Any Cryptographers at DU?

[kliljedahl]

Heard this on NPR on the way to work this AM.

CIA Experts Still Spooked by Kryptos Puzzle

For 15 years, a bronze sculpture in the CIA's courtyard has taunted amateur and professional code-breakers alike. Kryptos is a copper wall that features four long coded passages. Cryptographers from the National Security Administration and the CIA have cracked the first three.

The Fourth Passage
The significance of the initial question-mark character -- as a beginning or a spacer -- is hotly debated by Kryptos sleuths.
?OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFL
RVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJQSSEK
ZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYPVTTM
ZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEK
CAR


Note:There are no breaks in the sequence.

Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4684720

Spell Check freaked out on this one.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Enraged_Ape]

1. "All your base are belong to us. Someone set us up the bomb."

Easily decrypted. Not sure what it means, though.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. CAR is GOD

(or maybe oil) :)

That's a good place to start from.

[AllegroRondo]

3. Its a cookbook!

seriously, I heard the story too.

I really was intruiged when the creator said that figuring out the 4th passage is only the beginning of the puzzle.

[KansDem]

14. "How to Serve Man?"

I thought you might be referring to that classic Twilight Zone episode...

[wakeme2008]

4. What is interesting is the NSA and CIA have not broken it

and it sits outside CIA headquarters. :)

[ChicanoPwr]

5. If there is no breaks does it mean

?OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYPVTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR

Or is it:
First Passage = ?OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFL
Second Passage = RVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJQSSEK
Third Passage = ZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYPVTTM
Fourth Passage = ZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEK
Fifth Passage = CAR

[lectrobyte]

8. I think there are line breaks

FAQ at http://elonka.com/kryptos/faq.html

[BrotherBuzz]

10. Fourth passage has 97 characters...

[bpilgrim]

6. CIA: The Story behind “Kryptos”

The Mystery of “Kryptos”

At the entrance to the New Headquarters building, the sculpture begins with two red granite and copperplate constructions which flank the walkway from the parking deck. These stones appear as pages jutting from the earth with copperplate ‘between the pages’ on which there are International Morse code and ancient ciphers. There is also a lodestone (a naturally magnetized rock) co-located with a navigational compass rose.

In the courtyard, a calm, reflective pool of water lies between two layered slabs of granite and tall grasses. Directly across from this is the centerpiece of “Kryptos,” a piece of petrified wood supporting an S-shaped copper screen surrounding a bubbling pool of water.

*

The petrified tree symbolizes the trees that once stood on the site of the sculpture and that were the source of materials on which written language has been recorded.
*

The bubbling pool symbolizes information being disseminated with the destination being unknown.
*

The copperplate screen has approximately 2,000 alphabetic letters cut into it.

The sculpture is like a history of cryptography. The left side of the copper screen, the first two sections, is a table for deciphering and enciphering code, a method developed by 16th century French cryptographer Blaise de Vigenere. The Vigenere method substitutes letters throughout the message by shifting from one alphabet order to another with each letter of the key. Part of the right side of the sculpture uses the table from the left side, and another portion uses the cryptographic method of transposing letters or changing their position in a message according to whatever method the writer devised.

The sculpture has been a source of mystery and challenge for Agency employees, other government employees, and interested people outside of government. In early 1998, a CIA physicist announced to the Agency that he had cracked the code for three of the four sections. This was followed a year later by a public announcement from a California computer scientist that he had done the same. As varied as the codes in the sculpture are, so were the methods to crack them. The Agency employee used pencil and paper, and the computer scientist used his computer. No one has yet to break the code for the remaining 97-character message which utilizes a more difficult cryptographic code.

James Sanborn once said “They will be able to read what I wrote, but what I wrote is a mystery itself.” Only time will tell if the final message to this multi-layered puzzle is ever revealed. If you want to try to break the code, here are the letters from “Kryptos.”

more...
http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/tour/kryptos_code.html

peace

[kliljedahl]

9. Interesting, thanks for the link

I'd never heard about it before this morning.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[kliljedahl]

16. Punt

[bpilgrim]

11. Spoilers...

http://elonka.com/kryptos/index.html#spoilers


Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 07:44:17 -0700
From: Jim Gillogly <[e-mail]>

Organization: Banzai Institute
To: [e-mail]

John Young wrote:
> So, Jim, what was the message?

It's in the sidebar to the article. I must say this was the best experience I've had working with a journalist -- he got everything spot-on. Only the last Q was left off of one of the plaintexts.

I worked from an impressively clean transcription by Doug Gwyn, which you can find at
http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/Kryptos/

Here's what I broke (typos are cut into the copper):

1. Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion. Keys: KRYPTOS, PALIMPSEST.
2. It was totally invisible. How's that possible? They used the earth's magnetic field. x The information was gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown location. x Does langley know about this? They should: it's buried out there somewhere. x Who knows the exact location? Only WW. This was his last message. x Thirty eight degrees fifty seven minutes six point five seconds north, seventy seven degrees eight minutes forty four seconds west. ID by rows. Keys: KRYPTOS, ABSCISSA
3. Slowly, desparatly slowly, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the lower part of the doorway was removed. With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left-hand corner. And then, widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in. The hot air escaping from the chamber caused the flame to flicker, but presently details of the room within emerged from the mist. x Can you see anything? q Keys: three columnar transpositions.

Here are the last 97 characters, which I haven't broken:

OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR


I suspect it's running key, or combined polyalphabetic sub and transposition, or perhaps autokey. The only likely periodicity appears to be at period 25, but that may well just be chance.

