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posted by martyb on Friday November 21 2014, @01:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the lock-without-a-key dept.

In 1989, the year the Berlin Wall began to fall, American artist Jim Sanborn was busy working on his Kryptos sculpture, a cryptographic puzzle wrapped in a riddle that he created for the CIA’s headquarters and that has been driving amateur and professional cryptographers mad ever since.

To honor the 25th anniversary of the Wall’s demise and the artist’s 69th birthday this year, Sanborn has decided to reveal a new clue to help solve his iconic and enigmatic artwork. It’s only the second hint he’s released since the sculpture was unveiled in 1990 and may finally help unlock the fourth and final section of the encrypted sculpture, which frustrated sleuths have been struggling to crack for more than two decades.

The 12-foot-high, verdigrised copper, granite and wood sculpture on the grounds of the CIA complex in Langley, Virginia, contains four encrypted messages carved out of the metal, three of which were solved years ago. The fourth is composed of just 97 letters, but its brevity belies its strength. Even the NSA, whose master crackers were the first to decipher other parts of the work, gave up on cracking it long ago. So four years ago, concerned that he might not live to see the mystery of Kryptos resolved, Sanborn released a clue to help things along, revealing that six of the last 97 letters when decrypted spell the word “Berlin”—a revelation that many took to be a reference to the Berlin Wall.

To that clue today, he’s adding the next word in the sequence—“clock”—that may or may not throw a wrench in this theory. Now the Kryptos sleuths just have to unscramble the remaining 86 characters to find out.

http://www.wired.com/2014/11/second-kryptos-clue/

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by dublet on Friday November 21 2014, @03:11PM

    by dublet (2994) on Friday November 21 2014, @03:11PM (#118497)
    The Wired article was a bit too much noise and not a lot of signal WRT to the actual problem. Taken from the wiki page: [wikipedia.org]

    The ciphertext on one half of the main sculpture contains 869 characters in total—865 letters and 4 question marks. In April 2006, however, Sanborn released information stating that a letter was omitted on the main half of Kryptos "for aesthetic reasons, to keep the sculpture visually balanced."[3] There are also a few incorrect letters in the ciphertext which Sanborn has said were intentional, and a few letters near the beginning of the bottom half have been displaced from their normal positions, apparently intentionally. The other half of the sculpture comprises a keyed Vigenère encryption tableau, consisting of 867 letters. One of the lines of the tableau is one character too long, which Sanborn has indicated was accidental.[citation needed]

    EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ
    YQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD
    VFPJUDEEHZWETZYVGWHKKQETGFQJNCE
    GGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLG
    TIMVMZJANQLVKQEDAGDVFRPJUNGEUNA
    QZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRR
    YIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTI
    HHDDDUVH?DWKBFUFPWNTDFIYCUQZERE
    EVLDKFEZMOQQJLTTUGSYQPFEUNLAVIDX
    FLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF
    FHQNTGPUAECNUVPDJMQCLQUMUNEDFQ
    ELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGRE
    DNQFMPNZGLFLPMRJQYALMGNUVPDXVKP
    DQUMEBEDMHDAFMJGZNUPLGEWJLLAETG


    ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD
    AKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYP
    BRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPT
    CYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
    DPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOS
    ETOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSA
    FOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSAB
    GSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABC
    HABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCD
    IBCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDE
    JCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEF
    KDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFG
    LEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGH
    MFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHI


    ENDYAHROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA
    CHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE
    TPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAE
    WMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOE
    TFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCR
    EIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLB
    TEEFOASFIOTUETUAEOTOARMAEERTNRTI
    BSEDDNIAAHTTMSTEWPIEROAGRIEWFEB
    AECTDDHILCEIHSITEGOEAOSDDRYDLORIT
    RKLMLEHAGTDHARDPNEOHMGFMFEUHE
    ECDMRIPFEIMEHNLSSTTRTVDOHW?OBKR
    UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
    TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
    VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR


    NGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
    OHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
    PIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLM
    QJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMN
    RLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQ
    SMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQU
    TNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUV
    UQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVW
    VUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWX
    WVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ
    XWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZK
    YXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKR
    ZZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRY
    ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD

    Solution of passage 1

    Keywords: Kryptos, Palimpsest

    BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION

    Solution of passage 2

    Keywords: Kryptos, Abscissa

    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 X LAYER TWO

    On April 19, 2006, Sanborn contacted an online community dedicated to the Kryptos puzzle to inform them that the accepted solution to part 2 was wrong. He said that he made an error in the sculpture by omitting an "X" used to indicate a break for aesthetic reasons, and that the decrypted text which ended "...FOUR SECONDS WEST ID BY ROWS" should actually be "...FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO".[14]

    Note: The coordinates mentioned in the plaintext: 38°57′6.5″N 77°8′44″W. The point is about 150 feet southeast of the sculpture itself.[1]

    Solution of passage 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 ?

