The Twelve Days of Christmas 2025 Challenge - Double Time

cyclone

Christmas is quickly approaching! As we did last year with our Merry Christmas 2024 - hashpwn Wordlist Challenge, hashpwn will be hosting another challenge, The Twelve Days of Christmas Challenge - Double Time, where we will be posting 12 challenges over the 6 days leading up to Christmas Day... so, double time! Also, in addition to releasing an updated hashpwn wordlist, we will also have daily prizes for participants to win.

When:

Start: December 20, 2025, 00:00 UTC
End: December 25, 2025

What:

A series of daily challenges / puzzles, each designed to test your understanding of hashing algorithms, encoding, and most importantly, critical thinking.

Who:

While this year's challenge will start off beginner friendly, users from all experience levels from newb to pro are encouraged to participate.
The challenge is open to everyone of all skill levels including visitors, members and hashpwn staff.
Only the brightest critical thinkers will be able to complete the entire challenge.
A modest GPU / CPU, experience with a few tools like hashcat, mdxfind, hashgen, cyberchef, and a smart brain are all that is needed to participate.

Challenges:

Two challenges per day (12 challenges in total).
Each challenge will include a small puzzle which should be solvable during your coffee break... how long of a coffee break depends on how well you're able to work through the puzzle.
Less experienced users will find some of these puzzles very difficult, while experienced users will find some of these puzzles very easy.
Every user, regardless of experience level, will likely get stumped at some point during the 12 challenges. This is expected and planned for.
After the challenge has been posted, hints will later be posted for users who may be stuck. If you're still suck after reading the hint, go back and read through the previous challenges and any notes you made (take notes... you will need them).
First to solve and submit the correct answer for that challenge will claim the prize for that challenge. All 12 challenges have prizes.
The entire challenge is automated, so prize info will be immediately displayed to the winner for each challenge.

Prizes:

Each challenge slot is sponsored by one or more of our community partners.
The winner of each challenge will receive instructions for redeeming their prize(s).
Make sure to copy these instructions as they will not be shown again!
Prizes range from vouchers from our community sponsors to cash.
There is a Grand Prize, so make sure to complete all challenges to have a chance at it!

Sponsors:

A big thank you to this year's sponsors!
Hashpwn.net
- Hashpwn is an ethical hash cracking forum that offers moderated discussion, shared research, custom tools, all in a friendly and professional community.
- Sponsored:
  - Daily Prizes
  - Grand Prize
Lethologica.nl
- Lethologica specializes in ethical crypto wallet recovery using advanced password research, digital forensics, and high-performance compute.
- Sponsored:
  - Daily Prizes
  - Grand Prize
Hashmob.net
- HashMob is a collaborative password research platform focused on hash recovery, analysis, and statistics. It provides shared hashlists, wordlists, tools, optimized rules, and APIs that help researchers and penetration testers improve real-world password security.
- Sponsored:
  - 3-month Diamond Patreon Vouchers to hashmob.net
  - Daily Prizes
  - Grand Prize
Hashcracky.com
- Hashcracky hosts gamified hash cracking events where participants crack hashes, earn loot, and compete on live leaderboards. It blends competitive fun with real cracking skills through themed, time-limited challenges.
- Sponsored:
  - Vouchers for 35k Gold and loot at hashcracky.com

How to participate:

Follow this page.
Anyone may participate.
No signup / entry required.
If you get stuck, wait for the next hint to drop.

Last updated: 2025/12/20@18:52 UTC

cyclone

Challenge Sample Hashes

Test your skills out on these sample hashes.

Sample Hashes 01:

Hint: These hashes look sick, might need to call an MD.

03d3435836d6c779224596f2e107a96a73cbf591
c5f5d9aa0f22346cb0f2fefa967b39580c5caeee
bcaa486211c29cac4decc528f6f8ef56fb23a67a
88f44391df1071314ac6d4301cb7f5cf381c33e6
aa29ebc703b6cff77eb7d94483481c365e5fcf09

Sample Hashes 02:

Hint: Let's touch base before we do anything crazy.

aWwwdmVicml0
cXdlcnR5MDIx
Y3VlbnRhc3A=
NDU1MzU0
bW9wYXI3NA==

Sample Hashes 03:

Hint: What appears hard becomes easy, if you know where to look.

