Decoding YouTube error on 500 pages

Question

This is a YouTube 500 page. Can anyone help decrypt this information?

<p>500 Internal Server Error<p> Sorry, something went wrong. <p>A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.<p> If you see them, show them this information: AB38WENgKfeJmWntJ8Y0Ckbfab0Fl4qsDIZv_fMhQIwCCsncG2kQVxdnam35 TrYeV6KqrEUJ4wyRq_JW8uFD_Tqp-jEO82tkDfwmnZwZUeIf1xBdHS_bYDi7 6Qh09C567MH_nUR0v93TVBYYKv9tHiJpRfbxMwXTUidN9m9q3sRoDI559_Uw FVzGhjH5-Rd1GPLDrEkjcIaN_C3xZW80hy0VbJM3UI5EKohX35gZNK2aNi_8 Toi9z3L8lzpFTvz5GyHygFFBFEJpoRRJSu3CbH5S2OxXEVo4HgaaBTV7Dx_1 Zs1HZvPqhPIvXg9ifd4KZJiUJDFS8grPLE7bypFsRamyZw-OCVyUHsGQKBwu 77pTtRwpF3hOxYLxM4KnAyiY1N6yrASSWyaeumRDENAoEEe8i8MRxzifqHuR leatvNMiwsg1pbSl7IIiaKljZaD9UkRms4Kvz1uYUNk4AwXnJ9-Wq44ufMPl syiHp_LwaeqyuxXykJMl-SA9p05VrJc4kCETUW3Ybp0yTYvVrqggo56A0ofC OiyAmifQA9pdYVGeumrQtbFlFyDyG9VKNpzn5lqutxFZPsS8xjiILfF3bETD H4aUb5fT4iERFsEL7S-ClsXiA4yAJdAcNH-OhGg9ipAaIxRRTOR5P1MYx6s6 -OrqgpT5VEaEx2hMpS1afaMd2_F21sxvcz2d8sCpEceHHSfsntTth6talYeD 4l63aUTbbCKV1lHxKWxdUjACFKRobeAvIpcJPcdHSN3CNQI-LlIWIx9jeyBU tDcL6S6GpRG_Z2of9fmw0LHpVU5hKlQ3lCPd4pVP6J02yrsBi0S9OLoE9jmM T2FfCvU1sWUCsrZu4-UPflXMyRnFK8aN8DYiwWWE8OvnLQ-LIaRDhjp29u9a LT6Lh4KxEmWF5XeZTwrzJxtuDLVomxVD5mpwFvK0YSoaz9dnPGXb0Fm2txSL BvGssSrWBJ4FeR6eEEkd_UkQ-aUnPv2W-POox17n54wzTwLugYjslRenMzmk I4_jlXcx9NpKmUg7Pa0qJuaElt-ZymPv6h0cXRUlyZtS0iT9-CQOHWLYMi3I kKrYa6bKUCAj058JEderSnbXqGEMvwBeZ_xgJpAjJiSgMOxJPokhbS6ezIv4 1JNr_dvQyvu4vh-YQNZ37fNTqQcoDZtYflBsJjuGrJlmIcqBYufB9g6nUaOE xPAKjPdvZ_z1Rn_8sWVf8NHNBBKGe5lgDgBxypsV0kIwVa9QOlehivOaieBI tmqHNdQIfdob0XUTEBPSeLj9hmw3Bqplc3gqUfFhIvpHml6dOTbjBhfkq0TE 5yCRHL2VSe2Xt9_i8SPQA2yCtJVO8HP6pnohmxqlBWSTE8Xj87PI6quX7f9i 0W6PdtkMYaGJsd_Ly_4Ag-KmGNHN585tF9eC5HeQ8Gz-vHZWOUiM4OQAG9UA 31ENOAjHtYb--ketbUcdX_FdjGiPtI_GxYeBqEShICotcd-S-E3bEGO-77M2 CuUUdB1AUYVDZR81XejVG5kSWsrz-p1qZ-6sSpSHCp114C6PheQPCwRHEr_1 AS-DkZfIuZ-w8XAo6pHIwvnv0dORSo-hPFgw1rw2VE4aKsgeMc7ZoPUxby1d Zr-o-0X4ZMgxoQHw_Ub27rTTHxS5Czt_vgBPq7k5OK5dm6b7JCs6Dbn2dsIA AakPL26t4smr8IiPAnqNC2sn7vxSiAe9mTJ670eNc6C9dCSGwqzqSURiLHmT kFyLhNSOdipttECmSSA1qh_E0K4LUhiOq7MFDEzg9CLD8kuJrqpEGgltYpD- 8lk7KEpyjMqbWFs-qeD8uJpsVfY2ac1C67OmyGzkERVoC245-YXuNCP8KUZH LGzRm9jXwUP_piDETX0N5xj34VOCfUTffT1WlWHmB9WRPhwjIsYYy_kgR-uT