Decrypting Kryptos

angkor writes "Kryptos is a sculpture located on the grounds of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Installed in 1990, its thousands of characters contain encrypted messages, of which three have been solved (so far). There is still a fourth section at the bottom consisting of 97 or 98 characters which remains uncracked."

Crack?

[theluckyleper (758120)]

Dynamite oughtta crack it...

Re:Crack?

[slAckEr Of dOOm (818662)]

Typical gamer - "if you don't understand it, blow it up"

Re:Crack?

[theluckyleper (758120)]

But a slacker of doom, on the other hand, would spend years working out a way to decipher it? :P

Re:Crack?

[david.given (6740)]

Typical gamer - "if you don't understand it, blow it up"

Now, now. The full saying to the shmup motto is, IIRC:

"If it moves, kill it. If it doesn't move, shoot it until it does. Then kill it."

Unfortunately I can't find a source --- anyone?

I'll bet it says...

[mr_burns (13129)]

"Stop goofing off. Get back to work"

Re:I'll bet it says...

[Directrix1 (157787)]

I solved it, it really says:

"He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the
Holy Grail in the Castle of uuggggggh"

Kryptos?

[MikeXpop (614167)]

Superman must be shaking in his boots right about now.

Is there a solution?

[mistersooreams (811324)]

Forgive me for being cynical, but how can we be sure that this final piece is actually crackable? I mean, it would be a cruel joke by Jim Sanborn (the structure's creator) to just include a load of junk, but who's to say he didn't? The fact that the other parts have been deciphered suggests that this last part will give way eventually, but maybe that's just to make the final joke even crueler?

I hope I'm wrong because that would make this story a lot less interesting, but I just thought it should be mentioned.

Re:Is there a solution?

[ncurses (764489)]

of course not, it's just some random chars generated by the Arethusa cipher, seeded with the string COMSTOCK.

Re:Is there a solution?

[EvilSporkMan (648878)]

Actually, the characters you're referring to were NOT generated by Arethusa, they were generated by a Riemann zeta function; this was the whole point of that part of Cryptonomicon. Parent should be right where he is, +3 for Effort.

Re:Is there a solution?

[theluckyleper (758120)]

Yes, he could've used ye olde book of random numbers [amazon.com], for a laugh.

If so, he'll get what's coming to him in the geek afterlife: An eternity of this [neowin.net].

Re:Is there a solution?

[iabervon (1971)]

It's certainly possible that the area people call "part 4" is actually random junk stuck in to fill up that section of the sculpture (the width of that portion is determined by the first two parts, and the height by the table on the right), and that the final solution to the sculpture uses entirely different elements.

If the end of the text is part 4, there's probably at least a part 5, because there's a bunch of other stuff in the installation not yet used in any solutions (including, for example, a compass that points the wrong way).

I wouldn't be surprised, from the known decryptions, if you had to stand with a candle at a certain point and notices the letters cut in the shadow cast by the sculpture at particular points. It seems to me like the bottom rows would be most likely as the letters for this, so it may be that some of the letters are important, but that there's no way to solve it by just looking at a transcript.

Re:Is there a solution?

[Calroth (310516)]

OK, here we go. From the FAQ [elonka.com]:

Q: Are you sure that Kryptos part 4 is solvable?

Yes. Both Jim Sanborn and Ed Scheidt have repeated over and over that it's solvable. Sanborn has also been quoted in interviews as saying he was surprised that it hadn't been solved yet. And when Elonka Dunin, co-moderator of the Kryptos group, asked him flat out in mid-2003 whether or not part 4 was solvable, his answer was: "Yes. It ain't easy, but it's solvable!"

97 or 98?

[by Anonymous Coward]

If you can't tell how many characters it has, no wonder it's so hard to crack.

Re:97 or 98?

[Zocalo (252965)]

From the FAQ:

All of the characters on the ciphertext side of Kryptos have been solved, except for 97 characters at the very bottom. There is also a question mark between parts 3 and 4. Some say the question mark is part of part 3 (since it ends with the question, "Can you see anything q"). However, it's possible that the question mark is part of part 4.

So, there you go. Having a question mark at the beginning is a little odd, unless it's a hint that you are meant to read it backwards like some of the other Kryptos puzzles.

