EDEB8 - Ultimate Online Debating
About Us   Debate    Judge   Forum

Code Cracking

< Return to subforum
Page: 123456Most Recent
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 4 2014 5:31 AM
Pinkie: Use mine
Pinkie
By Pinkie | Apr 4 2014 6:08 AM
nzlockie: Oh, you wrote a new key? Okay cool.
Please excuse me as I'm not super creative when it comes to forum signatures.
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 4 2014 6:18 AM
Pinkie: So I win?
Pinkie
By Pinkie | Apr 4 2014 6:21 AM
nzlockie: Nope, I'm not done.
Please excuse me as I'm not super creative when it comes to forum signatures.
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 4 2014 6:27 AM
Pinkie: Alright. Bring it princess - you haven't cracked one of the codes yet, Doc is cooking up a real corker, let's see who cracks it first!
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 5 2014 8:51 AM
No one will figure this out for the next 24 hours or more lol. No glitches or spelling errors. I triple checked to make sure. This is not the hardest I could conjure up but if the first two were difficult for anyone, this definitely will be a lot more difficult. This is for advanced code crackers to say the least.

ZU HO UD CUZ ZU HO ZSGZ AE ZSO JKOEZAUC

I will give a hint in 24 hours if no one has a clue.
"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 5 2014 8:53 AM
Tophatdoc: The above is an example of the pattern I will use. You can "Google It" because it is in a book I have in my personal library. The code above says:

TO BE OR NOT TO BE THAT IS THE QUESTION
"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 5 2014 9:04 AM
I offered a hint to begin with to be fair.The code:

IXNA PS ES NJJS

PIAEL TIZG

"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 5 2014 6:47 PM
Tophatdoc: Cool! Been busy all day so haven't had a chance to look at this yet. At first glance I have a few ideas though.
Unless I'm the only one, I'd say hold off a bit longer than 24hrs before giving a hint though - that'll only give me a few hours to work on it!

BTW did anyone work out that number code I posted a while ago?
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 6 2014 6:47 AM
nzlockie: Actually,the number code is the only one on this thread I have yet to figure out. I will have to take some time to crack it.

Also I won't be giving a hint until it has been 72 hours when I posted it because I had already offered a hint with the example.
"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 6 2014 7:04 AM
Tophatdoc: Cool. Also if/when you do need to drop a hint, I think the most helpful one might be to simply put a longer text. Its really hard to decrypt any short message, but if you've coded this the way I think you have it'll be almost impossible due to the fact that we simply don't have enough letters.
I gave this a few hours last night and I've managed to make two distinct sentences out of it but I'm not convinced either one is right. Longer text would really help.

Of course if you're only using one cipher alphabet then you disregard the above!
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 7 2014 1:44 PM
Tophatdoc: It appears nzlockie is the closest to cracking the code. Here is what he has found out thus far. I will offer the hints based off of what he has discovered.

Hint #2

The top part of the code and the bottom part of the code are two different alphabets

Hint #3(Meaning the first "s" is not encrypted)(I am surprised someone could guess this, honestly)

Part of the top code reads as "is my."

Hint #4

Spaces trusted.
"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 9 2014 2:33 PM
Tophatdoc: Would I be right in saying that the spaces are NOT trusted in the bottom code?
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 10 2014 11:22 PM
nzlockie: Spaces are to be trusted in both codes.
"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 11 2014 10:16 AM
Tophatdoc: OK, I'm at another wall so I thought I'd post where I'm at with this code and for anyone that's interested, how I got there.

Upon first looking at the code there were a few observations I made straight away:

1) Doc had indicated that he was going to be using a substitution cipher as his pattern, some variant of a basic ROT13. The lack of vowels in the top code and number of low freq letters would support that.

2) There was plenty of space to write both codes on the same line, so the fact that they were separated indicated that they were going to be complimentry messages. My first thought was that the top line would be a quote and the second line would be the author. Second option would be a question and answer.

3) The letter distribution between the top code and the bottom code was not even. My impression was that the top code was using one form of encryption and the bottom code was using a different one. I decided this guess was strong enough to work on the two codes separately. As the top code contained two letter words and a double letter, I decided to concentrate my efforts there.