kIEDQ23NVUEGgDoryl-ymysIfwifjq-lPB3e85dz1PajNxawsCrKNeR_4hhq zE_E4ete1EgXeAYoeH4UIgrPGXDD-KfoNoB6viNs0GzNU9czD9Avr-tDtARO HBLSLIVRYq8caMA-jvpplTOMoDdmUMUWytf4Y_F5tKTpNtLPaAe1py1IgZBl lfAGY9L_k5slelh_9gUBEkURxS2oMGf2gdSeDdRBxKKx5tF1b-cuMLK6JYZJ vbGFYSsSENOkHrHEo9NdTwTi7NON9ZgRJgh7OaENK4TFCXrhKc4C6cyJs-V_ HZ0Q-B8XDyjL0qudg_0rJbjTNpNZajT_1WGsnhsTTAgMCGtTsj1T8vNx2LuX lPQV30nUKpukdCP3zuiE9_aeJQ-nzf3dMQ-KnZU5APmGcIP_u2be6blieMWH qVax1asKmuIjslh49ceM6lRt3Ia2bHUB8b1TMSjU4I79KPqc3clDnD8quNnU cRkgfJ_8LCEoH7jml_2TNV0fLuH_9IOXF3jKjhT9K5f-e5N06GmPQLzdqzeQ MnEtHuDcf4IizyKnB5GUXoNfQxbScQEzztQ_nHMYfF-E8KqoxxlK-Z0wfEDv dJpL3mcNfFu_vz-_LJ0oI4dE0-vthsxbpTxVQkdI0E5XSi4nYfLqhXompk4j gpxcHBjsXVbWcnelWhhQP15gCApj6Gz_ddRtk_uxiyiqZ44oUUDcl1KeWMTf yhKDj7jgGNzTOkUsXZRPb9M77-ZYPuL2wR68E3b9PC_mS6HBHiUxQ7pXvkwS Bi2CoFgd9SqBXk2O5I_BPaEoA8Aorazw4OvDrmTQrCk4OkGPKRukE4Ci2RMq TZIYbBz-v3QxmOKHJoMXPNOfj93TRWpmlAd6iHCH6BVlSdfgfjdbHeD0b0ct qXC_-S5fr1XFBuaZwaUTrBPxU-3IxWLp-dx7wpKcFykqKnByYpkzR3twKEXc z--CZV79Qk3ZTMY9ATia4HbyhoAqY_hV9GKAHQdU_C-9qwYt0rliNUcizlBc RHcwzoMyx30ciwbE8e9QsEH_AMa3E2ezuhjTqQlAG33_Gy5Bwe7fj6zNR0ud jjpcNVf-wprWHEYxMcKwjCQvEHBtv6TnCHkgi_AOtPzzm3aYkMc_ysdNAnI7 DE_T9S5Mkcs6VdT2DWgUN_UC-oAw27xej0aTIn0GckXPDcLBgvrUhUPU3FRn lW65syvFvxFmBOiCAEHD1q6Is1XhIf8vE6y0FMdNEWSMUW5rQG8f3KP_pjqG XlUHnGrQPQysylrczHOj4E3WTT918xg2vrXVraDJbCYnJpaWp8m94iqZw2gJ I_0UWOAZJMCYWz5jYf2DanCOBaGeZIO-UsWorP6YV3yHehirZ_Lc6KtaUorb bm_BnnCqGVZypL4k6cDy-4GyO2GNohXzN-VWqbAIUQIat9w6RsDpzpS2DIap 96aMBDg24D73RhFTEgCSunPpbbGrDVU3GFkuTGFFBQWNfAU_F22XtoPr_ZB0 1zZPrBVXrEhebvrzp0Z31_sIT8zLop_oaSRvykbyJKKxucARfPee-d0xlgWN WwKKtl49WVMhhu0OfDScH3knAVdv0LDAyt1fo3WF8jxdp7J9Hn3OWF3rcn0p zw0gt6YV_6FRy_UbZmpLBvEhZQKUfKuxp6LK-SfHOilT29ERg9LJZhnyluTV HELRtkJIcHzvphXupCIaIgZispYxHNSmAfze2cshWBYizGTBSKXWgrJeo7Q6 kEjim72yKaJ8JaLzMQFPxtQxhtvHRw94dCuXcajg3nE_r_9t7D8RicqF-CVV tvp-rHMPhhizlgfixHWXrPB7reTtftT64pOSl5vUop8gTlbeW5Kg7WQAPNfp zUH8YcAo0xDLJHA-FgTM4mYGih41rKaKKteWRFGU-fIyEzeO1s35tbGzlZ7R btUG_fCpIbaJmucMZK9OzVBSfBgTBtFSesqKq6hIc8HctGcj5LPUfP9DRqqe CrBi6bPjTlzrjaxJoU6oRq4ZtiBG38skOAaCUk61tpjilkq1fmWe2ByvLXhp O2furZoiwNrizYmUmAW3ak3iSneScA64M-9apdZwhhEgpqyw5mUMYNT5SOOf xZePlgXxhlL81t3KlofdbzT0w6tlbbT0NSbj9Q_zNkeZ8ar5aeMgTR-pJACg baB20YVezziX-yboCF-uIptCTFNV 

