I found this secret code while geocaching. What could it mean?

Question

Sabine Theissen · Accepted Answer

Take the battery out of your cell phone right now. Now put all the things you think you'll need for a while in a backpack. Pack a blanket or sleeping bag and a tarp. After that, get to a bank. Withdraw all your money in cash if your account hasn't been frozen yet. If it has don't say anything, just leave ASAP. Spend the night beneath a freeway. When morning comes, get out of Dodge. Do not put the battery back in your cell phone. Start taking busses towards the Mexico-New Mexico border. Do not stay in any hotels along they way. Wash at rest stops. Give fake names, and wear a hoodie if you have one. When you get to New Mexico, call (505) 000-0000 on a pay phone if you can find one. Only use your cell phone if there's nothing else. You'll get a guy called Ted. He'll handle it from there. If I'm not too late, godspeed.

Gayleen · Answer

You should add a note with the url to this thread to the container. Then if somebody finds it who knows what the fuck it is, they can tell us.

mahnaz · Answer

"Reading this, all I see is a dozen redditors reading the first three sentences then scoffing, saying "Oh well Old Boy, it's a dead drop, all us MI6 types know that" Why would anybody bother, heading all the way out to secure it under a bridge, when you could just hide the exact same information in a web-page, or graffiti on a wall, or any one of a million better places than having your contact have to navigate a river to get to it? Dead drops are kind of redundant since Tor and VPN's became easily accessible. The only way it would happen is if it was part of some sort of game, where you have to go to a certain location to find, I don't know, clues to something, some sort of cache or whatever. But that's just silly! "

Tsgereda · Answer

Perhaps the answer is in a one-time pad. If this is the case then it will be impossible to discern, unless you have the key.  There is also a possibility that you have stumbled upon a one-time pad and all you need to do is tune your shortwave radio to the proper frequency at the correct time.

Marje · Answer

Could be a gift certificate code. Try using it in WoW, geocashers seem the type.

Janina · Answer

Access key for a router maybe?

Yvonne Kalb · Answer

email the coords to the local geocaching moderator... they can tell you of it is part of a multicache

Levon · Answer

I hope this is on the front page when I wake up in the morning. This is the most intriguing post I've seen in three years. Maybe my thinking will be more up to the task by then as well.

Simone · Answer

is anyone a bridge inspector/builder? or know an inspector/builder?

LAVERA · Answer

If it is a spy drop than it is either a message to be decoded or a key for decoding a different message. The key is usually given to the recipient so this is most likely a code. Cracking it without the key will probably by near impossible without the key if it is a real spy drop.

Morty · Answer

Does the FBI have a Reddit account?

ALTHA · Answer

was there a winxp install disk laying around there?

Liidia · Answer

"It decodes into "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine" "

Salla · Answer

Please don't uninstall the serial code since the bridge will stop working.

saga · Answer

Okay I don't want to go all James Bond here, but I actually know what I think this is. The case it was in is so small it was designed not be be found except by the person that's looking for it. Most likely it actually is some spy shit, either corporate or government. What's your looking at looks like a key for an encrypted message. So basically someone set up a dead drop so they wouldn't have to send the key over an unsecured channel, and with that key the recipient will be able to decode whatever the sender is sending.

Marina Thalberg · Answer

Thanks for your fingerprints. Regards, FBI

AMMIE · Answer

Looks like you found a dead drop.

Elle · Answer

Not all location-based games are on Geocaching.com there are other groups and games, notably letterboxing, which tends to be a little heavier on the puzzle aspect. It's probably one one of theirs- or some other group.

Eliin · Answer

One of the best things ive seen on reddit... so intriguing! lol.. no idea what it could be though, I like the spy idea best

Izzi · Answer

""m@kSSiJzdeg(r)P-%+B" if you translate it to ASCII directly. (via NickCiske.com) "

Essy · Answer

My gosh, the key to the Voynevich texts! I must know more! You can reach me at

Gretchen · Answer

It's an MD5 hash. It works like this. Spies steal information, encrypt it and generate the MD5 on a random public computer terminal, transfer the encrypted data minus the hash to a second random computer where it is then sent to a server in another country before it is downloaded by whoever has employed the spy. For security reasons the MD5 hash is not sent online. It is dropped in physical form at a secret location. In this way if the data transfer is compromised it will be worthless.

Kennedy · Answer

"36-24-36? Only if she is 5'3" "

DAGNY · Answer

This is unrelated to your code. I just felt like sharing my experience with geocaching. I spent a summer doing it with my best friend daily and eventually got my mom interested in trying it out. I picked a fairly easy trail online and we went out. She really enjoyed the hike I think. With only some difficulty we found the cache. Someone had pooped in it. :( It was a bummer and really turned my mom off to the sport.

Jorge · Answer

6D40-6B1B-A7EE-4A9E-B0AE-5096-1725-2B42 - According to Google Search Engine this is a code that's linked to a post on Reddit.

