2e3|< w0rd5 s73g4no5, m34n!ng "(o\'3r3d, c0n(3a£ed, 0r |*|2o7ec7e|)", 4n|) gr4p|-|3i|/| me4n!|/|g "\/\/ri7i|/|9".
t|-|e f!r57 r3co|2d3|) u5e o|= t|-|3 t3rm \/\/a5 8y _|oh4n|/|3s 7ri7h3/v\i|_|s i|/| h!5 s7eg4n09r4ph!a, 4 7r3at!s3 0n (ry|*t09r4ph`/ a|/||) s7eg4n09r4ph`/, d!5g|_|is3d 45 a 8oo|< o|/| /v\a9ic. 9e|/|3r4ll`/, t|-|3 h!dd3n /v\3s5ag3s 4|*p3ar 7o 83 s0me7h!|/|g 3ls3: i/v\4g3s, a|2t!(l3s, s|-|o|*|*i|/|g l!s75, o|2 so/v\e 07h3r c0v3|2 t3xt. |=o|2 3x4mp£e, 7|-|e |-|id|)e|/| /v\e5sa9e /v\4y 8e i|/| i|/|\'i5ib£e !|/|k 8et\/\/e3|/| t|-|e v!s!8l3 li|/|e5 0f 4 pr!v47e £et7e|2. 5o/v\e i/v\p£3m3nt4t!0n5 of 5t39a|/|og|2a|*|-|y 7ha7 l4(k 4 sh4r3|) s3cr3t 4|2e |=or/v\s 0|= s3cu|2i7`/ t|-|ro|_|g|-| 0b5cu|2i7`/, w|-|e|2ea5 key-d3p3n|)3nt s73gan0gr4|*h!( sch3m35 a|)h3re 70 |<3rc|<|-|o|=|=5's |*|2i|/|(!|*l3.
th3 ad\'an7a93 o|= s7e9a|/|09ra|*|-|y o\'3r c|2`/p7ogr4|*h`/ a£one !s 7|-|a7 t|-|e int3nd3d s3c|2et /v\es5age do35 n07 4tt|2a(7 a7t3|/|tio|/| 7o !t5el|= 4s 4|/| 0b_|3ct 0|= s(r|_|7in`/. p£4i|/|l`/ \'is!b£e e|/|(r`/p7e|) me5sage5 - |/|0 /v\a7ter |-|o\/\/ |_|n8re4k48l3 - ar0u53 i|/|te|2e57, a|/|d m4y !|/| t|-|em5e£\'e5 be !n(|2i/v\in4t!|/|g !n c0u|/|7r!es \/\/h3|2e 3nc|2y|*7i0n i5 i££e9al. 7h|_|5, w|-|er3a5 (r`/pt0g|24p|-|y i5 t|-|3 p|2ac7i(3 o|= pr0t3(t!ng 7h3 (o|/|te|/|t5 0f 4 me5s49e 4lo|/|e, 57e9an0g|24p|-|y i5 c0|/|c3rn3d \/\/!t|-| co|/|c34l!ng 7h3 |=a(t t|-|a7 4 s3cr3t /v\3s5ag3 i5 8e!ng 5e|/|7, a5 we£l 45 c0nc3a£!n9 th3 c0|/|t3nt5 o|= 7h3 me5s49e.
5te9a|/|0g|2ap|-|y !|/|c£ud3s 7|-|e (on(e4£m3nt 0f !|/|f0rm4t!0n \/\/it|-|i|/| (o/v\pu7e|2 |=i£es. !n |)!g!ta£ s73g4no9r4|*h`/, el3c7|2o|/|ic (o/v\/v\u|/|ic4t!0n5 ma`/ i|/|(l|_|de 5t39a|/|og|2a|*|-|i( co|)i|/|9 i|/|si|)e 0|= a 7ra|/|s|*0r7 la`/e|2, 5u(h a5 a |)0c|_|me|/|t |=!l3, im4g3 |=i£e, p|2o9|2a/v\ or |*r07o(ol. /v\e|)!a |=il3s 4|2e !de4l |=0r 5te9a|/|0g|2ap|-|i( 7r4ns/v\i55i0n b3c4|_|s3 of 7h3!r £ar9e 5!z3. fo|2 e><4m|*le, 4 s3|/|d3r m!g|-|7 s7ar7 w!7h 4n i|/|n0(u0us !m49e |=il3 a|/||) a|)ju5t 7|-|e (ol0r 0|= e\'er`/ h|_||/|d|2ed7h |*!x3l t0 c0|2r3sp0n|) 7o 4 le7t3|2 i|/| th3 a£|*h4be7, a (|-|a|/|ge 5o 5|_|b7le 7h47 s0me0n3 |/|o7 sp3c!|=i(al£y £0o|<in9 f0|2 i7 is |_|n£!k3ly 7o |/|0t!ce !t.

Solution

This leetspeak reads:

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Steganography is the practice of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video. The word steganography combines the greek words steganos, meaning "covered, concealed, or protected", and graphein meaning "writing".
The first recorded use of the term was by johannes trithemi|js in his steganographia, a treatise on cryptography and steganography, disguised as a book on magic. generally, the hidden messages appear to be something else: images, articles, shopping lists, or some other cover text. for example, the hidden message may be in invisible ink between the visible lines of a private letter. some implementations of steganography that lack a shared secret are forms of security through obscurity, whereas key-dependent steganographic schemes adhere to kerckhoffs's principle.
The advantage of steganography over cryptography alone is that the intended secret message does not attract attention to itself as an object of scrutiny. plainly visible encrypted messages - no matter how unbreakable - arouse interest, and may in themselves be incriminating in countries where encryption is illegal. thus, whereas cryptography is the practice of protecting the contents of a message alone, steganography is concerned with concealing the fact that a secret message is being sent, as well as concealing the contents of the message.
Steganography includes the concealment of information within computer files. in digital steganography, electronic communications may include steganographic coding inside of a transport layer, such as a document file, image file, program or protocol. media files are ideal for steganographic transmission because of their large size. for example, a sender might start with an innocuous image file and adjust the color of every hundredth pixel to correspond to a letter in the alphabet, a change so subtle that someone not specifically looking for it is unlikely to notice it.

nothing obvious in there so should be more to it, the hint said something about this not being as consistent as it should be.. hmm

most letters appear both in regular form and in leet form, maybe that is hiding some more info, for the first couple words, noting a 1 if the letter was written in leet and a 0 otherwise gives:

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00101101 00101101 00101101 00101101 00101101

This is the same pattern (- symbol in ascii) repeated, this must be intentional, let’s apply it to the entire message:

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00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101

01001000010101100011000100110110001011010100111100110111011011110100100100101101
01010111001100110011010001101010001011010100001001001010010010000011011100101101
01100011010100110111011001101011001011010110010100110101010010000111101000101101

00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
00101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101001011010010110100101101
001011010010110100101101001011010010
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HV16-O7oI-W34j-BJH7-cSvk-e5Hz