4) One of my first steps in a substitution cipher is always to find the vowels. Two letter words are great for this because they generally always contain one vowel. When there are two of them together it's even better because there are only a handful of two letter words that are often paired up. Based on the author of the code, I made an educated guess that one of the words would be a verb, most likely the first one. This made it most likely that the first word was "IS". "BE" was also an option but had far less two letter words that would follow it. Working on the assumption that the first two letter word was "IS", I was able to make a strong guess that the code was using more than one alphabet, since the second word also ended in "S". This guess was also supported by the last word which was not likely to actually contain a double letter in the middle - more on that later.

5) Again using my knowledge of the original author, I made a guess that the second word would be "MY". Firstly it would be one of the more common words to occur in a sentence as short as this that was likely a quote or a question and secondly, the author has shown a proclivity to code messages to do with himself. (not saying you're arrogant doc! Just an observation!)

6) Around about this stage I made the determination that if this code was using more than one alphabets and only contained 16 characters, (21 if you included the second code - which I didn't) the likelyhood of my cracking it if the spaces were not to be trusted was almost none. I therefore decided to proceed with the assumption that the spaces were trusted. This was the first of a few assumptions that I was going to make based on the knowledge that if it were any other way then it would be impossible anyway. If there were more characters, I would have proceeded differently.

7) I would normally look at the double letter next, however I already had a strong suspicion that it was not going to help me as it wasn't really a double letter, so instead I looked at the first word. Normally it would be most common for this to start with "TH" - although if this was a question that'd be different. Regardless, there was a strong probability that the second letter was an "H". (THAT, THIS, WHAT, WHEN etc) There was also a strong probability that one of the middle two letters would be a vowel, most likely the third one. I decided to cautiously explore the option that "N" was a vowel.

8) I now returned to the last word. Assuming that N was a vowel and S was either "S" or "Y" - there were really no likely contenders for the middle two letters. This indicated to me that I was dealing with more than two cipher alphabets. The problem I now faced was that I had a very short code, with strong probabilities of multiple alphabets. Because of the length of the code, I had no way to tell how many alphabets were being used. I also knew that in codes like this, there is usually an encryption key word. Doc had given no indication of what that might be or that it existed.

9) I now needed to work on the assumption that any one of 26 alphabets could have been used. Without an encryption key this was going to be pretty much impossible but I gave it a go anyway. I wrote out all 26 alphabets and looked for patterns in the relationships between the letters I had a strong suspicion on. There wasn't really much in it. I found a weird and unlikely encryption key that gave me "HERE IS MY CODE" and "THIS IS MY CODE" but really, that was crap. It's possible to make this sentence say anything really.

10) Around about this time I started looking at the second code. Due to the number of vowels in it, it looked a bit more likely. My problem was that I quickly confirmed that it too was using more than one alphabet and with even fewer letters to go on, it really was only good for random guesses based on my assumption it was the name of a person or the answer to a question. I made a few guesses but my heart wasn't really in it. I was working on a guess that this code would have something referencing the Doc more than just "MY", so I started looking at his real name, his teams, groups and even looking for popular sayings! If someone has to write a bio on the Doc I might be able to point you in a direction now!
All of this ultimately uncovered nothing special.

So here we are. I got a little more enthused when Doc confirmed that I was right with "IS MY" but everything I keep coming back revolves around is there an encryption key and if not, how easy is this code going to be to reverse by the intended recipient? Or to code in the first place by the original party?
My assumptions have always been that the text is quick and easy to code and decode.

My current feeling is that the top code is a question rather than a statement. I'd be guessing that the first word is "WHAT" or possibly "WHEN". I'm also open to the possibility that it's "HERE". I also can't shake the feeling that the last word is "NAME" although I feel like I've investigated that possibility so thoroughly as to rule it out.

