Unscramble the Source Code

Question

Note: This challenge is now closed to new cop submissions. This is to ensure that no one can post submissions that only remain uncracked because there aren't enough robbers interested in the challenge anymore.

In this game of cops-and-robbers, each cop will write a simple program to give a single output. They will then make public four things about their program:

1. The language
2. The program length
3. The desired output
4. A scrambled-up version of the source code

Then, the robbers must unscramble the source code so that their program functions like the original.

---

Cop Rules

You are to write a simple program, which the robbers will try to recreate.

Your original program must have a simple functionality: upon execution, it outputs a single string/number and halts. It should give the same output regardless of when/where it is run, and should not depend on extra libraries or the internet.

Your program and output must use printable ASCII (newlines and spaces allowed). The output should be no more than 100 characters long, and the program should take less than about 5 seconds to run on a reasonable machine. You are also not allowed to use hashing (or other cryptographic functions) in your program

Then, you provide a scrambled-up version of the source code and the required output. You can scramble up your source code however you may like, as long as characters are conserved.

Your score is the shortest program you have submitted which hasn't been cracked. After a period of one week, an uncracked submission will become immune. In order to claim this immunity, you should edit your answer to show the correct answer. (Clarification: Until you reveal the answer, you are not immune and can still be cracked.) The lowest score wins.

Simple Example Cop Answers

Perl, 20

ellir"lnto Wo d";prH

Hello World

Or...

Perl, 15

*3i)xp3rn3*x3t(

272727

Robber Rules

Robbers will post their cracking attempts as answers in a separate thread, located here.

You have one attempt at cracking each submission. Your cracking attempt will be an unscrambled version of the source code. If your guess matches the description (same characters, output, and of course language), and you are the first correct guess, then you win a point. It is important to note that your program does not have to exactly match the original, simply use the same characters and have the same functionality. This means there could be more than one correct answer.

The robber with the most points (successful cracks) wins.

Simple Example Robber Answers

Your program was print "Hello World";. (Although print"Hello World" ; could have also worked.)

Your program was print(3**3x3)x3

Safe Submissions

1. ASP/ASP.Net, 14 (Jamie Barker)
2. Befunge-98, 15 (FireFly)
3. GolfScript, 16 (Peter Taylor)
4. CJam, 19 (DLosc)
5. GolfScript, 20 (user23013)
6. Perl, 21 (primo)
7. Python, 23 (mbomb007)
8. Ruby, 27 (histocrat)
9. SAS, 28 (ConMan)
10. Ruby, 29 (histocrat)
11. Python, 30 (mbomb007)
12. JavaScript, 31 (hsl)
13. Ruby, 33 (histocrat)
14. Marbelous, 37 (es1024)
15. Ruby, 43 (histocrat)
16. PHP, 44 (kenorb)
17. Ruby, 45 (histocrat)
18. Marbelous, 45 (es1024)
19. Python 2, 45 (Emil)
20. PHP, 46 (Ismael Miguel)
21. Haskell, 48 (nooodl)
22. Python, 51 (DLosc)
23. Python, 60 (Sp3000)
24. Python 2, 62 (muddyfish)
25. JavaScript, 68 (Jamie Barker)
26. Mathematica, 73 (Arcinde)
27. Haskell, 77 (proudhaskeller)
28. Python, 90 (DLosc)
29. C++, 104 (user23013)
30. ECMAScript 6, 116 (Mateon1)
31. C++11, 121 (es1024)
32. Grass, 134 (user23013)
33. PowerShell, 182 (christopherw)

Unsolved Submissions

In order of time of posting. This list courtesy of many users.

• CoffeeScript, 96 (soktinpk)
• Python 3, 70 (Sp3000)
• TinyMUSH 3.1, 20 (Muqo)
• GolfScript, 32 (Beta Decay)
• Python 2, 101 (Mateon1)
• Lua, 49 (ChipperNickel)
• Python, 61 (imallett)
• Java 6+, 218 (nhahtdh)
• CJam, 51 (Martin Büttner)
• J, 22 (FireFly)
• Marbelous, 106 (es1024)
• Marbelous, 107 (es1024)
• JavaScript, 79 (FireFly)
• CJam, 47 (user23013)
• Rust, 118 + Clojure, 106 + others (Vi.) - version 2
• Marbelous, 144 (es1024)
• Python 2, 80 (MrWonderful)
• Perl, 53 (DLosc)
• Perl, 26 (primo)
• Mathematica, 31 (Arcinde)
• Marbelous, 144 (es1024)
• Assembly, 78 (krzygorz)
• J, 14 (algorithmshark)
• Java 8, 157 (TheBestOne)

