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Author Topic: Decrypt this.  (Read 2872 times)

SHAD0Wdump

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Decrypt this.
« on: December 22, 2010, 03:13:00 pm »

*9a1^13b51^199^12^25c1^13^21^1954d|8^15^1656^21^12^12^25e^2089^19f^239^12^12g1^13^21^195h^25^15^21|1^12^19^15i213^15^14|6^1895^19|1^144j^19395^1435~*^2089^19k9^19l^161^18^20m^20^23^15n2531^21^195o*9p^231^14^2054q^20^235^14^20^25r^199^24s2^1851^11^19t6^15^18u^2085v^20^235^14^20^25w^199^24x^125^20^205^18^19|1^144y1^14^15^2085^18z^20^23^15~


The person who successfully decrypts this cipher gets to post his own, he may pass this opportunity, then the first to post one will become the new cipher.

Do note you have to decrypt EVERY subtlety, the poster will determine if you have succeeded.

Ciphers must be of phrases, paragraphs, or sentences in the english language.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2010, 03:22:05 pm by SHAD0Wdump »
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Tylui

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2010, 03:17:18 pm »

It's not just as simple as having every letter of the alphabet in there, is it?
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SHAD0Wdump

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #2 on: December 22, 2010, 03:18:32 pm »

It's not just as simple as having every letter of the alphabet in there, is it?
It is english.
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Tylui

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2010, 04:15:33 pm »

Any hints?
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SHAD0Wdump

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2010, 04:22:26 pm »

I want to see if anybody else picks up on this and tries going at it. I'm a little adverse to giving out hints when a group consciousness may be involved.
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Tylui

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #5 on: December 22, 2010, 04:47:51 pm »

If noone responds perhaps we should start with something simpler and build to this one.
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SHAD0Wdump

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #6 on: December 22, 2010, 04:49:14 pm »

If noone responds perhaps we should start with something simpler and build to this one.
I'd give it a day.
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LeoLeonardoIII

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2010, 05:51:46 pm »

The asterisk seems to mean "start phrase" and the tilde "end phrase". The carets may be character or word separators. This is how often the blocks show up:

11 Count   1
12 Count   5
13 Count   2
14 Count   4
15 Count   6
18 Count   2
19 Count   1
20 Count   7
21 Count   4
23 Count   2
25 Count   1
125 Count   1
161 Count   1
199 Count   3
205 Count   1
231 Count   1
235 Count   2
239 Count   1
1435 Count   1
1656 Count   1
1851 Count   1
1895 Count   1
2085 Count   1
2089 Count   2
19395 Count   1
12g1 Count   1
13b51 Count   1
14|6 Count   1
144j Count   1
144y1 Count   1
15i213 Count   1
15n2531 Count   1
18u Count   1
18z Count   1
19|1 Count   2
1954d|8 Count   1
195h Count   1
195o Count   1
19f Count   1
19k9 Count   1
19l Count   1
19t6 Count   1
2054q Count   1
2085v Count   1
20m Count   1
21|1 Count   1
24s2 Count   1
24x Count   1
25c1 Count   1
25e Count   1
25r Count   1
25w Count   1
9a1 Count   1
9p Count   1
Grand Count   83

There are 83 code blocks and 54 different blocks.
The blocks that are simple short numbers are much more common than the more elaborate ones lower on the list.

Five blocks have the | symbol, which is the only non-alphanumeric that seems to be part of the character codes. In all cases but one (19|) the code has a single character after the |. I'd intuit that means those blocks, if they are words instead of characters, are contractions and the | is an apostrophe. 19| may be a typo for 19|1.

Its possible the encryptor used two different blocks to represent each character. This would throw off attempts at counting the blocks and trying the most common letter in the most common block, etc. The extra 2 block types may just be typos, and we should actually have 52, or else they may represent special characters like "oo" or "ee".

If not, notice that we have one set of doubles. This, in English, is likely cc (accord), dd (add), ee (feet), ff (afford), gg (aggregate), ll (allow), mm (commend), nn (annotate), oo (boot), pp (appoint), rr (arrest), ss (pass), or tt (attend). That applies only if each block represents a character.

