ARG Toolbox: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 20:37, 18 November 2025

This page is an archive of helpful tools and resources one might use in the course of solving puzzles typically found in ARGs, including encipher/deciphering, audio encoding, and steganography.

ARG Training

Game Detectives Academy

https://gamedetectives.net/academy/

Game Detectives Academy is a series of instructive challenges that are meant to teach common ARG techniques. Made by the Game Detectives admin team.

ae27ff

http://ae27ff.com/

ae27ff is a series of puzzles that use techniques common to ARGs. Made by Discord user crashdemons.

Text-based Tools

Decodes ascii85 messages. (there's a version for encoding as well)

asciitohex

http://www.asciitohex.com/

Converts ASCII to hex and vice versa, as well as to other number-based encryption methods.

Ave Maria Cipher

http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Trithemius-Polygraphiae-71.jpg

Ave Maria cipher.

Browserling

https://www.browserling.com/tools/

Lots of encodings and encryptions.

Chaffing & Winnowing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaffing_and_winnowing http://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/Chaffing.txt

Everything you need to know about Chaffing and winnowing.

Cryptii

https://cryptii.com/text/text

Site with a lot of ciphers.

CryptoCrack

https://sites.google.com/site/cryptocrackprogram/

Has a lot of classical ciphers and more.

Cryptomathic

http://extranet.cryptomathic.com

EMV tag search. TLV (Tag, Length, Value) byte strings into their constituent tags and sub-tags. Useful for analysing APDU traces, responses and so on. CAP calculator. Features many more features.

Cryptool-Online

http://www.cryptool-online.org

Features enciphering (enigma, navajo, vigenere), encoding (ASCII, Code39, Huffman), text analysis, etc.

Crypto-Tools

https://github.com/Hegz/crypto-tools

Set of crypto-tools.

CyberChef

https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/

MULTIPLE methods of enciphering/encoding, uses more complicated methods and can have more processes going on at once.

Darkfader

https://www.darkfader.net/toolbox/convert/

Online conversion utilities.

Dcode

http://www.dcode.fr/tools-list

Contains a list of mathematical problem calculations, encodings, encryptions, and many more.

HTTP Referer Extension

LEGACY FIREFOX: https://addons.mozilla.org/En-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/

QUANTUM: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/referer-modifier/

CHROME: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hnkcfpcejkafcihlgbojoidoihckciin?hl=es-419

Extensions for Legacy Firefox, Quantum and Chrome to help modifying HTTP referers.

Iterative Anagram Solver

http://boulter.com/anagram/

Decodes multi-word anagrams word by word.

Kryptographiespielplatz

https://www.kryptographiespielplatz.de/index.php?

List of a lot of ciphers. (It's in German, but common sense is enough. Test them out on the part where it says [ausprobieren]

Link Identifier

https://a4x.me/tools/link/

A tool that will guess what site a link identifier could belong to given the length. Made by Discord user A4.

Linux Command Line Encode / Decode

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439.aspx

Use linux command line strings to encode and decode.

md5hashing

https://md5hashing.net/hash_type_checker

Allows you to decode many variations of MD5 and Sha ciphers.

Omniglot Conscripts

http://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/english.htm

Has a list of alternate fonts that can be used for writing english.

OPENPGP

http://openpgp.org/software/

PGP and GPG downloads.

PharmaBraille

https://www.pharmabraille.com/pharmaceutical-braille/the-braille-alphabet/

Contains a detailed list of the Braille alphabet, including numbers and punctuation.

Polygraphic Substitution Systems

http://www.umich.edu/~umich/fm-34-40-2/ch7.pdf

Breaking polygraphic substitution systems.

RICHKNI

http://www.richkni.co.uk/php/crypta/freq.php

Word frequency analysis, can be really useful for substitution ciphers with no key.

Rumkin

http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/

Contains big list of ciphers.

SNOW Whitespace

http://www.darkside.com.au/snow/

Whitespace steganography.

SpamMimic

http://spammimic.com/

Hides a message in what appears to be a harmless block of spam.

The Black Chamber

http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/chamberguide.html

Has a set of text enciphering and encoding methods.

WeChall Encryption tools.

https://www.wechall.net/tools/

Features JPocketKnife, a conversion tool, JDicTac, a bruteforce for homemade ciphers and hashes, etc.

Wikibruce

http://ref.wikibruce.com/hub

For text encryption, it features ROT-n, Hexadecimal, Binary, ASCII, Morse, Pattern Recognition, and separating byte data to 8 bit planes.