A small tool to verify solutions, courtesy of n̴̖̋h̷͉̃a̷̭̿h̸̡̅ẗ̵̨́d̷̰̀ĥ̷̳

$(function(){function e(){var e=$("#ignore-space").is(":checked");var t=$("#source").val().split("").sort();var n=$("#editor").val().split("").sort();var r,i=0;for(r=0;r<t.length;){if(t[r]==n[i]){t.splice(r,1);n.splice(i,1)}else if(t[r]>n[i]){i++}else{r++}}$("#display").val(t.join(""));n=n.join("");if(e){n=n.replace(/[\r\n\t ]/g,"")}if(n.length!=0){$("#status").addClass("bad").removeClass("good").text("Exceeded quota: "+n)}else{$("#status").addClass("good").removeClass("bad").text("OK")}}$("#source, #editor").on("keyup",function(){e()});$("#ignore-space").on("click",function(){e()});e()})

textarea{width:100%;border:thin solid emboss}#status{width:auto;border:thin solid;padding:.5em;margin:.5em 0}.bad{background-color:#FFF0F0;color:#E00}.good{background-color:#F0FFF0;color:#2C2}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<h3>Scrambled Source</h3>
<textarea id="source" class="content" rows="10"></textarea>
<h3>Unused Characters</h3>
<textarea id="display" class="content" rows="10" readonly></textarea>
<h3>Your Solution</h3>
<input type="checkbox" id="ignore-space" name="ignore-space"/>
<label for="ignore-space">Ignore space characters</label>
<div id="status" class="good">OK</div>
<textarea id="editor" class="content" rows="10"></textarea>

Answer 1

Python 3, size 74 (Cracked)

Python just wasn't the same after being re-educated by Big Brother.

Input:

print(war is peace)
print(freedom is slavery)
print(ignorance is strength)

There are two newlines at the end of lines 1 and 2.

Output:

True
True
True

Note that each True is in its own line.

Answer 2

Python 3, size 12 (Cracked)

print (abcd)

My program produces no output and no errors.

Answer 3

CJam, size 20 (Cracked)

Code

"Stop, Hammer time!"

Output

2.956177636986737

Answer 4

Python 2, size 50

Cracked

We already know the Answer to the Question, but what's the Question?

Code

print *********************--///222222222222222222

Note that there are no trailing spaces or newlines. The only whitespace character is the single space after print.

Output

42

I've attempted to balance code length and difficulty, but it wouldn't surprise me if I missed it a bit either way. Hopefully it's enough to discourage brute force, at least.

Answer 5

Pyth - 71 Cracked

Code

C-3P0: "Sir, the possibility,..."* 
Han Solo: "Never Tell Me The Odds!"

Output

3720

---

*Originally, George Lucas had Han interrupt C3-PO.**

**He called this his greatest idea since Jar-Jar.

---

Interesting note: despite all the changes that Pyth has gone through, there is still a valid answer here!

---

Original

ts,*s,y30 l" : : i i Han Solo "eP-C"h"TsrhT

Explanation

The remaining characters go on the next line. Pyth only interprets the first line of a file.

ts, make a 2-tuple and get their sum -1.
* multiply:
s,y30 l"..." sum the 2-tuple containing 2*30 and the length of the string (18).
eP-C"h"T get the largest prime factor of h's ascii value minus 10 (47).
srhT get the sum of numbers from 0-10.

All in all, this basically just computes: (30*2+18)*(47)+55-1. After reading @isaacg's answer I noticed there is an extremely simple solution: *h30tC"y" which is 31*120.

Updated

*h30tC"y" "-P:Sir, e possibilit,...
Han Solo: Never Tell Me The Odds!"
Still works even after all this time...

Sorry for poor explanation formatting, I don't know how to use spoiler blocks :S (@Sp3000 made it a bit nicer for you, though)

Now you can run Pyth online! Try it here. Thanks @isaacg :)

Answer 6

CJam, size 51 [SAFE]

Code

main(int argc,char* argv){printf("Hello, World!");}

Output

55
2292213229222231957511222223333751125537511222222135723331131931959319319

You can play around with it in the online interpreter.