Tibold · Answer

A three second google search (google must have been experiencing some serious traffic) revealed a container laughably similar to the one you found. http://bit.ly/bklh2A

siff · Answer

You're already dead.

Englebert · Answer

The geocaching site uses a GUID for its cache IDs!  Here is the link to the original cache i was looking for. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=303e9281-eb3f-4485-b49c-f41b83db0985  I tried putting in your found GUID and... http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=6d406b1b-a7ee-4a9e-b0ae-509617252b42 nothing. sorry.

halla · Answer

I guess it's a serial number of the bridge. So I guess the bridge is legal.

Charmian · Answer

DRINK MORE OVALTINE

WILHELMINA · Answer

It looks like a software key.

Sax · Answer

Well it's 16 bytes (128-bits) of hexadecimal. Which is the length of a UUID [or GUID, or MD5 hash as others have pointed out]. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses too, but they're written differently. As text it's noise: (via HexEdit on mac) m@kssOJu[?]AEPn%+B  taking only the regular (ASCII) characters: m@k...J...P..%+B  or... It could be two Double (64-bit) floating point numbers, giving you another location? [Edit: nope: as floating point numbers it don't look like coords]

Laverne · Answer

I will be watching this post for the next 24 hours. I need closure!

JOANNIE · Answer

CODE AUTHENTICATED - MISSION WILL PROCEEDED AS PLANNED.

Manuela Waechter · Answer

"Here's what I want you to do. Set up a hidden surveillance camera with a clear view of the area where this thing is, and make a website where all of us redditors can watch 24/7 - watch for the inevitable Chinese spy to come in the dead of night to pick it up, of course. That's when you, hidden in the underside of the bridge, drop down on him... with a knife in your teeth. You put the blade to his throat, and you demand (in a batman-like voice) "Who are you? WHO ARE YOU?!?!", but he breaks out of your hold and we all witness a Awesome Live-Action Cinematic Fight Scene for America in a appropriate "industrial waterfront" setting. And maybe you win in the end, too.  "

Lilla · Answer

I got it if you google it it links to a Reddit Page! I haven't bothered to read the page but I can only imagine it solves your mystery

Katja Herrmann · Answer

"IT'S THE MISSING WINDOWS 98 SERIAL KEY I"VE BEEN LOOKING FOR "

Nell · Answer

totally part of a multicache puzzle. put it back!

Jessika Kaestner · Answer

"Random stuff while I'm still high:  Groups 6 and 7 have four numbers, zero letters. Pattern: #### Groups 1 and 8 have three numbers, one letter. Pattern: #-## Groups 2 and 4 have two numbers, two letters. Pattern: #-#- Groups 3 and 5 have one number, three letters. Pattern: -#-- There are no groups without at least one number.  Amount of times represented: "1" -- Two times. "2" -- Three times. "3" -- Zero times. "4" -- Two times. "5" -- Two times. "6" -- Two times. "7" -- Two times. "8" -- Zero times. "9" -- Two times. "0" -- Three times. "A" -- Three times. "B" -- Four times. "C" -- Zero times. "D" -- One time. "E" -- Four times. "

Jessica Berg · Answer

Put it back. Stake out the location. Run from spies. Survive. Write book / make movie.

widad · Answer

Let someone know about this post so if you mysteriously die in the next few days someone can update us.

Sophie Weis · Answer

OH SHIT REDDIT HAS THE LAUNCH CODES ABORT ABORT!

cilja · Answer

I am pretty impressed that you even found that tiny thing to begin with.

CHONG · Answer

This is most likely a hash, as many others have said, but I highly doubt it's a hash of a trivial bit of text. It's probably an encryption key, or a hash of a large file. Regardless, I'm running an attack on it in the off chance that it's an MD4 hash of a trivial amount of text.

VIVIANA · Answer

hopefully its not from an Intelligence agency because your finger print of your pinky is clearly visible in the image. if your in their database your gonna have to be killed, you know that right?

Bhavna · Answer

'6D40-6B1B-A7EE-4A9E-B0AE-5096-1725-2B42' ['6d40', '6b1b', 'a7ee', '4a9e', 'b0ae', '5096', '1725', '2b42'] '27968-27419-42990-19102-45230-20630-5925-11074' '32-23-24-13-14-11-21-13' STR: 6d406b1b-a7ee-4a9e-b0ae-509617252b42 SIV: 145220330948462111096282804739861982018 decode: variant: DCE 1.1, ISO/IEC 11578:1996 version: 4 (random data based) content: 6D:40:6B:1B:A7:EE:0A:9E:30:AE:50:96:17:25:2B:42  (no semantics: random data only). it is a software serial key

Lea Schaefer · Answer

It's nothing, someone is just trying to fuck with people.

Munevver · Answer

This is all an elaborate ruse for this guy to transmit an MD5 hash to his comrades out east via the reddit frontpage. We are all pawns in a global spy war.

I found this secret code while geocaching. What could it mean?

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