Unable to complete 1.2 Guided Exercise (part of the Cryptography Basics Virtual Lab)

Good afternoon. Although I have followed the simple 15-step process outlined in the instructions section in order to complete the task several times, I am unable to solve the task.

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Hey there - we’ve tested this lab pretty thoroughly and can confirm it’s working as expected. Could you please provide a screenshot of the issue and identify the exact step where it’s occurring?

I’m having trouble solving this activity. The browser icon does not appear

I can’t click on apps

Bring your mouse to the bottom of the screen and the menu will pop up.

Sure. Please find attached as a hyperlink a word document that contains all the necessary screenshoots and explanation. Please read the whole document

Hyperlink to the word document: 1.2 Guided Exercise.docx

Clarification: In the word document the first series of screenshoots (labelled as “Series 1: Instructions”) show the steps to be followed to solve the excerise. The second series Series 2: Applied Instructions") show that I have completed all 15 steps on the virtual machine.

Hey there - so I reviewed your document, and based on your screenshots, the lab is behaving as expected.

Concerning the Tasks - you will get the answers to both questions simply by completing Steps 12-15. In fact, the answers to both questions are clearly visible in your first screenshot on the “Series 2: Applied Instructions” page of your document.

In your final screenshot, you’ve deviated from the instructions and entered “y” when prompted for a key, followed by “0”. You then got the same output as your input. This is expected behavior for entering a key of “0”. Because this is a caesar cipher, a key of “0” tells the program that the letters in the message should be shifted by 0 letters in the alphabet - which means the output will be identical to the input.

The point is that you don’t know what the key is, so in Steps 12-15 you’re relying on caesar.py to try every key and show you the corresponding output. One of the those outputs will make sense and show two complete english words, while the rest are gibberish. The questions are asking which output makes sense and what the corresponding key is.

Hopefully this helps!

Hey thanks for the response.

I think what you said I should do is try to decipher the text provided for every other key (from 1-25) by shifting “n” letters every character of the text. Is that right or did I misunderstood it ?

If I am right could you be more specific in detailing how to solve it ?

Thanks in advance

Not quite. So in Steps 12-15, what you’re doing is telling the program that you don’t know the key, and to instead try all 25 possible keys and show the decrypted output for each key. All you need to do is review the 25 outputs at Step 15 and identify the one that contains coherent english words. So if Key 5 produced “CLOSE ENCOUNTER” and the others all produced some nonsense like “DAAJ3 ECOAHDNDZ” then your answers would be “Close Encounter” and “5”.

Make sense? You don’t have to do anything above and beyond following the instructions - you just need to read the output from Step 15 more carefully. The answers are right there in your screenshot.

If any of this still seems a little confusing, I would go back review the Core Concepts lesson.

I just completed. Cant believe did not realize my mistake had been so basic :joy: :sweat_smile:. Thank you so much anyways !!!

All good, it happens!

Hi there ! Sorry to bother you again. I am trying to complete the next virtual lab (Symmetric Cryptography) within the Cibersecurity Fundamentals path. To complete step 18 I have to type this symbol: | on the virtual machine but nothing works. I have tried every possible way: typing the symbol in the conventional way, typing the symbol using its Ascii code (so in this case Alt + 142) and copy-pasting it (however since I have never been able to copy-paste nothing to the virtual machine I expected this last method not to work).

Can you solve this issue please ? It is very frustrating not being able to keep going because of such a basic issue :sweat_smile:

Thank you very much in advance !

Just tested the lab, but wasn’t able to reproduce this issue. Pressing Shift and the \ | key directly above the Enter button on a US keyboard seems to work fine.

If that’s not working, I would recommend using the Clipboard function (copy the command > open the Machines tab > paste the command > click Send to System > right-click and select Paste in the lab environment).

I dont have the US keyboard, in mine it is done by pressing AltGr and 1 simultaneously, but as I say it does not work on the lab environment.

I really dont understand how to use the Clipboard function (as I said copy pasting does not work for me. Where is the Send to System button ? Could you provide a screenshoot or a video so that I know how to do it?

Thanks a lot for your engagement once again!

Good afternoon. Issues just keep coming up :weary::weary::weary:. I just can not complete step 11 within Symmetric Cryptography - 1.2 Guided Exercise .I have tried multiple times but the machine environment does not let me do the paste operation correctly. Perhaps it is because the message boy I copied is different from the one shown on the instructions (below you can find attached a hyperlink to a Word document as a proof what I am saying).

Hyperlink: /Users/juanalvareznunez/Desktop/Symmetric Cryptography - 1.2 Guided Exercise.docx

Could I get help to solve the issue, thank you so much in advance for your patience and and disposition as usual.

1. Which layer of the TCP/IP Model is also known as the Network Access Layer? answer me

Hi there - could you please reshare your document or provide a screenshot directly in your post? The hyperlink above seems to just be a file path on your local computer.

For Steps 9-11, your keyboard layout should not have any bearing on your ability to complete the steps. To paraphrase, it’s asking you to use your cursor to highlight the message body, right-click, and select Paste - then exit to the command prompt, type echo " and then right-click > Paste to paste in the message body. Then finish typing out the rest of the command.

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i had the same issue but realized that you must fist copy the text, then go to the machine tab and there paste it and press send to system, then you can paste in your VM