I'm not working on this one anymore as I just can't shake the idea that there might be an encryption key. If there is then it's basically impossible unless I can fluke the key (which I've tried. A lot.)
I've also been working on the assumption that the true text is written left to right and not scrambled in any way. I've been kind of checking it as I go, as I know I'm expecting to see at least 6 or 7 vowels in that first line and no Q's or J's etc. Anything that looks likely I give a cursory glance but I made the call early that if it were something like that, then the amount of time it would take is just not worth it.

There we go! Hope this helps someone else!

Nice work Doc!
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 11 2014 11:43 PM
nzlockie: 5) I have only coded one message that relates to myself! LOL

You make things more complex than they have to be. My real name does not fit the characters for the bottom code if it is an author like you claim. There is not enough information that you can pull from this website about my characteristics and/or accomplishments either to make an adequate guess at the code. A biography of myself would not help either.

I will give nzlockie and everyone else who wishes to crack it a day before I unveil the code.

"IXNA PS ES NJJS

PIAEL TIZG"

Here is what nzlockie has deciphered thus far:
"IXNA is my NJJS

PIAEL TIZG"

FINAL HINT:
"IXNA is my NJJy

PIAEL TIZG"
"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
admin
By admin | Apr 12 2014 1:32 AM
Tophatdoc: I'm sure you can't crack a cipher this short. More complex ciphers need longer texts. Heck, look at how long the Zodiac ciphers are, and all but one of them are uncracked. But here's the most probable solution based on what we've been given.

IXNA PS ES NJJS
PIAEL TIZG

=

That is my ally
Smart code

Possible words for the final word at the start:
ally
eddy
emmy
iffy

Of those words ally is by far the most likely based both on sentence structure and position.

First word must thus be a subject to be correct. Assumption is both sentences are related. Therefore subject must refer to the other sentence, a word like "this" or "that". Of the two, that is weakly more likely because of the shared code character for a, which is n, appearing in both. The to be or not to be clue supports "that" in a twisted way too.

The only repeated character in the second code is the I. Since the S had a double meaning in the first code and was the most repeated character, "i" should have a double meaning in the second. Therefore no letter can be repeated in the second line, it must be an ally of Tophatdoc (first sentence), it must be something one can get from the code alone (clue 5), and it must be 5/4 letters (clue 4). "smart code" came up as the most probable answer. First word is most likely to be an adjective of the second based on the fact few nouns can be described in 5/4 by themselves, and that English usually puts the nouns first. Alternatives I considered that I thought were less probable included ideas like "black pine", and the nasty idea that E might be a punctuation mark as in "man's body" (which happens to be the only idea I could find that has the advantage of rhyming, but then again would be really complex for a short code like this).

I do make a ton of assumptions of course, but I stand by each of them as the best we have to work with here.
I'm the main developer for the site. If you have any problems, ideas, questions or concerns please send me a message.
Let's revive the forums!
admin
By admin | Apr 12 2014 1:44 AM
admin: One extra twist I forgot to mention - in line 1 I have two letters coding for T (IxnA = ThaT). I did assume line 2 had no repeated letters but there is in fact strong evidence that this is not the case. If so I'm with nzlockie, the code cannot be solved and can be construed to mean anything yet fit with all the evidence. In any event I think smart code fits well, regardless of its eventual correctness.
I'm the main developer for the site. If you have any problems, ideas, questions or concerns please send me a message.
Let's revive the forums!
Tophatdoc
By Tophatdoc | Apr 12 2014 5:22 AM
admin: Admin is very close but wrong. One word in the top decryption is wrong and the bottom decryption is wrong altogether. As I told nzlockie, once one of the two codes is decrypted, the other will be easy to decrypt. Also I previously said the "s" in "is" was not encrypted at all. I did this to be a bit clever. I will also state again that there are only two alphabets, one for the top code and one for the bottom(FINAL FINAL HINT!).
"Don't respond to my posts. Don't read my debates. Don't read my messages. Thanks for reading this message. " A Quote from Tophatdoc
nzlockie
By nzlockie | Apr 12 2014 8:35 AM
Tophatdoc: In that case I'd stick with my line of logic and go with, "WHAT IS MY ALLY"
Page: 123456Most Recent