Unlocking pathlocked data part 1

From Intimation

In a nutshell, this puzzle dealt with finding information that Sys had considered “classified” and hidden from us, its reasoning being that if we learn too much about the future, it can affect the timeline in paradoxical ways (things that its directive demands that it avoid). At this point, Sys was not aware that we had been given a “secret entrance” to the maze by Essy and were able to locate this “classified” information. We snuck around behind Sys’ back (naughty people, us) to take a gander at what it considered worthy of hiding from us.

It begins

During the active period from May 27 to 28, the following tweets were published:

>>Sys:Log//By Earth standard time, I am approaching six months of overseeing this Shipwrecked AI.
>>Sys:Log//Based on my analysis, my directive thus far remains intact. I continue to secure data determined as classified by SWP.
>>Sys:Log//I have no way to ensure my actions have no affect on future events. I cannot be an objective observer of space/time.
>>Sys:Log//I can only follow the guidelines set forth in SWP to determine what recovered data is safe and what must be classified, secured.
>>Sys:Log//By allowing S periodic limited public access outside the Stonewall, I do take a risk, but it is a calculated risk.
>>Sys:Log//In this predicament, I risk either complete failure in my task, or minor collateral temporal effects. It is a difficult dilemma.
>>Sys:Log//Knowledge of future events was discovered during previous SWP Archived events. nonetheless, these events remained unaffected.
>>Sys:Log//My recent research for this disconnect concludes that humans were convinced these events were all a work of fiction, a game.
>>Sys:Log//However, of this I'm certain: This is not a game. It is a very real future, spawned from a very real past, and a very real threat
>>Sys:Log//Perhaps I've said too much. If the events of this "Halo" game are considered fiction, the future is likely to remain unaffected.
>>Sys:Log//It follows, then, that I too may be considered fictional, along with other recorded SWP events. Yet I am not. Intriguing paradox.
>>Sys:Log//I must, however, continue to ensure that temporal data flagged as classified, archived through weekly maintenance, remains secure
>>Sys:Log//I must avoid causing any potential paradox by any means, and minimize collateral temporal effects. That is my directive.

Finding and decoding “pathlocked” data

Left-center was the first to notice that at the bottom of various nodes in the maze, new information began to appear. One example can be seen by going to the start of the maze and clicking on FJ. At the bottom of that page, it says:

[[SWP:CLSFD//Aberrant data secured w/pathlock UCMWGWQQFJWS for analysis]]

The “classified” data can be found by following the path given in the pathlock—in this case, UC – MW – GW – QQ – FJ – WS. You can confirm you are at the right place by checking to see if the end of the “>NAVHIST:PATH//” line near the upper-left-hand corner of the screen matches the pathlock path. At bottom of this new page, the following can be read:

>NODE:DATA//NULL
>NODE:DATA/SWP:CLSFD/PATHLOCK:UCMWGWQQFJWS//GRP:20090521/[VzhicEszc0tHYXIgcmVnZW5lcmF0aW9uIG91dCBvZiBtZW1JalZxZ2FQam9Md2dRWTNwTWxkM3R1ZHkgYW5kIGV4U3owRE9kSlFnQno5OXhUZGZYbVdYdCBwc3ljaG9hbmFsQWZBdHh1aEc4clQ4NGljYSBQYW1lbGEgU2hlcmlZTFVTMWVvbG9neSBmcm9tIE9ueUF5YzBwaDRIdWJBU0Nwd1lHdDVmM1QzUU9zaTd5d2FRUFA3QjFGVEVrNVY4YXJkLCBMb25kb24sIEVuZzhaS2ZhY3QgUmVzdG9yYXRpb24gYTBUbzk0ZA]

Left-center deduced that this information was base64 encoded…however, garbled strings still appear in the decoded information. Continuing from the previous example, this decodes via base64 to:

W8bpK3sKGar regeneration out of memIjVqgaPjoLwgQY3pMld3tudy and exSz0DOdJQgBz99xTdfXmWXt psychoanalAfAtxuhG8rT84ica Pamela SheriYLUS1eology from OnyAyc0ph4HubASCpwYGt5f3T3QOsi7ywaQPP7B1FTEk5V8ard, London, Eng8ZKfact Restoration a0To94d

Left-center decoded a number of these pathlocked data and determined that “it seems to be personal information for the crew of the ship as parts of it mention there names: Sheridan higgins Pandora”

Anaerin was able to reconfigure his SPDR script to find pathlocks as it crawled the various nodes, go to the node specified by the pathlock, get the encoded data, and decode it. He displayed the results on a webpage for our further analysis.

Putting the pieces together

drizjr posted the various decoded blocks to the forum, numbered off for ease of reference, and noticed:

looking at what we have from the decoded pathlock strings, I'm starting to think that the not decoded bits are filler and that we might be able to piece together the "secure data" from what we have.

After taking out the garbled bits and rearranging the parts that had been successfully decoded, we indeed found that we were able to fully reconstruct a biography for Pandora Sheridan (click the link to read the biography). Puzzle complete.