This should be more crackable than it looks.

Hint

Start with the second line of the output. A few digits don't appear in it all, and others suspiciously often. Why could that be? If you can decipher that, the rest should almost fall in place.

Solution

"that rrrrraging london Hail!v"{elccimf(;W))},(*,pa

The weather must have been pretty bad when I came up with that anagram...

The hint was supposed to point towards the fact that the second line is made up of squashed-together prime factorisations. I was hoping that from there it would be possible to determine how many and which characters go into the string, leaving only a few characters at the end.

Answer 7

Befunge-98, size 15 [SAFE]

Code

"quick"
*+.@\_j

Output

3314

Original

"u_ji@q.+k*c
"

A curious but somewhat well-known feature of Befunge is that you can terminate a string with the same quote that begins it, which in essence pushes that entire line (except the quote) on the stack. As an extra trick, I re-use the same string again, by making use of u to reverse the instruction pointer. Then it's just some arithmetic: the core idea is to sum up all those values (which is done using k to repeat the + operation).

Answer 8

GolfScript (16 bytes) [SAFE]

%%()*../1129n{}~

Expected output:

-117345085515973157874551915956356303213327583847247840186528288852476459638212404362749

Original source:

n)~{.*911%(}./2%

Answer 9

Ruby, 17 (Cracked)

Going for something really short this time.

inprt N=2,*'~~~%'

Output:

2
2

Answer 10

Python, 69 chars [cracked by grc]

Scrambled:

((((((((((((())))))))))))),,,,accdddiiiiillmmnopprrrrrssssssttttttttu

Output:

1083

This one's just a harmless bit of fun :) Tested on CPython 2.7.8, 3.3.2 and for the heck of it PyPy3 2.3.1.

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Explanation

Uses built-in functions str, dict, list to build up a string and then applies map with ord to convert the string to a list of ints, which are then summed.

Answer 11

Python, size 56 (cracked)

Code

for i in "iprint()".join(([2,3,7,0,9,chr((-7+732^70)])))

Output

hi mom

Answer 12

Python 3, 70 chars

Scrambled:

""(((())))****++++222222222;;;;;=======cccccccccceeeiinnpprrttxxxxxxxx

Output (99 chars long):

388626024960000000000026872002432000000000000676169243200000000000007317718780000000000000028820330

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Update

It's been a week, so rather than posting the answer, here's a hint:

Try taking the square root of the number and working from there

Answer 13

Pyth, 11

\\,,"$: Ndw

Output:

",input(),"

Answer 14

JavaScript, 94 Cracked by FireFly

alert(' '' '''((()))+++,,,,,,,,,,,,,000111111114444577888;;;;;======[[[]]]aaafhinorrrrvvvxx||)

Output

fun in the sun

Original

a=alert;v='';r=[1,7,8,14,11,8,14,10,0,5,14,4,7,8];for(x in r)v+=('h'+(1==0)+a)[r[x]]||'';a(v);

Answer 15

Ruby, 38 - cracked by Martin Büttner

print(succ(downcase!))$$$..[[]]6e0<><_

Output:

u

Original:

$6.pincdwnca[]rescue$><<$!.to_s[((0))]

Answer 16

Python 3, size 16 (Cracked)

Code:

help tim__rolo__

Output (with newline at end):

Hello world!

Answer 17

Perl - 47 (cracked by grc)

Code (there is one space in there too)

 """"$$$$$$((()))**....///;;[[]]~==01finoprrstx

Output:

012345012345012345012345012345

You can run it online here and it does work under strict and warnings.

Answer 18

Ruby, 33 - cracked by user23013

enpsttux [[[]]]++\-\**????$$$$...

