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The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

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Re: The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

#21

Post by Waterluvian »

derekp7 wrote: post #20
Waterluvian wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes a puzzle like this “unreasonable?” Like would it be a sort of “you had to know that you needed a bit of graffiti on a truck stop stall outside Anchorage” unfair scope issue or is there a different kind of unreasonable I cannot currently imagine?

A one time pad would be unreasonable. Edit: Unless the one time pad is a well known relative document, such as the Declaration of Independence.

Would that be akin to me offering a hash string as a puzzle and asking for the 10GB video file as the solution?

Re: The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

#23

Post by EGreg »

bcraven wrote: post #7
EGreg wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what text box

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/miscellany/fermats-last-mar...

I know. The difference is, his scribbling was FOUND in the margin — but the comment had no text box when it was read :)

Re: The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

#24

Post by kop316 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #21
derekp7 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A one time pad would be unreasonable. Edit: Unless the one time pad is a well known relative document, such as the Declaration of Independence.

Would that be akin to me offering a hash string as a puzzle and asking for the 10GB video file as the solution?

Sort of. A one time pad does not destroy data, but a hash will.

Wikipedia has a good example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad

In their example, "HELLO" is the plain text, "XMCKL" is the key, and the ciphertext is "EQNVZ". However, with a one time pad, an equally plausible plain text is "later" with the key "TQURI". Thus, without anymore data, it is simply impossible to know what the original message is.

Re: The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

#26

Post by cyberge99 »

pjbk wrote: post #13
rgovostes wrote: post #11

I've spent a fair amount of time on K4, and my conclusion is that it's simply a poor puzzle. At this point 24 of 97 characters have been revealed, and yet there's seemingly still not enough information pointing to how the known plaintext corresponds to the ciphertext. Over the decades everything reasonable has been tried and eliminated, which means the solution is likely to be unreasonable.

Probably correct. Different from the other cyphers, the number of symbols is short, and correlating part of the plaintext that has been revealed gives poor measures for the full string length. It has been said that the other solutions are required to solve K4, so if the solution relies on something like character alignment, matrix coding or an even more convoluted permutation arrangement, this can look (or directly b…

Does it’s S shape, or the shadow it casts or any other physical representation of it have to do with the message?

Re: The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

#28

Post by Arainach »

Waterluvian wrote: post #18
rgovostes wrote: post #11

I've spent a fair amount of time on K4, and my conclusion is that it's simply a poor puzzle. At this point 24 of 97 characters have been revealed, and yet there's seemingly still not enough information pointing to how the known plaintext corresponds to the ciphertext. Over the decades everything reasonable has been tried and eliminated, which means the solution is likely to be unreasonable.

What makes a puzzle like this “unreasonable?” Like would it be a sort of “you had to know that you needed a bit of graffiti on a truck stop stall outside Anchorage” unfair scope issue or is there a different kind of unreasonable I cannot currently imagine?

It's easy to make a puzzle that's hard. "Guess the number in my head" is hard. It's not fun for the solver or reasonable. "Unscramble this text which was XORed with the Windows 3.1 solitaire EXE" is likewise.

Good puzzles, even hard ones, should have some idea which way to approach them and should offer a method of attack other than brute force.

Re: The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

#29

Post by elahieh »

Arainach wrote: post #28
Waterluvian wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes a puzzle like this “unreasonable?” Like would it be a sort of “you had to know that you needed a bit of graffiti on a truck stop stall outside Anchorage” unfair scope issue or is there a different kind of unreasonable I cannot currently imagine?

It's easy to make a puzzle that's hard. "Guess the number in my head" is hard. It's not fun for the solver or reasonable. "Unscramble this text which was XORed with the Windows 3.1 solitaire EXE" is likewise. Good puzzles, even hard ones, should have some idea which way to approach them and should offer a method of attack other than brute force.

Here's what's up for sale from RR Auction

https://www.rrauction.com/jim-sanborn-kryptos-k4-solution-au...

The Wired piece has Sanborn saying the reserve should be "around $300,000."

It sounds like Sanborn really doesn't think it'll be solved before the auction date of 20 November (his 80th is on 14 November). If it does get solved due to this publicity bump, that's huge earnings foregone.

Perhaps he knows it is still an "unreasonable" challenge even with the 24 known letters.

Re: The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale

#30

Post by rolph »

a direct reference to the Berlin Clock. Sanborn further stated that in order to solve section 4, "You'd better delve into that particular clock".[2] However, Sanborn also said that, "There are several really interesting clocks in Berlin."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengenlehreuhr

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