Xlate

http://cyber.meme.tips/xlate

Multiple methods of encoding, including a personalized radix, or base, decoding. (Supports Base 2 - 36)

XOR / Byte Shift

https://cyber.meme.tips/xlate/shifts.html

Is used to show all 255 XOR and Byte Shift instances.

Audio Analysis

Audacity

https://www.audacityteam.org/

Useful program used for audio inspecting.

Direwolf

https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf

Software "soundcard" AX.25 packet modem/TNC and APRS encoder/decoder. It can be used stand-alone to observe APRS traffic, as a tracker, digipeater, APRStt gateway, or Internet Gateway (IGate).

NOTE: Not user-friendly!

DTMF

http://www.teworks.com/dtmf.htm

Dual Tone Multi Frequency tones decoding.

fldigi

https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/ (fldigi)

Can encrypt/decrypt a lot of audio encryption. Manual can be found here.

NOTE: Not user-friendly!

Ham Radio Directory Downloads

https://radio.linux.org.au/?sectpat=digital

Includes 35 ham radio tools.

NOTE: It may not work on certain OS, and not all of them are user-friendly.

Kansas City Standard Cassette Audio Data

http://www.dabeaz.com/py-kcs/index.html

Can be used to encode/decode Kansas City Standard Cassette Audio Data.

MM-SSTV

http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php

Slow Scan Television Program. Alternative to RXSSTV.

OTP22 Signal Decoders

https://github.com/otp22/decoders

Directory for multiple methods of encryption used in otp22, ABISM tone decodings (Modified ASCII tones), NATO 5gram decoder, and another XOR program.

RX-SSTV

http://users.belgacom.net/hamradio/rxsstv.htm

A program that deciphers SSTV encryption on audio tracks.

SonicVisualiser

http://sonicvisualiser.org/

Creates spectographs of audio.

Sorcerer

http://www.kd0cq.com/2013/07/sorcerer-decoder-download/

Has more radio recieving modes than fldigi, like Harris RF-3560 PSTN TIU,IRA-ARQ (ASCII-ARQ), etc. (only for decoding)

Wavepad FFT

http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/fft.html

Audio spectogram analysis.

Image Analysis

Binvis

http://binvis.io/#/

Gives a visual representation of binary files.

Ceefax

http://edit.tf/

Can be used to upload ceefax images.

EXIF

http://exif.regex.info/exif.cgi

Used to find EXIF data and ID3 tags.

Futureboy

https://futureboy.us/stegano/

Allows to compare the differences of two images, and unlock steganography with passwords.

GIMP

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Free program. Alternative to photoshop. Can export and import raw files.

JHead

http://mirror.otp22.com/jhead

Allows for the viewing of jpeg headers, abnormalities, and outgress output.

Magic Eyes

http://magiceye.ecksdee.co.uk/ To solve magic eyes

http://www.easystereogrambuilder.com/3d-stereogram-maker.aspx To make them.

Nonograms

http://nonomaker.com/ Used to make nonograms aaaaand

http://a.teall.info/nonogram/ to solve them.

Outguess

http://filehippo.com/mac/download_outguess/

Outguess steganography.

NOTE: Only works on mac. Try using a virtual machine for opening it.

Photo Forensics

https://29a.ch/photo-forensics/#forensic-magnifier

Magnifier, clone detection, error level analysis, and more tools.

Pixlr

http://pixlr.com/editor/

Online GIMP-style editor.

Punchcards

http://www.kloth.net/services/cardpunch.php

Punchcards simulator.

QR Codes

http://www.qrcode-generator.de/ and https://dnschecker.org/qr-code-generator.php For making QR codes.

https://webqr.com/ and https://dnschecker.org/qr-code-scanner.php For reading QR codes.

Rawpixels

http://rawpixels.net/

Visualizes .raw files.

Tinkercad

https://www.tinkercad.com/

Web-based 3D modeling.

WeChall Tools

https://www.wechall.net/tools/

Features JColorSucker to grab pixel values from images.

Wikibruce

http://ref.wikibruce.com/hub

For image steganography, wikibruse can submit delimited list of pixel bytes. Resulting file is a single plane greyscale PNG. (eg: 255,0,255,0,255,0,0,255,0 with width 3)

General Steganography / Tools

Hex Editors

https://hexed.it/

Online hex editor.

https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

Offline hex editor (has more utilities).

http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm

Another Offline hex editor but without needing to install it and has scripting.

HTTP referrers

https://addons.mozilla.org/En-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/

Firefox extension to find HTTP referrers.

Notepad++

https://notepad-plus-plus.org

VERY useful program. Similar to Notepad but has many more utilities.