(Source: this post at HN )

Answer 1

The debug information contained in the (urlsafe-) base64 block is most likely encrypted.

Think about it from a Google perspective: you need to display the stack trace, the corresponding http request headers, and possibly some internal user session state to help the developer debug the situation. On the other hand, all this information may contain confidential information that you don’t want the public to see or that could endanger the user if he copies it to the public support forum.

If I were thinking of a format that I would have imagined:

• The public identifier of the key used for encryption (their servers can use different keys)
• Debug data encrypted using authenticated encryption scheme
• Additional Information for Correcting Errors When You Need to Use OCR

For statistical analysis of the format, it would be interesting to try many of these error messages and see if some parts of the message are less random than you would expect from encrypted data (symmetric encrypted data should correspond to a uniform distribution).

Answer 2

It seems you are not the only one looking for secret messages on the YouTube error page. It seems that you can decode it with Base64.

Here's how:

http://www.cambus.net/decoding-youtube-http-error-500-message/

In a nutshell:

Unfortunately, contrary to my expectations, there seems to be a hidden message ... Turn you in, highly skilled monkeys!

I guess this is just another easter egg, similar to the Goats Teleported performance counter, in which Google Chrome:

https://plus.google.com/+RobertPitt/posts/PrqAX3kVapn

But I think if you do not look like this, you cannot be 100% sure.

Answer 3

IMHO - this is all about customer service.

Actually there is no need to send an error / debugging message to the client, because, I think, it is already being processed internally.

So:

• Why do we see this?
• and why do they encrypt it?
• and is there a hidden message for us?

Although the error can be fixed and fixed internally, it does not necessarily satisfy the customer who cannot use the product. They pretty much do crypts for a good reason, as this debug message can reveal more than a normal administrator. And also there is no need to hide the message for us. What for? Because we NEVER stop until we find something.

I think:

• internally error handled
• external users may have something available to inform the technician if necessary, and in return may receive an approximation of the current problem.

In general, nothing special, and I think that the link, for example, to inf. Monkey's theorem is a bit overpriced ...

Answer 4

A 500 error means that Google has a problem that cannot be resolved. Therefore, when reporting an error, the most important thing is to prepare the playback steps. So I tried to find the answer to the question "When will this happen?"

I found this post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/40k858/is_youtube_giving_you_500_internal_server_errors/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=comment_list

As a summary:

• This happens on desktops (www ...), it works fine on the mobile version (m ...)

• This happens for authenticated users. For anonymous users it works fine.

• The problem is resolved after clearing the cookies.

So, I would give a direction: try to find the key in the session cookie. I hope my 2 cents will help.

Answer 5

It is very possible that this is a random addition to avoid the "friendly" IE error pages that show if your error page does not contain more than 512 HTML bytes. It would be base64 encoded if it were just random bytes.