Solving HackThisSite Programming Level 1 with Ronin

HackThisSite Programming Level 1 gives you a link to a wordlist.zip file and a list of scrambled words. Your task is to translate the scrambled words back into their original words from the wordlist.

This level is about unscrambling words.

Find the original (unscrambled) words, which were randomly taken from a wordlist.<--
Send a comma separated list of the original words, in the same order as in the list below.


You have 30 seconds time to send the solution.
List of scrambled words:   	
* onraold
* sxwzqa
* rynoelsd
* rtokenw
* reauli
* yekuslb
* sfufyrc
* pa1yph
* mnyrila
* ppeenoel

First we must download the wordlist.zip file.

Next we will write a Ruby script that reads the wordlists, build a lookup table, read in the scrambled words, translate them, and print the correctly formatted answer. To read the wordlist file, we will use wordlist Ruby library which can read compressed wordlist zip archives directly. Note that wordlist is a dependency of ronin, so it should already be installed.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'wordlist'

#
# Takes a word and sorts it's characters.
#
def sorted(word)
  word.chars.sort.join
end

wordlist = Wordlist.open('wordlist.zip')
sorted_words = {}

# build the lookup table
wordlist.each do |word|
  sorted_words[sorted(word)] = word
end

# read input until EOF
input = readlines(chomp: true)

# translate the input
answer = input.map { |scrambled_word|
  sorted_words[sorted(scrambled_word)]
}.join(',')

# print the answer
puts answer

Running the script and copy/pasting the random scrambled words gives us the answer:

$ ruby unsort_words.rb 
onraold
sxwzqa
rynoelsd
rtokenw
reauli
yekuslb
sfufyrc
pa1yph
mnyrila
ppeenoel
^D
orlando,qwaszx,reynolds,network,laurie,bluesky,scruffy,happy1,marilyn,penelope

Finally, copy/paste the answer into the text box and click Submit.