OtpXor

https://github.com/otp22/decoders/tree/master/OtpXor

Made by the creator of ae27ff, allows for the xoring of two large files together.

Repl

https://repl.it/

Website used to run and debug code.

XorJ

https://github.com/crashdemons/XorJ

Made by the creator of ae27ff, allows for the xoring of two relatively small files together.

XorJS

https://cyber.meme.tips/xorjs/

An in-browser version of XorJ

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<center>''This page is under construction and isn't fully written.''</center>
+{{argHeader}}
+{{backToTop}}
-=Tools=
+This page is an archive of helpful tools and resources one might use in the course of solving puzzles typically found in ARGs, including encipher/deciphering, audio encoding, and steganography.
-==Cipher Solving Tools==
-===Cyberchef===
+<div class="toclimit-2">__TOC__</div>
-https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/
+==ARG Training==
+===Game Detectives Academy===
+https://gamedetectives.net/academy/
+'''Game Detectives Academy''' is a series of instructive challenges that are meant to teach common ARG techniques. Made by the Game Detectives admin team.
+===ae27ff===
+http://ae27ff.com/
+'''ae27ff''' is a series of puzzles that use techniques common to ARGs. Made by Discord user crashdemons.
+==Text-based Tools==
+===Anagrams===
+http://anagramscramble.com/                                                     Word de-scrambler
+http://textmechanic.com/text-tools/obfuscation-tools/word-scramblerunscrambler/ Word scrambler
+===Missing letters solver===
+https://www.unscramblerer.com/crossword-solver/
+===Ascii85===
+https://www.tools4noobs.com/online_tools/ascii85_decode/
-Includes tools to decipher B64, MD5, and other reled hashes.
+Decodes ascii85 messages. (there's a version for encoding as well)
 ===asciitohex===
@@ Line 16: / Line 44: @@
 Converts ASCII to hex and vice versa, as well as to other number-based encryption methods.
-===Rumkin===
+===Ave Maria Cipher===
+http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Trithemius-Polygraphiae-71.jpg
+Ave Maria cipher.
+===Browserling===
+https://www.browserling.com/tools/
+Lots of encodings and encryptions.
+===Chaffing & Winnowing===
-http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/
+http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaffing_and_winnowing
+http://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/Chaffing.txt
-Has tools to decipher many common encryption methods, including Caesar and Vigenere ciphers.
+Everything you need to know about Chaffing and winnowing.
 ===Cryptii===
-https://cryptii.com/text/select
+https://cryptii.com/text/text
+Site with a lot of ciphers.
+===CryptoCrack===
+https://sites.google.com/site/cryptocrackprogram/
+Has a lot of classical ciphers and more.
+===Cryptomathic===
+http://extranet.cryptomathic.com
+EMV tag search. TLV (Tag, Length, Value) byte strings into their constituent tags and sub-tags. Useful for analysing APDU traces, responses and so on. CAP calculator. Features many more features.
+===Cryptool-Online===
+http://www.cryptool-online.org
+Features enciphering (enigma, navajo, vigenere), encoding (ASCII, Code39, Huffman), text analysis, etc.
-An MIT site that decrypts many encryption methods, including Enigma and hex.
+===Crypto-Tools===
+https://github.com/Hegz/crypto-tools
+Set of crypto-tools.
+===CyberChef===
+https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/
+MULTIPLE methods of enciphering/encoding, uses more complicated methods and can have more processes going on at once.
+===Darkfader===
+https://www.darkfader.net/toolbox/convert/
+Online conversion utilities.
+===Dcode===
+http://www.dcode.fr/tools-list
+Contains a list of mathematical problem calculations, encodings, encryptions, and many more.
+===HTTP Referer Extension===
+'''LEGACY FIREFOX''': https://addons.mozilla.org/En-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/
+'''QUANTUM''': https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/referer-modifier/
+'''CHROME''': https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hnkcfpcejkafcihlgbojoidoihckciin?hl=es-419
+Extensions for Legacy Firefox, Quantum and Chrome to help modifying HTTP referers.
+===Iterative Anagram Solver===
+http://boulter.com/anagram/
+Decodes multi-word anagrams word by word.
+===Kryptographiespielplatz===
+https://www.kryptographiespielplatz.de/index.php?
+List of a lot of ciphers. (It's in German, but common sense is enough.
+Test them out on the part where it says [ausprobieren]
+===Link Identifier===
+https://a4x.me/tools/link/
+A tool that will guess what site a link identifier could belong to given the length. Made by Discord user A4.
+===Linux Command Line Encode / Decode===
+http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439.aspx
+Use linux command line strings to encode and decode.
 ===md5hashing===
@@ Line 33: / Line 151: @@
 Allows you to decode many variations of MD5 and Sha ciphers.
+===Omniglot Conscripts===
+http://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/english.htm
+Has a list of alternate fonts that can be used for writing english.
+===OPENPGP===
+http://openpgp.org/software/
+PGP and GPG downloads.
+===PharmaBraille===
+https://www.pharmabraille.com/pharmaceutical-braille/the-braille-alphabet/
+Contains a detailed list of the Braille alphabet, including numbers and punctuation.
+===Polygraphic Substitution Systems===
+http://www.umich.edu/~umich/fm-34-40-2/ch7.pdf
+Breaking polygraphic substitution systems.
+===RICHKNI===
+http://www.richkni.co.uk/php/crypta/freq.php
+Word frequency analysis, can be really useful for substitution ciphers with no key.
+===Rumkin===
+http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/
+Contains big list of ciphers.
+===SNOW Whitespace===
+http://www.darkside.com.au/snow/
+Whitespace steganography.
+===SpamMimic===
+http://spammimic.com/
+Hides a message in what appears to be a harmless block of spam.
+===The Black Chamber===