One thing that bothers me is that the second phrase doesn't have a tilde to end it. So maybe the asterisk means a capital letter and you're meant to infer from the translated text where the sentences are. The second phrase is pretty short. So maybe there are only two phrases and there is a capital letter near the end of the first. Here are the divisions based on asterisks and tildes. The double 12 is bolded.

*9a1^13b51^199^12^25c1^13^21^1954d|8^15^1656^21^12^12^25e^2089^19f^239^12^12g1^13^21^195h^25^15^21|1^12^19^15i213^15^14|6^1895^19|1^144j^19395^1435~

*^2089^19k9^19l^161^18^20m^20^23^15n2531^21^195o

*9p^231^14^2054q^20^235^14^20^25r^199^24s2^1851^11^19t6^15^18u^2085v^20^235^14^20^25w^199^24x^125^20^205^18^19|1^144y1^14^15^2085^18z^20^23^15~
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Fanofgaming

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2010, 05:54:47 pm »

I think I speak for all of us when I say...
...
...
wut?
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LeoLeonardoIII

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #9 on: December 22, 2010, 05:55:51 pm »

It's also possible that in a given phrase, one block modifies the next one. This may be another reason why there are 54 unique blocks.

EDIT: I didn't solve it. That's just some work toward solving it.
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Twi

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #10 on: December 22, 2010, 05:59:24 pm »

This reminds me of hexadecimal.
Leo, the 19| may not be 19|1: plural possessives have the apostrophe at the very end.
EDIT:
I suspect you're right about one block modifying another: it would explain why there are relatively few repeats, as you said. However, it's also possible that some characters or words have multiple enciphered equivalents available. Judging from the | being inside the blocks, I have a sneaking suspicion that each block is a whole word, with the ^s representing spaces, * being capitalized words and ~ being periods.
Look for repeated sets of blocks.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2010, 06:08:22 pm by Twi »
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Tylui

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #11 on: December 22, 2010, 06:05:58 pm »

Here it is with all characters except letters obscured to dashes:

Code: [Select]
--a----b------------c------------d----------------------e--------f----------g-----------h--------------------i-------------------------j---------------------k----l----------m---------n-----------o--p------------q----------------r-------s------------t-------u-----v----------------w-------x-----------------------y---------------z----------

And, if we don't treat the carets as word separators, we notice that the only two characters that follow a caret are either a 1 or a 2. If we extend that in most cases, the carets are only followed by two numbers, from 11 to 25.

The notable exceptions to this rule are 17 and 22. In fact, there are NO 7s at all then entire string. And there are NO 2s that are not directly after either a caret or a letter.
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Twi

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2010, 06:10:12 pm »

Hmm...
Damn it, I wish I brought my cryptology book: I distinctly remember one of the systems had all phrases beginning with a 1 or 2.
But I can't remember what it was called!

EDIT: Oh yeah: It was a checkerboard of some sort.
Possibly straddling checkerboard. Maybe not.

Basically, there's a table. This table is probably arranged something like this:
          1            2          3           4          5         6       8     9 

1         ?            ?          ?           ?          ?          ?       ?     ?
2         ?            ?          ?           ?          ?          ?       ?     ?

Unequal sections aside, you can see how it works. The ? represents plaintext letters. The letters are represented by the numbers that intersect them. Small problem, though: not enough symbols. Some of the letters or phrases are most likely represented by 3 or more numbers. The 'straddling' part of straddling checkerboard is that there's a row that looks like this:
          ?           ?            ?          ?          ?           ?      ?      ?

or possibly additional columns past the top numbers. Some words/characters/phrases are represented by only one number. LE GASP!
« Last Edit: December 22, 2010, 06:26:48 pm by Twi »
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Tylui

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2010, 06:26:41 pm »

Theory on the letters: They represent a missing character... Often, a caret or some other such thing. it would appear that the "o", for example, represents a tilde.
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Twi

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Re: Decrypt this.
« Reply #14 on: December 22, 2010, 06:28:20 pm »

That makes sense, except that would lead to double spaces in certain places. They'd have to represent many different things, which we have no way of knowing until we figure out something else.
The letters may well be nulls, simply there to confuse us.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2010, 06:29:57 pm by Twi »
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