Source: A Series of Tubes

Part 1: Take a network diagram of the following form:

|          
|  +--+    
A  |  C    

F—|–|-E—+ | | | D +B-+ +–+

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Source: Duet

Part 1: Create a virtual machine with the following instruction set:

• snd X plays a sound with a frequency equal to the value of X
• set X Y sets register X to Y
• add X Y set register X to X + Y
• mul X Y sets register X to X * Y
• mod X Y sets register X to X mod Y
• rcv X recovers the frequency of the last sound played, if X is not zero
• jgz X Y jumps with an offset of the value of Y, iff X is greater than zero

In most cases, X and Y can be either an integer value or a register.

What is the value recovered by rcv the first time X is non-zero?

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Working in security/operations in the tech industry, I use SSH a lot. To various different machines (some with hostnames, some without), using various different users and keys, and often (as was the case in my previous post) via a bastion host. Over the years, I’ve collected a number of SSH tricks that make my life easier.

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Source: Spinlock¹

Part 1: Start with a circular buffer containing [0] and current_position = 0. For n from 1 up to 2017:

1. Step forward steps (puzzle input)
2. Input the next value for n, set current_position to n, increment n
3. Repeat

What is the value after 2017?

It’s a bit weird to describe, but the given example helps (assume steps = 3):

(0)
0 (1)
0 (2) 1
0  2 (3) 1
0  2 (4) 3  1
0 (5) 2  4  3  1
0  5  2  4  3 (6) 1
0  5 (7) 2  4  3  6  1
0  5  7  2  4  3 (8) 6  1
0 (9) 5  7  2  4  3  8  6  1

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Source: Permutation Promenade

Part 1: Running on the string a...p apply a series of the following commands:

• sX rotates the string right by X positions
• xX/Y swaps positions X and Y
• pA/B swaps the letters A and B no matter their positions

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Source: Dueling Generators

Part 1: Create a pair of generators A and B where:

• A_n = 16807 A_{n-1} \mod 2147483647
• B_n = 48271 B_{n-1} \mod 2147483647

How many of the first 40 million values have matching values for the low 16 bits of each generator?

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Source: Disk Defragmentation

Part 1: Create a 128x128 grid. Generate each row by taking the knot hash of salt-{index}. The bits of the hash represent if a tile in the grid is free (0) or used (1).

Given your salt as input, how many squares are used?

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Source: Packet Scanners

Part 1: Multiple layers are defined with rules of the form:

• {index}: {depth}

Each layer will start at position 0, then once per tick will advance towards depth. Once it hits depth-1, it will return to position 0, taking 2*depth-1 per full cycle.

Calculate the sum of index * depth for any scanners that are at position 0 when you pass through them given an initial starting time.

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On of the advantages of working in computer programming is that I can work from anywhere I have a computer and an internet connection. One of the disadvantages is that many of the resources that I need to do my job are locked to only be accessible within a specific network (albeit with a bastion host).

I long ago set up my SSH config to create an SSH tunnel and I can proxy many applications through that just by setting the HTTP_PROXY and/or HTTPS_PROXY environment variables. The downside of this though is that if I’m actually on a ‘safe’ network, there’s no reason to use the bastion host and I would actually be putting extra load on it.

My goal: write something that would let me automatically proxy applications when I need to but not when I don’t.

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Source: Digital Plumber

Part 1: A network of nodes is defined by a list of lines formatted as such:

2 <-> 0, 3, 4

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