Re:97 or 98?

[FuturePastNow (836765)]

Having a question mark at the beginning is a little odd

Maybe it's in Spanish...

Keys...

[Antony-Kyre (807195)]

Wouldn't the key to cracking it lie in like a key inside of the code? That somewhere in the code, it explains how to decode itself. Also, by looking at the artwork itself, it looks like two semi-circles.

Re:Keys...

[Antony-Kyre (807195)]

One idea, and I'm sure others have thought of it, is to connect the two semi-circles then draw lines. How the lines are drawn, don't know. We could try common letters, vowels, sentences, alphabets, etc.

I think I got it..

[The Journalist (844669)]

There's a "W", then an "e", a space, "a", "r", "e"...

"We are"..."

There's more! "s", "o", "r", "r", "y"

"We are sorry"...We knew this!

"f", "p", "r" - "We are sorry for" - "t", "h", "e", - "We are sorry for the what!?!

"i", "n", "c", "o", "n", "v", "e", - almost got it - "n", "i", "e", "n", "c" "e".

"We are sorry for the inconvenience"? You bastard!!

*Apologies to DNA, who orignially used this idea as God's final message to the univers.

Re:I think I got it..

[fsterman (519061)]

Actually, that brings me a deep sense of closure and inner peace for some reason.

Re:I think I got it..

[MikeXpop (614167)]

Hmm, that's funny. I got...

Be sure to drink your ovaltine

Re:I think I got it..

[tukkayoot (528280)]

Well, FTA:

The encrypted sections include spelling errors, which Sanborn said were intentional, possibly to throw off sleuths, and misaligned characters set higher on a line of text than characters around them.

So who knows. :)

damn

[2MuchC0ffeeMan (201987)]

where that's kid from mercury rising when you need him.

I got it !!

[Dolphinzilla (199489)]

Be Sure to drink your Ovaltine.

Re:I got it !!

[fizban (58094)]

Ovaltine? A crummy commercial?

Good thing the CIA isn't about code breaking

[alhaz (11039)]

The article says that the NSA failed as well, but, honestly, the NSA wouldn't say if they had.

They probably have, long ago, and just don't tell anybody. They're probably chuckling about it right now.

Curious Images...

[kenthorvath (225950)]

I saw this article from Wired yesterday and looked at the image that was provided. They said it was given to them by Elonka Dunin. The thing is, if you look very closesly at the letters in an image window under magnification, there are intermittent red pixels occurring on certain letters on what should be a black and white only image. Could this be another code?

Here is the image [akamai.net]

I have seen a pattern in the information...

[Linker3000 (626634)]

There seems to be a pattern emerging in Slashdot posts - it can be outlined by the following pseudo-code:

Program GoSlash;
CDate = Today - 1;
..For I = 1 to NumArticles(Fark(CDate));
....If SubjectScore((FarkArticle[I,CDate]) >= MildlyTechnical then
....begin
......NewArticle = Rehash(FarkArticle[I,CDate]);
......SubmitToSlash (NewArticle);
....end;
..next I;
end.

>

It's a trap!

[Weaselmancer (533834)]

The people who solved the first 3 are currently in jail for DCMA violations. ;^)

Another option...

[krypt0s (72886)]

Someone could've just asked me. I'm not THAT complicated.

metaphorically solved section 4

[BierGuzzl (92635)]

Weird. This guy apparently metaphorically solved section 4. But he got an email from Jim saying "Dear John, this is not the way" Did he cheat? :)

http://members.aol.com/scirealm/KryptosPart4.htm l

Re:metaphorically solved section 4

[gad_zuki! (70830)]

Christ, is there a "nutters" web template out there? Every site dealing with bible codes, aliens, newagey psuedo-science, etc have the same starry (or psychedelic) background, fonts that are way too big and colorful for proper reading, etc. I guess its all the best. Its like a big sign screaming "This guy is nuts!"

I swear, I was half expecting a "See you at Time Cube Con '05" at the bottom the page.

Here be treasure...

[ozbird (127571)]

Sanborn may be referring to something he buried on the CIA grounds, though he's not saying. The decrypted text mentions a burial and gives latitude and longitude coordinates (38 57 6.5 N, 77 8 44 W), which Sanborn said referred to "locations of the agency."

