Поджог в парикмахерской (Arson at the Barbershop)

Platform: hackerlab | Category: OSINT | Type: Challenge | Difficulty: Medium | OS: NA | Author: XESXOR | Date: 2026-01-06 | Status: Solved Techniques: archive_research, data_filtering, government_database_search, mfirs_code_lookup

Summary

Task: Find the house number of a barbershop in Tewksbury, MA where arson was planned in 1986. Solution: Search MFIRS fire incident database on archive.org, filter by city and year, identify barbershop by property code 557.

Поджог в парикмахерской (Arson at the Barbershop) — Hackerlab

Description

В 1986 году в полицию города Tewksbury, штат Массачусетс позвонила анонимная женщина и сообщила, что утром воскресения в одной парикмахерской города планируется поджог. Какой был номер дома у этого салона?

Формат флага: CODEBY{flag}

Analysis

The task requires finding historical data about a fire at a barbershop in Tewksbury, Massachusetts in 1986. Key facts:

• Year: 1986
• City: Tewksbury, Massachusetts
• Property type: barbershop/beauty salon
• Incident type: arson ‍​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​‍

To find such data, we need to access official fire databases. In the USA, there is the MFIRS (Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System) that keeps records of all fire incidents.

Solution

Step 1: Finding the MFIRS database

Searching on archive.org for "Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System" or "MFIRS data" led to a dataset containing fire records in Massachusetts from 1986 to 2018.

Step 2: Downloading and analyzing the data

An Excel file with data from 1986-2000 was found. The file contains the following fields:

• Incident date
• City
• Address
• Fixed Property Use code
• Damage amount ‍​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​‍

Step 3: Filtering records

Filtering by criteria:

• City: TEWKSBURY
• Year: 1986

Step 4: Identifying the property type

According to the MFIRS Coding Manual, code 557 in the "Fixed Property Use" field means "Barber, beauty shop".

Step 5: Result

Found record:

• Date: May 10, 1986
• Address: 1629 MAIN ST, Tewksbury, MA
• Property type: Code 557 = Barber/beauty shop
• Damage: $1000

Key Resources

1. Archive.org - for searching historical government data
2. MFIRS Coding Manual - for decoding property type codes:
   • 557 = Barber, beauty shop
   • 500 = Mercantile, business
   • etc. ‍​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​‍

References

• MFIRS (Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System)
• Archive.org for searching historical government data
• NFIRS Coding Manual for decoding codes ‍​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​‍