Output:

[*]

Original:

puts ?[+[*?*..?]][$$-$$]+?\\.next

Answer 19

Python2, 132 characters

____        ,,,,:::''""""""""""((()))[[]]\\\0126aaaabcccceeeeeeeeeEffggiiiiiilllllmmmmnnnnnnooooopppppqqrrrrrrrrrssssStttttttuuvxxyy

Output (with a newline):

chance

Updated version, 96 characters

Answer to original version suggested the exec instead of compile+eval, so here is a simplified version:

____       :::''""(())[[]]\\\0126aaabcccceeeeeeeeEffiimmnnnnooopppqqrrrrrrrrrssStttttttuuxxxxyy

Update: cracked

Fully cracked by Alex Van Liew and KennyTM. The original solutions were (scroll right to reveal the spoiler):

                                                                                                                                eval(compile('try: compile("from __future__ import braces","","single")\nexcept SyntaxError as q:\n\tprint q[0][6:12]',"","single"))
                                                                                                                                exec('try:exec("from __future__ import braces")\nexcept SyntaxError as q:\n\tprint q[0][6:12]')
                                                                                                                                The hint meant "Consider {}, which are not present in the source code".

Answer 20

Ruby, 29 [safe]

Trying to see how short I can get in Ruby without getting cracked.

Code

paper view
otool
$()**,.8<<=>

Output

[0][0, 3][0, 3, 6][0, 3, 6, 9][0, 3, 6, 9, 12][0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 16][0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 16, 20]

Original

eval <<p*8 o=*o,$>.write(o) p

Explanation

The first line creates a heredoc that starts on the next line and is delimited by the trailing p, then concatenates the resulting string to itself 8 times. Since it ends in a newline, this effectively creates a loop. The looped code assigns an array to the variable o, consisting of the elements in o.to_a (via the * shorthand), followed by the output of $<.write(o), which converts o to a string, prints it to STDOUT, and returns the number of bytes printed. A variable being assigned to for the first time is nil for the purpose of evaluating the right hand side, so on the first run *o is empty and write outputs nothing and returns 0. Each subsequent round outputs the array of bytes output on previous rounds. Using a p-delimited heredoc creates decoy methods for output, p and $><<, in the scrambled characters, that won't work because you need the bytecount.

Answer 21

PHP, size 49 [Cracked by Martin Büttner]

Code

sub(print2w, $+expect+$+one+$+str+$+in=$@~main$);

Output

{main}

Answer 22

MATLAB, 41 bytes

Cracked by feersum

((((((snowy leopards can like magic))))))

Output

1

Answer 23

Perl, 36 ← cracked by grc

Code

$$$()++..112279;;<<=__ffiinooprrrt{}

Output

perl

Tested here

Answer 24

Haskell, 100 Chars (Invalid, output too long)

Code

//Sup
tl=[]
while(syn==(+j)) tl+=b.a();
//(: #jquery :)\\
$("#jquery").on("click", j=>alert(j==m))

Output:

"\er\\e\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\\\\\\\"\\\\\\\

---

Original

(#)=(>);(//)=(++)
l=j.show
main=putStr.l.l$l"eer"
j[]="\\"
j(y:u)=let(q,c)=break(#y)u in y:j c//j q

Answer 25

J, 22 bytes

Code

!%()1348:::bbceehorvxx

Output (97 chars)

1226317306651180983274420265228191056569220222873505571155987454033425908908110103433163350999040

I expect this to be practically impossible...

Answer 26

CJam, 32 bytes (cracked)

Scrambled source

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!"

Output

4074552392882954617076720538102062920

Answer 27

Pyth - 35 - Cracked

In the spirit of @MartinBüttner:

Code

"Programming Puzzles and Code Golf"

Output

4.459431618637297

Try to decode it online here.

Answer 28

TinyMUSH 3.1, 20

Scrambled:

(#ret,#3!#+#2i\2#,@)

Output:

3210

Answer 29

Python 3, length 110 [cracked by grc]

Scrambled (\n denotes a newline)

\n\n\n   ""((((())))),.......9::;===IOS[]__addeeegghiiiiiiiiijllmmnnoooooooppprrrrsssssssssstttttttttttuuuuuvwyyy

Output:

The better is Flat dense. break never of be do at never. If bad it honking

Here's another fun one - not meant to be hard, but just something unusual and puzzly. :)

---

Explanation

The random-looking words are taken from the Zen of Python (PEP 20), which is automatically printed via the easter egg import this. The passage is just every ninth word, as hinted by the 9::[] present.
To extract every ninth word without automatically printing the passage when importing, we redirect sys.stdout to a StringIO().

Answer 30

Javascript, 29 - Cracked

Run in a Chrome browser console

Code

23*47,(no,(.][j,i|i,j][.),on)

Output

181

Original code

[,,,].join(3)|[,4,].join(7)*2