GlobeXplorer [globexplorer.com] shows some parkland adjacent to a collection of buildings (presumably CIA HQ), but no "X".
It's probably only a cache of Iraqi WMD, or an alien spacecraft... Move along, nothing to see here.

Re:Here be treasure...

[Stiletto (12066)]

You must not have put in the correct coordinates. In decimal degrees:

-77.1455555555555555 lon
38.95180555555555555 lat

which is a courtyard right smack in the middle of CIA headquarters.

To Serve Man

[gelfling (6534)]

My God it's a cookbook.

Plagiarism

[Osty (16825)]

From the Slashdot summary:

angkor writes

"Kryptos is a sculpture located on the grounds of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Installed in 1990, its thousands of characters contain encrypted messages, of which three have been solved (so far). There is still a fourth section at the bottom consisting of 97 or 98 characters which remains uncracked."

And from the actual page:

Kryptos is a sculpture located on the grounds of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Installed in 1990, its thousands of characters contain encrypted messages, of which three have been solved (so far). There is still a fourth section at the bottom consisting of 97 or 98 characters which remains uncracked.

So, unless angkor is the author of the page over at elonka.com, he's plagiarised the article for his summary. Now, I understand that this can be a difficult call to make, since the article is clearly cited. However, the language of the summary ("angkor writes ...") and lack of explicit citation ("the article says ...") leads one to believe that angkor is writing an original summary of the submitted article, which is clearly not the case.

Sadly, this is not the first time this has ever happened on Slashdot (in fact, it happens in nearly every posted article). Come on, people. If you're going to submit a story, either summarize the article in your own words or attribute your summary text to the article. And editors, pull your thumbs out of your asses and actually edit your site once in a while. In a case like this, it's pretty damned obvious that the article summary is just part of the first paragraph of TFA, and so rather than attributing the summary to the article submitter ("angkor writes ..."), use other language that makes clear the quoting ("angkor quotes from the article ...").

NOT Fair Use

[new500 (128819)]

. . .

In the UK at least, an author has stautory provision against false attribution. Fair use itself does not usually take consideration of the effect or intent. No new work was created in which a fair use rule can be applied. The effect is redistribution in a database, for which there is a ton of case law saying the incident is actionable.

Although to go into the grey area here would take too long, the person who "writes" is attributing material to themselves.

Ah, but it's Slashdot who writes "writes". S

Dupe

[morningstar8 (234758)]

This story is a dupe... The original was posted 5 1/2 years ago. (!) Here's the original story. [slashdot.org]

Translation In Full

[new500 (128819)]

. . .

George Smiley,
Asst. Attorney to
Director, National Security Agency
Chief, Central Security Service
(NSA Information Assurance Department)
Date As Decrypt Key

Re: Unauthorized Use and Disclosure of Intellectual Property

VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS

Dear Cryptanalyst,

I serve as legal counsel to the NSA Information Assurance Department, owner of extensive intellectual property rights and trademarks pertaining to the use, distribution and deployment of intelligence worldwide. In fact you may have heard of us. To make you fully understand our concern and the reach of our recognised brands throughout the world, let me put it this way, we do what RIAA only dreams they could.

It has recently come to our attention that John Doe, in personam, i.e. youself, the only possible recipient of this message has sought to circumvent our intentional copy protection of classified communications, thereby exposing our proprietary materials, name, marks, trade dress, intellectual property and good will to possible illegal misuses including but not limited to commercial exploitation or karma whoring on Slashdot.

By reading this message you have violated federal laws, including (among others) the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Economic Espionage Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Wiretap Act, the Legal Lobbyist Retirement Protection Act, and the Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as State of Wisconsin Natalie Portman 3D Redistribution Act (HP Amendment). (We're the NSA, we know about that one too.)

Therefore we require that you immediately CEASE AND DESIST from any and all activities causing, leading to or which might be construed to result in the actual or potential dissemination of the proprietary information and excellent legal drafting contained herin. Under the terms of the DMCA, inter alia, we inform you that henceforth your knowledge of this text will be deemed to be a Circumvention Device, and as such we are required to place restrictions on your person. Kindly call me on the number below and await instructions. Do not move, do not try to escape, do not pass go and do not collect $200 (that's all we have left after spending $20Bln on the Great Monument to ourselves you see before you.)