    This is a paraphrased quotation from Howard Carter's account of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun on November 26, 1922, as described in his 1923 book The Tomb of Tutankhamun. The question with which it ends is that posed by Lord Carnarvon, to which Carter (in the book) famously replied "wonderful things". In the actual November 26, 1922 field notes, his reply was, "Yes, it is wonderful."[15]

    Solution of passage 4

    Part 4 remains unsolved, though there was an active Yahoo! Group[16] (formed in 2003) that coordinated the work of over 2000 members toward decryption of the code.

    When commenting in 2006 about his error in section 2, Sanborn said that the answers to the first sections contain clues to the last section.[17] In November 2010, Sanborn released another clue: Letters 64-69 NYPVTT in part 4 encode the text BERLIN.[18][19] Sanborn gave the New York Times a second clue in November 2014: Letters 70-74 in part 4, which read MZFPK, will be CLOCK when decoded.[20]

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Friday November 21 2014, @03:38PM

      by PizzaRollPlinkett (4512) on Friday November 21 2014, @03:38PM (#118514)

      The phrase "a bit too much noise and not a lot of signal" ought to be on a banner at the Wired web site under their logo.

      --
      (E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
      • (Score: 1) by maxim on Friday November 21 2014, @04:04PM

        by maxim (2543) <maximlevitsky@gmail.com> on Friday November 21 2014, @04:04PM (#118518)

        What do you expect? Wires do have noise to signal ratio and its not that high as we would expect :P

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @10:03PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @10:03PM (#118610)

          Their noise-to-signal ratio is through the roof.

      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 22 2014, @01:31AM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday November 22 2014, @01:31AM (#118657) Homepage

        A woman I was fucking got me a Wired mag subscription for a year, so that it would continue to remind me of her long after I kicked her to the curb, and wired ain't what it used to be even a couple years ago.

        It's one decent story buried in mostly ads and obvious product placement masquerading as articles. "This Global brand knife is just what you need for cutting sashimi. This Brand X cast-iron skillet is what you need being a fucking hipster," etc.

        I read the paper mag sporadically throughout the years and it seems that only a couple years ago it was half-decent, with lengthy articles on technology and the Arab Spring, for example. Now, relegating it to being your toilet mag would be a dishonor to both your toilet and your shits.

        What to use Wired magazine for now? Oh, I don't know. Birdcage liner, maybe shred it and use it as packaging filler.

  • (Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Friday November 21 2014, @03:45PM

    by sudo rm -rf (2357) on Friday November 21 2014, @03:45PM (#118516) Journal

    So, perhaps it has something to do with the Berlin-Uhr [wikipedia.org]? It's a clock showing the time with a number system to the base 5. It was my first programming project in c# some years ago...

    • (Score: 2) by tynin on Friday November 21 2014, @04:16PM

      by tynin (2013) on Friday November 21 2014, @04:16PM (#118521) Journal

      It made me think of the "clock" method they used to decrypt German Enigma ciphers.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @04:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @04:32PM (#118523)

    > but its brevity belies its strength.

    That's meaningless at best, and just plain wrong at worst. length can reveal the weakness of a weak cypher. brevity can never tell you anything about the strength or weakness of a cypher.

    How strong is the cypher used to encrypt the following common 4-letter word: RJDM

    • (Score: 1) by cellocgw on Friday November 21 2014, @10:20PM

      by cellocgw (4190) on Friday November 21 2014, @10:20PM (#118616)

      How strong is the cypher used to encrypt the following common 4-letter word: RJDM

      You misspelled RTFM

      --
      Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @04:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @04:58PM (#118532)

    Fuck the NSA

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @08:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 21 2014, @08:28PM (#118588)

    This sculpture is just a PR tool for the CIA and their buddies. It draws focus from their actions in the world and gives the press and particularly technically inclined people a shiny bauble to play with. It is like the CIA twitter account [twitter.com] for people who would like to think they are too smart for twitter. I used to think it was cool, now I really don't give a damn what secret decoder ring will reveal an ultimately meaningless message.