SoundCloud Profile

Raw SoundCloud API JSON

The SoundCloud profile was linked in Numbers II. The SoundCloud account has no public tracks, but the track counter shows 1. This indicates a potential SoundCloud song URL being hidden somewhere.

Description

Profile description:

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

Profile status:

Start from X. End with Y. Remove XY + odd one out
“Open” in FireFox

“Start from X, end with Y” is a quote from Numbers II lyrics. The latter line got added later, showing that it’s harder to solve this when using Chrome and hinting that a file is the answer.

Profile Background

The profile background has dim text that shows part of the lyrics to Numbers:

Numbers lyrics

Increased brightness:

Numbers lyrics

Solution

At the moment of this puzzle’s publication, each SoundCloud account had a hidden image in its HTML code. The image’s code is:

data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABNgAAABkAQMAAABuPx8iAAAAA1BMVEX///+nxBvIAAAAJUlEQVR4Xu3AMQEAAADCIPunNsYeWAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOA88AABMGQBNwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==

Applying “Start from X, end with Y” lyrics, Xu3AMQEAAADCIPunNsY can be extracted. Removing XY we get u3AMQEAAADCIPunNs, and the “odd one out” is 3.

This is the decryption key.

CyberChef

Answer

…
I was born with the creator in her family house. Unfortunately, they couldn’t afford to keep me so they let me go to a good home! . My new family were really nice to me and I was a happy pup! . That all changed when they died in a car crash and left me alone on the streets. I was terrified! Luckily a kind old man found me and took me in. He fed me and helped me find my new loving home!

Track

(TODO: move to its own article)

At some point in January 2024, it was noticed that the SoundCloud profile’s tracks counter has changed from 0 to 1. After some digging, it turned out this only happens when a previously public track goes private.

After fetching the track list of the SoundCloud profile on 2024-01-22 via the internal SoundCloud API, the following JSON got returned:

{"collection":[],"next_href":"https://api-v2.soundcloud.com/users/1258077262/tracks?offset=2023-10-31T17%3A51%3A59.000Z%2Ctracks%2C01653590364&limit=10","query_urn":null}

Note the offset=2023-10-31T17:51:59.000Z,tracks,01653590364 in the URL.

This showed two important thingss:

  1. The track was uploaded the same day as the [Filtered] video
  2. The track ID is 1653590364 (doesn’t help much, but this means we only need the track secret without the track name for getting its unlisted URL)