+http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/chamberguide.html
+Has a set of text enciphering and encoding methods.
+===WeChall Encryption tools.===
+https://www.wechall.net/tools/
+Features JPocketKnife, a conversion tool, JDicTac, a bruteforce for homemade ciphers and hashes, etc.
+===Wikibruce===
+http://ref.wikibruce.com/hub
+For text encryption, it features ROT-n, Hexadecimal, Binary, ASCII, Morse, Pattern Recognition, and separating byte data to 8 bit planes.
+===Xlate===
+http://cyber.meme.tips/xlate
+Multiple methods of encoding, including a personalized radix, or base, decoding. (Supports Base 2 - 36)
+===XOR / Byte Shift===
+https://cyber.meme.tips/xlate/shifts.html
+Is used to show all 255 XOR and Byte Shift instances.
 ==Audio Analysis==
+===Audacity===
+https://www.audacityteam.org/
+Useful program used for audio inspecting.
+===Direwolf===
+https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf
+Software "soundcard" AX.25 packet modem/TNC and APRS encoder/decoder. It can be used stand-alone to observe APRS traffic, as a tracker, digipeater, APRStt gateway, or Internet Gateway (IGate).
+*NOTE: Not user-friendly!
+===DTMF===
+http://www.teworks.com/dtmf.htm
+Dual Tone Multi Frequency tones decoding.
+===fldigi===
+https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/ (fldigi)
+Can encrypt/decrypt a lot of audio encryption.
+Manual can be found [http://cyber.meme.tips/fldigi-guide here.]
+*NOTE: Not user-friendly!
+===Ham Radio Directory Downloads===
+https://radio.linux.org.au/?sectpat=digital
+Includes 35 ham radio tools.
+*NOTE: It may not work on certain OS, and not all of them are user-friendly.
+===Kansas City Standard Cassette Audio Data===
+http://www.dabeaz.com/py-kcs/index.html
+Can be used to encode/decode Kansas City Standard Cassette Audio Data.
+===MM-SSTV===
+http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php
+Slow Scan Television Program. Alternative to RXSSTV.
+===OTP22 Signal Decoders===
+https://github.com/otp22/decoders
+Directory for multiple methods of encryption used in otp22, ABISM tone decodings (Modified ASCII tones), NATO 5gram decoder, and another XOR program.
+===RX-SSTV===
+http://users.belgacom.net/hamradio/rxsstv.htm
+A program that deciphers SSTV encryption on audio tracks.
+===SonicVisualiser===
+http://sonicvisualiser.org/
+Creates spectographs of audio.
+===Sorcerer===
+http://www.kd0cq.com/2013/07/sorcerer-decoder-download/
+Has more radio recieving modes than fldigi, like Harris RF-3560 PSTN TIU,IRA-ARQ (ASCII-ARQ), etc. (only for decoding)
+===Wavepad FFT===
+http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/fft.html
+Audio spectogram analysis.
 ==Image Analysis==
-===Binvis.io===
+===Binvis===
 http://binvis.io/#/
-A tool that gives a visual representation of binary files.
+Gives a visual representation of binary files.
+===Ceefax===
+http://edit.tf/
+Can be used to upload ceefax images.
+===EXIF===
+http://exif.regex.info/exif.cgi
+Used to find EXIF data and ID3 tags.
+===Futureboy===
+https://futureboy.us/stegano/
+Allows to compare the differences of two images, and unlock steganography with passwords.
+===GIMP===
+https://www.gimp.org/downloads/
+Free program. Alternative to photoshop. Can export and import raw files.
+===JHead===
+http://mirror.otp22.com/jhead
+Allows for the viewing of jpeg headers, abnormalities, and outgress output.
+===Magic Eyes===
+http://magiceye.ecksdee.co.uk/                                To solve magic eyes
+http://www.easystereogrambuilder.com/3d-stereogram-maker.aspx To make them.
+===Nonograms===
+http://nonomaker.com/  Used to make nonograms aaaaand
+http://a.teall.info/nonogram/ to solve them.
+===Outguess===
+http://filehippo.com/mac/download_outguess/
+Outguess steganography.
+*NOTE: Only works on mac. Try using a virtual machine for opening it.
+===Photo Forensics===
+https://29a.ch/photo-forensics/#forensic-magnifier
+Magnifier, clone detection, error level analysis, and more tools.
+===Pixlr===
+http://pixlr.com/editor/
+Online GIMP-style editor.
+===Punchcards===
+http://www.kloth.net/services/cardpunch.php
+Punchcards simulator.
+===QR Codes===
+http://www.qrcode-generator.de/ and https://dnschecker.org/qr-code-generator.php  For making QR codes.
+https://webqr.com/  and https://dnschecker.org/qr-code-scanner.php            For reading QR codes.
+===Rawpixels===
+http://rawpixels.net/
+Visualizes .raw files.
+===Tinkercad===
+https://www.tinkercad.com/
+Web-based 3D modeling.
+===WeChall Tools===
+https://www.wechall.net/tools/
+Features JColorSucker to grab pixel values from images.
+===Wikibruce===
+http://ref.wikibruce.com/hub
+For image steganography, wikibruse can submit delimited list of pixel bytes. Resulting file is a single plane greyscale PNG. (eg: 255,0,255,0,255,0,0,255,0 with width 3)
+==General Steganography / Tools==
+===Hex Editors===
+https://hexed.it/
+*Online hex editor.
+https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
+*Offline hex editor (has more utilities).
+http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm
+*Another Offline hex editor but without needing to install it and has scripting.
+===HTTP referrers===
+https://addons.mozilla.org/En-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/
+Firefox extension to find HTTP referrers.
+===Notepad++===
+https://notepad-plus-plus.org
+VERY useful program. Similar to Notepad but has many more utilities.
+===OtpXor===
+https://github.com/otp22/decoders/tree/master/OtpXor
+Made by the creator of ae27ff, allows for the xoring of two large files together.
+===Repl===
+https://repl.it/
+Website used to run and debug code.
+===XorJ===
+https://github.com/crashdemons/XorJ
+Made by the creator of ae27ff, allows for the xoring of two relatively small files together.
-===Jeffrey's Image Metadata Viewer===
+===XorJS===
-http://regex.info/exif.cgi
+https://cyber.meme.tips/xorjs/
-Allows you to view the metadata of images.
+An in-browser version of XorJ

