Harry Potter mafia signup thread

The answer is Mattys Third one.

Yes, but it doesn't work either. I gave this riddle to my friends, and together we couldn't find an answer. This is why my answer won't work: [spoiler] - Jeff sends package with lock_j to the government. - The government adds their own lock (lock_g) to the package and sends it back to jeff, pretending they are Oliver - While they do this, they also send a fake, but indistinguishable package to Oliver, pretending they are Jeff (with whatever lock, say, lock_g2) - just to make sure Oliver thinks everything goes as expected. - Jeff then removes his own lock, and sends the package back to the government. - Now the government can open the package and inspect - without Jeff or Oliver ever noticing. [/spoiler] We think there is no answer possible unless: - There is a trusted third party somewhere. - They meet in person in advance and exchange some sort of secret (say, a lock and a key). Still, I liked the riddle - I really liked the Alomohora answer :P

well Jeff and Oliver talk through skype so they will probably check in to say if they have the package or not

But Oliver got a package - it's just a fake one.

oh right ^^

But this all assumes that the government is that smart...which according to the riddle we know they are not. They let the package go through because they couldn't open it. Because it didn't mention that this was the second time they were seeing the SAME package I can only assume that Oliver mailed Jeff the lock to use. If it was the second time seeing the same package they would have to be really stupid to not know something was up. Since the Government is looking at stuff sent to Oliver they might not be able to monitor stuff leaving Oliver. I think the only "logical" explanation would be option 4 as I proposed.

how will Oliver open the package? jeffs wishes to send the package isn't granted, so oliver skypes jeff and tells jeff to open it for him.

[quote=Matty]Yes, but it doesn't work either. I gave this riddle to my friends, and together we couldn't find an answer. This is why my answer won't work: [spoiler] - Jeff sends package with lock_j to the government. - The government adds their own lock (lock_g) to the package and sends it back to jeff, pretending they are Oliver - While they do this, they also send a fake, but indistinguishable package to Oliver, pretending they are Jeff (with whatever lock, say, lock_g2) - just to make sure Oliver thinks everything goes as expected. - Jeff then removes his own lock, and sends the package back to the government. - Now the government can open the package and inspect - without Jeff or Oliver ever noticing. [/spoiler] We think there is no answer possible unless: - There is a trusted third party somewhere. - They meet in person in advance and exchange some sort of secret (say, a lock and a key). Still, I liked the riddle - I really liked the Alomohora answer :P[/quote] What about this? Oliver has padlock 1 and key 1 and Jeff has padlock 2 and key 2 (key 1 opens padlock 1 and key 2 opens padlock 2). - Oliver sends padlock 1 to Jeff (unlocked) but keeps key 1 for himself. - Jeff uses padlock 1 to lock a package with padlock 2 inside (padlock 2 is unlocked) but keeps key 2 for himself. - Oliver opens the package with his key. If Oliver cannot open the package, it means that the package has been altered so they would have to start again from the beginnig - Oliver uses padlock 2 to lock a package with padlock 1 inside (padlock 1 is unlocked) and sends it to Jeff. - Jeff opens the package with his key. Again, If he cannot open the package it means that the package has been changed so they would have to start again. -Jeff uses lock 1 to send the package (the one with the nuclear weapons) to Oliver. -Oliver opens the package using his key (if he cannot open it, the package has been changed so they have to go back to step 1). The other obvious solution would be using a padlock that is opened with a combination of numbers too long to be brute-forced. Related information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography

Its all [b]FAKE NEWS[/b]

[quote=AlbertEinstein]What about this?[/quote] Yup...that is what I was saying.

is the government allowed to forge a package? seems illegal anyways?

He uses his magic Wand of Package Opening, duh.

Wow, this has riddle has been deeply evaluated. The riddle did start when Oliver received the package so we knew they let unopenable boxes through and to be fair the British Government don’t have the resources to fund the NHS so surely couldn’t have the resources to send fake boxes back to Jeff. The easy way to break the riddle is that if the package came a second time, Government might simply refuse to send it on. Anyway, if the riddle started before any of them had sent anything then I like AlbertEinsteins answer.

[quote=Kyla]is the government allowed to forge a package? seems illegal anyways?[/quote] The governments generally can do what they want and if they get caught they can rewrite the rules. :)

[quote=AlbertEinstein] Related information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography [/quote] The reason why I (and my friends) were taking this riddle apart like that (and yes, we went as far as considering using quantum mechanics - which doesn't work either) is that this riddle is trying to solve exactly the same problem as that Diffie Helman tries to solve (which uses the public key crypto that you reference here). And humanity hasn't solved this riddle yet, unless you have either a trusted 3rd party (aka, certificates), or know a shared secret (aka, a 128 bits key or longer). If you take a look at dominating12.com, you see a green lock in the browser - if you click it you'll see a certificate signed by "[i]Let's Encrypt[/i]". That is the 3rd party that we as dominating12 trust to solve the problem that this riddle is about - how can you visit the site and be guaranteed that any government or other party cannot meddle with the contents of this site. Even if you have never spoken to me or any of the other admins in person. The only way a government can do that is: - Get control of your computer that you use (aka, a virus). - Get control of the server (which is located in the USA, so they can I guess). - Compromise the 3rd party (Let's Encrypt - they have their stuff done pretty ok, not gonna happen). [quote=AlbertEinstein]What about this? Oliver has padlock 1 and key 1 and Jeff has padlock 2 and key 2 (key 1 opens padlock 1 and key 2 opens padlock 2). - Oliver sends padlock 1 to Jeff (unlocked) but keeps key 1 for himself. [/quote] The government now keeps padlock 1, and sends Jeff padlock 3, while they pretend it's padlock 1. Your scheme is already defeated. [quote=AlbertEinstein]The other obvious solution would be using a padlock that is opened with a combination of numbers too long to be brute-forced. [/quote] Yes, it works if you have a shared secret. See my remark: [quote=Matty and friends]We think there is no answer possible unless: - There is a trusted third party somewhere. - They meet in person in advance and exchange some sort of secret (say, a lock and a key). [/quote] [quote=Madagascarter]... the British Government don’t have the resources to fund the NHS so surely couldn’t have the resources to send fake boxes back to Jeff...[/quote] When you view this riddle in a bigger context (aka, secured connections on the internet), then there are many governments and other 'powerful organisations' that actively do exactly this.