Safe Computing Hacks & Homework Hacks

Popcorn Hack 1: Cookies

Name: user_session
Value: hTrkM5JdlI29MnSR2P
Expiration Date: 2026-07-23T09:58:21.TRJ3
Category: First-Party Cookie

Popcorn Hack 2: CAPTCHA

The CAPTCHA contains 3 boxes:
- First: Square 3×1
- Second: Square 2×2
- Third: Square 3×2

MCQ Popcorn Hack 1: Multiple Choice Questions

✅ Multiple forms of identity verification before granting access
✅ Asymmetric Encryption
✅ Personally Identifiable Information
✅ Respecting privacy policies and obtaining user consent before collecting data
✅ Symmetric Encryption
✅ Verify the legitimacy of the email by contacting the bank directly through official contact methods
✅ A scam where an attacker tricks users into providing personal information by pretending to be a trustworthy entity
✅ The software could contain malware or viruses that compromise the computer’s security
✅ Even if the public key is known, only the private key can decrypt the message
✅ Alice’s public key

Code Popcorn Hack 2: Modified Caesar Cipher

import random

def caesar_cipher(text, shift, mode):
    result = ""
    for char in text:
        if char.isalpha():  # Encrypts only letters
            shift_amount = shift if mode == "encrypt" else -shift
            new_char = chr(((ord(char.lower()) - 97 + shift_amount) % 26) + 97)
            result += new_char.upper() if char.isupper() else new_char
        else:
            result += char  # Keeps spaces and non-letter characters unchanged
    return result

mode = input("Do you want to encrypt or decrypt? ").strip().lower()
message = input("Enter your message: ")
shift_input = input("Enter shift value (number of places to shift, or type 'random'): ").strip().lower()

if shift_input == "random":
    shift = random.randint(1, 25)
    print(f"Random shift value used: {shift}")
else:
    shift = int(shift_input)

output = caesar_cipher(message, shift, mode)
print(f"Result: {output}")

import random

def caesar_cipher(text, shift, mode):
    result = ""
    for char in text:
        if char.isalpha():  # Encrypts only letters
            shift_amount = shift if mode == "encrypt" else -shift
            new_char = chr(((ord(char.lower()) - 97 + shift_amount) % 26) + 97)
            result += new_char.upper() if char.isupper() else new_char
        else:
            result += char  # Keeps spaces and non-letter characters unchanged
    return result

mode = input("Do you want to encrypt or decrypt? ").strip().lower()
message = input("Enter your message: ")
shift_input = input("Enter shift value (number of places to shift, or type 'random'): ").strip().lower()

if shift_input == "random":
    shift = random.randint(1, 25)
    print(f"Random shift value used: {shift}")
else:
    shift = int(shift_input)

output = caesar_cipher(message, shift, mode)
print(f"Result: {output}")

Random shift value used: 13
Result: qnqql