ARG Toolbox: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 20:37, 18 November 2025

ARG Training

Game Detectives Academy

ae27ff

Text-based Tools

Anagrams

Missing letters solver

Ascii85

asciitohex

Ave Maria Cipher

Browserling

Chaffing & Winnowing

Cryptii

CryptoCrack

Cryptomathic

Cryptool-Online

Crypto-Tools

CyberChef

Darkfader

Dcode

HTTP Referer Extension

Iterative Anagram Solver

Kryptographiespielplatz

Link Identifier

Linux Command Line Encode / Decode

md5hashing

Omniglot Conscripts

OPENPGP

PharmaBraille

Polygraphic Substitution Systems

RICHKNI

Rumkin

SNOW Whitespace

SpamMimic

The Black Chamber

WeChall Encryption tools.

Wikibruce

Xlate

XOR / Byte Shift

Audio Analysis

Audacity

Direwolf

DTMF

fldigi

Ham Radio Directory Downloads

Kansas City Standard Cassette Audio Data

MM-SSTV

OTP22 Signal Decoders

RX-SSTV

SonicVisualiser

Sorcerer

Wavepad FFT

Image Analysis

Binvis

Ceefax

EXIF

Futureboy

GIMP

JHead

Magic Eyes

Nonograms

Outguess

Photo Forensics

Pixlr

Punchcards

QR Codes

Rawpixels

Tinkercad

WeChall Tools

Wikibruce

General Steganography / Tools

Hex Editors

HTTP referrers

Notepad++

OtpXor

Repl

XorJ

XorJS

Navigation menu