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Lock 1

Lock 2

Binary and Hexadecimal

Well done you did it!

The first lock required a string of 8 bits to unlock. The second lock required 2 hexadecimal digits. These representations of data are equal, 8 bits can be shortened into 2 hexadecimal digits. Because of this reason, programmers prefer to use hexadecimal. Fewer digits makes it faster to input, and reduces the chance of error.

The technique that you used to get past the lock is called a brute-force attack. In this attack you try every possible combination of an answer until you find the right one.

Doing this manually is slow and as the password grows in length, it will soon become so impractical it would be deemed basically impossible. However, a computer programmer could write some code to automate the brute-force attack, which would significantly speed it up.

The code below does this for the BinHex lock that you just manually brute-forced.

            while(binaryValues.length != 0) {
                console.log(binaryValues[0]);
                checkAnswerBinary(binaryValues[0]);
                await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 100));
            }
            while(hexValues.length != 0) {
                console.log(hexValues[0]);
                checkAnswerHex(hexValues[0]);
                await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 100));
            }
            

You can run this code in the console tab on the BinHex page before you manually brute force it. You can access the console tab using the f12 key.