DHA Challenge 2023-06 (Solution)

It’s been three months since the “Double Digits” challenge was released at Dallas Hacker’s Association (DHA), so it’s time to reveal the solution. If you haven’t played it yet and would like to, you can find the challenge here. Continue past the break if you’re ready to see the full solution!

This is a diagraph puzzle. As noted in the challenge itself:

Each place represented like so: ____ represents a unique pairing of two letters. The pairings are numbered the first time they occur and are used (from 01 through 98 in this puzzle), and any time they are reused they will have the same value (i.e. if pairing 12 is “XY” it will be “XY” every time you see 12 marked below a box).  To solve this you must first use the contextual and numerical clues to solve what the puzzle says, then use the answers to decrypt the secret message.

Solving a digraph puzzle relies on trial and error, analyzing the sets of characters to find where certain values fit and make sense, and using contextual clues to progressively solve. There’s no single way to approach this, but some of the letter pairs that should have been more easily identified (and thus lead to easier identification of the following pairs are:

• “MA” (05) was the only portion missing from the word “gentleman”
• “NO” (50), “AT” (51), and “LL” (10) were part of “__t __ a__ professional” which famously (or infamously) is the phrase used to describe DHA: “not at all professional”
• “HA” (16), “CK” (18), and “VE” (71) were part of “Don’t __ __ the __ nue”, one of the prime rules of the DHA: “Don’t hack the venue!”
• “CO” (39) and “DE” (78)” were part of “when a __ __ of conduct”, with “code” being the most common word of four letters placed in front of the phrase “of conduct”
• “TH” (29) and “ER” (19) were part of “doing right by and for each o __ __”, another common phrase with few alternative approaches (in fact an autocomplete search via your search engine of choice would have suggested this for you)

With that being said, the completed puzzle reads as:

Ten years ago a gentleman by the name of Wirefall had an idea. He would create a safe haven for hacker family to hang out. He walked with a pocket full of talks. Others came to the call, from WhiskeyNeon to Tinker, Moebius to Commander, MadHat to Hermit, and from a Wylie to a Rainmaker.

This organization is not at all professional. That’s okay. We like it like that. It’s the way this should be. If it was any other way it would spoil the fun. There aren’t many ten-year-olds doing more than making shitty off-color poop and barf jokes. Heck, we’re only a bit behind them. We’ve been through some simply challenging moments and come out stronger. When a code of conduct beyond “Don’t hack the venue” was needed, we put one in place. When the COVID scare broke we kept each other safe and dreamt of better days. We stuck to a theme of doing right by and for each other.

Organized chaos. That’s what we have here and what we choose, and what a choice it is. Dallas Hacker’s Association first and foremost is dedicated to giving the Dallas hacker family a home. That first ragtag group has grown to what you see tonight. We were kicked out of venues. We made our idle hands work together to make the myth of a hacker community a reality. We found friends, coworkers, and a home at Family Karaoke.

We don’t know where the next ten years will take us, but we look forward with the dual joys of accomplishment and opportunity. Thank you for sharing your stories, your discoveries, your journeys, your time, and most of all yourself with us.

Using those same letter combos to reverse the code at the end reveals:

IfyoulikedhackingthischallengeHermitwouldliketoofferyouabeverageofyourchoice.
Simplytellhimthatyouchoosetoembracethishackerfamilytoproveyourcompletion.

Or:
If you liked hacking this challenge Hermit would like to offer you a beverage of your choice. Simply tell him that you choose to embrace this hacker family to prove your completion.

#Victory