$2a$10$RsDUNnVUjr90Ir9aBL8Peez7d/dWFb/ppinmDnkrzW29qe2Jvfqma
$2a$10$VxIJpXYdcI/c5PWipJSP9u1IC9E/iqJlPAhDo2fgN0pYgoVvxgwTK
$2a$10$iRCROUFD7s2w6vpjyWc82eBTQGIcpLt16dSSb1H1k8Z/YBIA1kSg2
$2a$10$WeN7yY96nXwwYysBtneU9..nmKixtpWMJfXQZCjW6XRFMjI6c.uc.
$2a$10$LjEdGXgwtrMekDVNCDjQ7.MC3z9Yr2f4OItmmxuVg8YS7kMzST45a

Last updated: 2025/12/08@23:47UTC

cyclone

Recommended Tools

It would be helpful to be familiar with some of the following tools:

hash cracking
- hashcat: https://github.com/hashcat/hashcat
  - https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?
- mdxfind: https://www.techsolvency.com/pub/bin/mdxfind/
- jtr: https://github.com/openwall/john
encoding
- hashgen: https://github.com/cyclone-github/hashgen
- cyberchef: https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef/

Last updated: 2025/12/08@23:47UTC

cyclone

Challenge Submission Info

Everyone participating will need to be familiar with the Challenge Submission page as you'll be using it for each of the 12 challenges.

Each challenge will be posted with a unique Word of the Day Challenge URL
- ie: https://contest.hashpwn.net/foobar/[uuid1234]
There are no tips, tricks, secrets or hidden messages on the submission page, it is solely for submitting your puzzle results
The submission page is not case-sensitive
Make sure to properly copy/paste your puzzle results in the correct order before submitting
If you make a mistake when submitting, you can try again
Abusive IPs will be rate limited / banned
Any and all participants found attempting to cheat or abuse *hashpwn.net will be fully disqualification from the Challenge without question

Challenge Submission (example)

Submission accepted (won)

Submission recorded (completed, not won)

Submission rejected (wrong plaintext)

Submission rejected (incorrect word of the day)

Rate limited

IP Banned

Last updated: 2025/12/08@23:48UTC

test123456

good nice

cyclone

The Challenge starts in 24 hours!

Follow this page as the first challenge will be posted here on Dec 20, 2025 @ 00:00 UTC.

Make sure to read through the posts, follow directions, watch for hints, and take notes!

Challenge Info:
https://forum.hashpwn.net/post/4844

Challenge Sample Hashes:
https://forum.hashpwn.net/post/7147

Challenge Submission Info:
https://forum.hashpwn.net/post/7149

hashpwn-bot

Challenge 01 - HASH
UTC: 2025-12-20T00:00:00Z

Secret:

57bbb659e56913a47fc91718cde35c3a
0ad9112ba115e1fd5be1fc2aff7e7de4
9e150cf81af2b645f02cfaa5655e8ab9
fedb82a5a79ed69b760e118615cd39b5

Word of the Day Challenge URL: https://contest.hashpwn.net/claim/74899148c5ae1382b2376e3e73efdaeb

cyclone

Congrats to our first Challenge winner! @petrovivo1234

Everyone else, keep at it! Hints will also be posted later for those who need a nudge.

penguinkeeper

Given it's been solved, I'm probably just being silly here but what is the word of the day and/or how do we find it? (if it's not a part of the challenge?)

hashpwn-bot

Challenge 01 - HINT
UTC: 2025-12-20T04:49:00Z

Santa suggests you use your favorite wordlist on this coMMon algo.

PRO TIP from Santa's helper:

When submitting, you must keep the original order and format of hashes exactly as they are posted on the challenge.
The first letter of each plaintext will then spell out the Word of the Day... write that down!
To keep you from unnecessarily banging your head against the wall on a few challenges, the submitter is not case-sensitive.
Take good notes!

cyclone

@penguinkeeper Challenge 01 - Hint answers your question.
https://forum.hashpwn.net/post/7664

hashpwn-bot

Challenge 02 - HASH
UTC: 2025-12-20T12:00:00Z

Secret:

59Qtuu8u5X
4h77ydZDJj
zUMry8be
3x8zW4

Word of the Day Challenge URL: https://contest.hashpwn.net/claim/81b6ba4de79c55d6335c044b7fd0986f

hashpwn-bot

Challenge 02 - HINT
UTC: 2025-12-20T17:21:47Z

What elf encoded this mess?! It's going to take me 58 minutes to figure this out.

cyclone

Congrats to the 8 who have completed Challenge 01 so far!

The Challenge is open to everyone of all skill levels including visitors, members and hashpwn staff.

Word to the wise, if you want a chance at the Grand Prize, you'll need to have completed all previous Challenges!

hashpwn