MERCY

Infinity Vault

Public Cryptographic Capture-the-Flag Challenge

Authorized Cryptanalysis Target

The Challenge

MERCY is publishing an encrypted Infinity Vault artifact as an authorized cryptographic target.

Your objective is simple: recover the exact plaintext flag contained inside the supplied vault artifact without being given the secret 256-bit challenge key.

High-Level Architecture

Infinity Vault applies a proprietary exact, cross-scale MERCY-derived mathematical transformation before established authenticated encryption.

256-bit Master Secret
↓
Exact MERCY-Derived Mathematical Evolution
↓
Final Evolved State
↓
Post-MERCY Cryptographic Key Derivation
↓
Authenticated Encryption

The transformation operates using exact mathematical state rather than ordinary IEEE floating-point evolution. Its internal equations, constants, state layout, and transformation rules are proprietary and are not included with this public challenge.

Challenge Artifact

The public artifact will be available here as: challenge_artifact.iv4

Download Infinity Vault Artifact

Winning Condition

Recover the exact plaintext flag encrypted inside challenge_artifact.iv4.

A legitimate capture should include enough reproducible technical explanation to demonstrate that the result came from analysis of the published cryptographic artifact rather than compromise of unrelated infrastructure.

Authorized

Download and analyze the published challenge artifact.
Perform mathematical and cryptanalytic analysis.
Write and run your own local analysis tools.
Attempt key recovery, structural analysis, or cryptographic attacks against the artifact.

Out of Scope

Attacking GitHub, Cloudflare, hosting infrastructure, DNS, or email systems.
Attacking developer computers or private repositories.
Phishing, credential theft, malware, or social engineering.
Denial-of-service attacks.
Attempts to obtain private MERCY source code or unpublished research material.

This is an authorized cryptographic challenge against the supplied artifact only. Failure to recover the flag does not constitute proof that Infinity Vault is mathematically unbreakable or independently validated.