Failure to comply with these requests may expose you or your organization to an action for injunctive relief or monetary damages, and any other relief permitted under state and federal law, including court costs and attorneys' fees. You may also wish to consider and examine the potential criminal consequences, under theories of aiding and abetting and conspiracy to denigrate the agencies elite avant-garde sculptural skills.

If you fail to comply with these requests we will have to invoke recourse under the Homeland Bitchslap Act of 2001.

Sincerely,
George "W" Smiley.

P.S. Son, you should have just applied through personnel. Way back when I was a junior we dreamed up this sucker distract the Russians who'd waste all their time drinking vodka and analysing it just to get one over us. Don't worry, I'll tell your Ma it was friendly fire.

Been working on this awhile :)

[222 (551054)]

I got into the project about a year ago, and I can tell you that we (Yahoo Kryptos group) have some brilliant people trying just about everything imaginable.
I cant tell you how much time i've spent in the middle of the night arranging the letters in x,y grids... and even more bizzare.
I reconstructed the statue in 3D Studio Max so that i could tinker with the idea of folding the statue on itself, etc. One of the vigenere keywords in an earlier section hints at the reuse of the message, so its just an angle i've been tinkering with.
http://www.storm-seeker.com/kryptos.jpg [storm-seeker.com]
If anyone would like a copy of the max files to tinker with, shoot me an email at [e-mail] minus food :)

Re:I have always been curious

[by Anonymous Coward]

It depends on the code. Often it involves looking for patterns, knowledge of letter frequencies, a bit of luck, and a while lot of skill. It helps if you know the type of cryptography being used. For example, if there is a known algorithm being used, such as RSA, one can do a brute force attack and test every possible decryption key (a very computationally intensive task, but feasable for small, older keys). Since many codes are based upon "hard math problems" such as RSA whose security is derived from the fact that it is easy to multiply prime numbers, but hard to factor composite numbers into primes, some codes are broken by find fast solutions to hard math problems. This is kind of the idea behind Shor's Quantum Computer algorithm which allows one to quickly factor large integers and thus could, if implemented, completely screw over RSA.

Re:I have always been curious

[The Only Druid (587299)]

As a wonderful sci-fi connection, I suggest reading Cryptonomicron, by Neal Stephenson. Besides providing an excellent story (like all his books), it provides an extensive discussion of how code-breaking works, and how historically it evolved.

Re:I have always been curious

[belmolis (702863)]

There's a classic book on the history of codes and codebreaking called The Codebreakers, by David Kahn [david-kahn.com]. A revised edition came out recently. There is even a Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] about him.

Re:I have always been curious

[0racle (667029)]

My girlfriend took one look at it and saw an image embedded in the way the characters are laid out. She figures that a real message would be too obvious and since its art, the real purpose could simply be to see what is not plainly there.

Maybe the boys at Langley are being too literal at trying to solve it.

Re:I have always been curious

[recursiv (324497)]

If only those math nerds could think outside the box like your girlfriend. She's such a lateral thinker. It really is amazing that she figured out the whole puzzle in one glance.

Re:Is this news? or a wikipedia entry?

[servoled (174239)]

Technically, I think its "News for nerds, Stuff that was posted on Fark.com yesterday", but others may disagree.

Re:The solution:

[Doctor Crumb (737936)]

...fighting mummies in texas.

Re:Ahh noooO!

[sbrown123 (229895)]

That is true. This appears to be covered under the DMCA. Unencrypting that last part of a proprietary work will wind you up in jail. Leave it alone for gods sake!!!

Oooh, I just figured it out using my calculator

[3770 (560838)]

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer are playing a round of golf. They get behind a pair that is playing amazingly slow. After some time they realize that these two men are blind. "What a sad way to spend one's life," said the priest. "I will say a prayer for them." "I have a good friend that is an eye surgeon," said the doctor, "maybe I could get them some help." The engineer thought for a second, "Why don't these guys play at night?"

I don't get it though.

Re:Fark

[MavEtJu (241979)]

Not everybody reads all news websites, not everything is a race, you don't need to be first in everything.

Edwin