substitution0

• Description: A message has come in but it seems to be all scrambled. Luckily it seems to have the key at the beginning. Can you crack this substitution cipher?
• Difficulty: Medium

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🔎 Solution

We are given a text consisting of seemingly random, meaningless characters. Based on the challenge's title, it is likely that the text is encrypted using a substitution cipher.

The string DECKFMYIQJRWTZPXGNABUSOLVH appears to represent the rearranged order of the 26-letter alphabet used for substitution.

By using an online tool and entering DECKFMYIQJRWTZPXGNABUSOLVH in the Knowing the substitution alphabet field, we are able to decrypt the ciphertext and recover the original message.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Hereupon Legrand arose, with a grave and stately air, and brought me the beetle
from a glass case in which it was enclosed. It was a beautiful scarabaeus, and, at
that time, unknown to naturalists--of course a great prize in a scientific point
of view. There were two round black spots near one extremity of the back, and a
long one near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard and glossy, with all the
appearance of burnished gold. The weight of the insect was very remarkable, and,
taking all things into consideration, I could hardly blame Jupiter for his opinion
respecting it.

The flag is: picoCTF{5UB5717U710N_3V0LU710N_59533A2E}

🚩Flag

picoCTF{5UB5717U710N_3V0LU710N_59533A2E}