Red Bull got hacked by Alpha One Labs

Red Bull got hacked by Alpha One Labs

I swung by the new Alpha One Labs digs in north Brooklyn last night for their weekly open-meeting. Just before the meeting was about to begin, a representative from Red Bull (one of our sponsors from the World Maker Faire last year) stopped by to drop off some product, along with a mysterious wooden box. The contents of the box are for an upcoming hacker challenge organized by Red Bull in Brooklyn later this Summer. Did we solve the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that’s the box? Of course we did, we’re hackers!

Because other hackerspaces around the U.S. will be receiving these mystery boxes, I don’t want to give too much away. There is some soldering, some unzipping, some cracking, and some retro gaming involved — I’ve already said too much! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. A1 Labs look forward to meeting other challengers at the Red Bull Creation event later this year!




24 thoughts on “Red Bull got hacked by Alpha One Labs

  1. Randy Addison says:

    That is going to be awesome! Well, that is an awesome way to invite people in an event! lol Thanks for sharing this invitation. I hope I receive one as well.

  2. Richard Ford says:

    U can has rick roll is a classic troll irl

    1. Anonymous says:

      hi Richard, well let’s just say there was more to the “invitation card” than I can show – we definitely got rick rolled! loL

  3. M. "Shadyman" Lange says:

    Epic Uzebox PCB.

    I assume part of the challenge was adding parts like composite video/audio out.. I also see what looks to be headphone out as well? Sounds like it will allow for plenty of interesting hacks :D

    1. Con Verge says:

      Black Lodge Research managed to get hold of one of these and had some fun with it today. We managed to solve the puzzle immediately through inquisitiveness, but spent the afternoon soldering and plotting for the hell of it. I was starting to go blind chasing the blue dots and at 48007 googled reltham’s contribution to stop the insanity.

  4. beakmyn says:

    Hmm
    U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start ?

  5. Bob Cat says:

    You failed to give credit to reltham in #fmcg on freenode for decoding the blinking Morse code, which says WINSTONCHURCHILL48007E2

    psytek and MAKE blogger guy -booooo!!!!

    1. psytek says:

      We had actually solved the riddle before I asked about the Morse code.

  6. Bob Cat says:

    psytek comes into #fmcg and asks if anyone knows Morse code, links a video of the redbull board blinking…

    2011-03-22 23:07:07 I think the first letter is .– which is W
    2011-03-22 23:08:33 This is what I had so far .-. .. — … —-
    2011-03-22 23:09:14 psytek: looking at the first bit of video.. that first letter really looks like .–
    2011-03-22 23:10:00 reltham, ok yeah I see it now
    2011-03-22 23:16:48 psytek: first 3 letters, WIN (.– .. .-)
    2011-03-22 23:17:06 nice :)
    2011-03-22 23:17:24 lol
    2011-03-22 23:22:12 psytek: so far.. WINSTON CHUR (think it’s going to be CHILL next)
    2011-03-22 23:22:21 no space
    2011-03-22 23:24:45 reltham, thank you!
    2011-03-22 23:25:20 yeah, its WINSTONCHURCHILL so far
    2011-03-22 23:25:35 is there more? I think it may just be that…, it restarts
    2011-03-22 23:25:45 2:16 of 13:45
    2011-03-22 23:25:54 it loops
    2011-03-22 23:26:09 ok I’ll see what the next few letters are
    2011-03-22 23:27:25 psytek: yeah the next 3 letters are WIN … so that must be it for that one… the other one I am not sure yet.. need to start over and focus on it
    2011-03-22 23:31:16 psytek: the other one is a number in morse… 480 so far
    2011-03-22 23:31:43 oh awesome
    2011-03-22 23:31:46 http://charliex2.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/redbull-marketing-whats-the-latest-craze-campaign/
    2011-03-22 23:37:13 k, double checked the number… it’s 48007E2
    2011-03-22 23:37:45 Winston Churchill?? 4800 baud, 7 Even 2 …. what the heck are we decoding? :)
    2011-03-22 23:37:48 reltham, awesome! Thank you. I wonder what that does…
    2011-03-22 23:38:04 eFoobar: the RedBull thing
    2011-03-22 23:38:05 it’s morse code from blinking leds
    2011-03-22 23:38:14 i bet there’s a serial port on that board
    2011-03-22 23:38:30 psytek, how did you get this item?
    2011-03-22 23:38:38 Redbull thing? Is this on stream or something?
    2011-03-22 23:38:44 oh, there is a sound that is output from the speaker jack, I bet it needs to be decoded at 4800 baud 7 Even 2
    2011-03-22 23:38:58 psytek you want to stream the hacking on this thingy?
    2011-03-22 23:39:03 BobCat: a RedBull rep dropped it off at the meeting
    2011-03-22 23:47:43 have you tried plugging a controller in and doing the Konami code on it?
    2011-03-22 23:49:18 up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A
    2011-03-22 23:49:51 there’s a base64 encoded message next to that port
    2011-03-22 23:53:44 Setec Astronomy :)
    2011-03-22 23:57:39 psytek: is that blog link your blog? charliex2?
    2011-03-22 23:57:45 charliex2
    2011-03-22 23:57:55 I searched for the base64 string and I found it
    2011-03-22 23:57:57 the first comment on that entry is from someone named Winston Churchill
    2011-03-22 23:58:37 saying it’s a riddle, wrapped in and enigma, wrapped in foam

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I'm an artist & maker. A lifelong biblioholic, and advocate for all-things geekathon. Home is Long Island City, Queens, which I consider the greatest place on Earth. 5-year former Resident of Flux Factory, co-organizer for World Maker Faire (NYC), and blogger all over the net. Howdy!

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