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[rose]

[INFO]Summary of the updates from 07/10//07

[RDLI]

Maybe it would be good to add how to get to the secret page in the 360 Kiosk?

[rose]

Yes it would! I don't know how! Right now I am going from thebruce's wiki and the forums as best I can. Please post if you know the answer.

[RDLI]

Yeah. I'm going to head to a Best Buy and take pictures or something, so I'll give you the low-down on that. I'll record it too, so you can listen to what I did.

[Arashi]

Well, Ash of Pompeii discovered that there was a hidden video below the Health Warning in the Halo 3 section of the X360 Dashboard at the marked stores (surprising how most of the people say they didn't know anything about it... makes me wonder if they were just playing dumb or Microsoft/Bungie really messed up).

Anyway, the video played and it had a quotation from the inventor of the cypher used to encrypt the garbled text.

EDIT: It also wasn't a secret page (as far as I'm aware) it was the regular Halo 3 media page on the X360 Dash with a 3rd item that had no text/image and was translucent.

[RDLI]

[Arashi]

Yeah, but it wasn't on a hidden PAGE or anything that required problem solving to find - it was a matter of time until someone hit down on the dpad one too many times

[IMightBeRusty]

Hidden in plain sight. If it's not directly pointed out or "there", it's hidden.

[skybruin]

Re: [INFO]Summary of the updates from 07/10//07

[mithical]

I figured all of this out for myself after about an hour of thread reading and double checking.. I kinda wish I waited and just read this thing. Then again I got the juicy details, so it wasn't all wasted.

To actually add some information instead of just complain...

I myself never actually heard the updated message so I don't know what part of it led people to http://halo3.com/5467k. I suppose someone else could fill this in, or it should probably be on the infamous wiki.
EDIT: The updated message had one man mention something about zone 3453, and a woman corrected him and said it's zone 5467k. I guess some bright person took those numbers and slapped em on the end of halo3.com.

The Vigenere cipher at http://halo3.com/5467k site was a huge block of garbled text...

EDIT: I went and grabbed it:
KltfvbljclecwuqlYnmerwvqhrplavyjantz
xtmespdtsttgyseviBceyntfvvatrwzgwwub
olwifmvbgcztatsVwxbxexiwgzswnfepVtkn
njzgdctpwvhKgefqcekqvqyfbetxvhbgznhp
rlavdecrqihJokstwcxahxxwitchsjrptaau
nansTmbxwhihyfthAtlxIvsdbQtpaBjrVrss
oDwc

...which appeared along with the information of the game store it was pointing to. It was the same for each store. The decoded cipher was obtained by using the block of garbled text (the encoded message), the "key" obtained from the kiosk hidden video, and any site that has a Vigenere decoder (lets you enter both cipher and key and kicks out the decoded message).

The decoded cipher (the quote in the first post) has some numbers in it: 206 (report number), 16 ("every sixteen hours..."), 223 (report number), and 65 ("to point sixty five."). Look familiar? Those who found Server 05 from the SOTA site will notice that 206.16.223.65 was the IP for bounce path control. When combined with the 6 alphanumeric characters at the end of the decoded cipher (Nine Brave Kilo Two Romeo Six) you get 206.16.223.65/9BK2R6, which was the 2nd bounce path control, and the site where the first 100 people (again) received keys to unlock the server. The next 1000+ people (again) cried in the corner the next morning when everything was already done without them.

Okay.. maybe that was just me.

[AshofPompei]

I took a video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sMfOrh8RrM

I don't know who posted it on youtube, but thanks!

*note* i took this with a digital camera so the quality is terrible. if somebody should want the original file i will provide it. I also have several stills. send me a PM.

[thebruce]

[AshofPompei]

[mithical]

[IMightBeRusty]

..What the hell happened to the video?