The lat-long in the second section are near Langley and McLean, Virginia. Perhaps some cypherpunks with GPS receivers could narrow it down a bit. ABC News thinks it's right at the spot where the sculpture sits, but I'd find that surprising given the text. The third section is adapted from Howard Carter's first-person account of opening Tutankhamun's tomb, and the response to the question was "Yes, wonderful things." Perhaps that's a crib for the last section.

--
Jim Gillogly
26 Forelithe S.R. 1999, 14:29
12.19.6.5.1, 5 Imix 9 Zotz, Second Lord of Night



peace

[GiovanniC]

13. More

http://kryptos.arcticus.com/coords.html

I believe based on my data sources that the accuracy of this plot is probably in the 1m (3 foot) range. The original coordinates were specified in Degrees, Minutes, Seconds notation (38° 57' 6.5"N, 77° 8' 44"W) as opposed to decimal degrees (as in 38.9518056°N, 77.1455556°W). Notably, the seconds portion of the Latitude has a decimal component, specifically 6.5" N. This .5 tells us to some degree (pun!) what the level of precision of the coordinate is.

<snip>

The coordinates listed in Kryptos part 3 most certainly do NOT point to the location of the Kryptos sculpture itself. It is difficult to see exactly what (if anything) is located at the red dot site. Examining the original unadorned image reveals no significantly visible feature nearby (large enough to be seen by the 1ft airphoto anyway). The spot is right on the edge of a shadowed area.

Nothing significant seems apparent -- more of the same small objects scattered about. I believe these are probably cafe-type tables? Perhaps someone who has been there can comment.

What to make of this? I think if anyone can visit Kryptos in the future they should conduct a thorough examination of the area surrounding the red dot. There may be an inscribed walkway tile, or other artifact that might indicate something. The location of the red dot is pleasingly symmetric to the location of Kryptos and its whitish inlay/walkway features, which seems like it is not a coincidence.

[pacalo]

7. The double letters

"BB", "QQ", "SS", etc., could indicate the end of a sentence or phrase.

[ChicanoPwr]

12. First two messages

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/batman/kryptos.html

Kryptos - Passage 1:
Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.

Kryptos - Passage 2:
It was totally invisible Hows that possible? They used the Earths magnetic field X

The information was gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown location X

Does Langley know about this? They should Its buried out there somewhere X

Who knows the exact location? Only WW This was his last message X

Thirty eight degrees fifty seven minutes six point five seconds north

Seventy seven degrees eight minutes forty four seconds west ID by rows

[BrotherBuzz]

15. Way cool...I'm adding the characters to my list!!!

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Meade, press-release, Indigo, wire transfer, e-cash, Bubba the Love Sponge, Digicash, zip, SWAT, Ortega, PPP, crypto-anarchy, AT&T, SGI, SUN, MCI, Blacknet, Middleman, KLM, Blackbird, plutonium, Texas, jihad, SDI, Uzi, Fort Meade, supercomputer, bullion, 3, Blackmednet, Propaganda, ABC, Satellite phones, Planet-1, cryptanalysis, nuclear, FBI, Panama, fissionable, Sears Tower, NORAD, Delta Force, SEAL, virtual, Dolch, secure shell, screws, Black-Ops, Area51, SABC, basement, data-haven, black-bag, TEMPSET, Goodwin, rebels, ID, MD5, IDEA, garbage, market, beef, Stego, unclassified, utopia, orthodox, Alica, SHA, Global, gorilla, Bob, Pseudonyms, MITM, Gray Data, VLSI, mega, Leitrim, Yakima, Sugar Grove, Cowboy, Gist, 8182, Gatt, Platform, 1911, Geraldton, UKUSA, veggie, 3848, Morwenstow, Consul, Oratory, Pine Gap, Menwith, Mantis, DSD, BVD, 1984, Flintlock, cybercash, government, hate, speedbump, illuminati, president, freedom, cocaine, $, Roswell, ESN, COS, E.T., credit card, b9, fraud, assasinate, virus, anarchy, rogue, mailbomb, 888, Chelsea, 1997, Whitewater, MOD, York, plutonium, William Gates, clone, BATF, SGDN, Nike, Atlas, Delta, TWA, Kiwi, PGP 2.6.2., PGP 5.0i, PGP 5.1, siliconpimp, Lynch, 414, Face, Pixar, IRIDF, eternity server, Skytel, Yukon, Templeton, LUK, Cohiba, Soros, Standford, niche, 51, H&K, USP, ^, sardine, bank, EUB, USP, PCS, NRO, Red Cell, Glock 26, snuffle, Patel, package, ISI, Chobetsu, FBIS, BND, SISDE, FSB, BfV, IB, froglegs, JITEM, SADF, advise, TUSA, HoHoCon, SISMI, FIS, MSW, Spyderco, UOP, SSCI, NIMA, MOIS, SVR, SIN, advisors, SAP, OAU, PFS, Aladdin, chameleon man, Hutsul, CESID, Bess, rail gun, Peering, 17, 312, NB, CBM, CTP, Sardine, SBIRS, SGDN, ADIU, DEADBEEF, IDP, IDF, Halibut, SONANGOL, Flu, &, Loin, PGP 5.53, EG&G, AIEWS, AMW, WORM, MP5K-SD, 1071, WINGS, cdi, DynCorp, UXO, Ti, THAAD, package, chosen, PRIME, SURVIAC,UFO., ?OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDAWINFBNYPVTTM ZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR

[Just Me]

17. Simple. "no one grasps the mystery of life".

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