Aquatium. wrote:

Omega0 wrote:

Now then, I have a question for either Conrac, Aquatium, or Evaluator.  Could you please explain how the hell I was supposed to figure out the keywords by looking at hidden text like this:

ORRNLQJIRUDKLQW?MDFNLQWRWKHPDWULADQGVHQGDQHPDLOWRHYDOXDWRUTLWKWKHVXEMHFWOLQH"CAK." 

KLQWVDUHVHQWGDLOBDWILYHSP

Well Omega, that hidden text was a simple Ceaser Cipher, which asks you to send the Evaluator an email ingame with a specific subject line, then at 5pm MCT that day, she would respond with a clue to the keyword. Then you'd simply need to work out what the clue is trying to hint at and then you have your keyword.

You will have noticed that some were solved by me and Conrac before such clue was given, and that is done by using a key by key decode of the message in order to try and evaluate a keyword.

A key by key decode?

Omega0 wrote:

Aquatium. wrote:

Omega0 wrote:

Now then, I have a question for either Conrac, Aquatium, or Evaluator.  Could you please explain how the hell I was supposed to figure out the keywords by looking at hidden text like this:

ORRNLQJIRUDKLQW?MDFNLQWRWKHPDWULADQGVHQGDQHPDLOWRHYDOXDWRUTLWKWKHVXEMHFWOLQH"CAK." 

KLQWVDUHVHQWGDLOBDWILYHSP

Well Omega, that hidden text was a simple Ceaser Cipher, which asks you to send the Evaluator an email ingame with a specific subject line, then at 5pm MCT that day, she would respond with a clue to the keyword. Then you'd simply need to work out what the clue is trying to hint at and then you have your keyword.

You will have noticed that some were solved by me and Conrac before such clue was given, and that is done by using a key by key decode of the message in order to try and evaluate a keyword.

A key by key decode?

What He meant there I believe is finding the length (number of letters) of the Keyword  and then Dividing the Ciphertext  to repeat  the same number of it thus finding the right 'key' of each plaintext for the 'keyword'.

mantra777 wrote:

Omega0 wrote:

Aquatium. wrote:

You will have noticed that some were solved by me and Conrac before such clue was given, and that is done by using a key by key decode of the message in order to try and evaluate a keyword.

A key by key decode?

What He meant there I believe is finding the length (number of letters) of the Keyword  and then Dividing the Ciphertext  to repeat  the same number of it thus finding the right 'key' of each plaintext for the 'keyword'.

Wouldn't that take more than 5 or 10 minutes?

Omega0 wrote:

mantra777 wrote:

Omega0 wrote:

Aquatium. wrote:

You will have noticed that some were solved by me and Conrac before such clue was given, and that is done by using a key by key decode of the message in order to try and evaluate a keyword.

A key by key decode?

What He meant there I believe is finding the length (number of letters) of the Keyword  and then Dividing the Ciphertext  to repeat  the same number of it thus finding the right 'key' of each plaintext for the 'keyword'.

Wouldn't that take more than 5 or 10 minutes?

Yes it is possible IF they have a Good Vigenere Cracker Tool as well.  Click on the 3.2 Cracking the Vigenere Cipher So you understand what I meant with that Key By Key Decode.

Just out of Curiosity, Can anyone post what the Evaluator email look like for hints to get the 'Key'?

mantra777 wrote:

Yes it is possible IF they have a Good Vigenere Cracker Tool as well.  Click on the 3.2 Cracking the Vigenere Cipher So you understand what I meant with that Key By Key Decode.

Just out of Curiosity, Can anyone post what the Evaluator email look like for hints to get the 'Key'?

One of those decoding methods requires ciphertexts of reasonable length, and the other one requires a substantial number of messages that were encrypted using the same key.  In this evaluation, neither of those conditions were met.  So I still don't understand how anyone could decrypt some of those messages in just a few minutes without some kind of hint.

And I would also really like to see the emails that Evaluator was sending for hints, if someone could please post them.

well like i said, a Great Vigenere Decipherer Cracker tool would be my guess as to how they manage to get the Keywords, minutes from the when The Evaluator sent the enciphered messages.

mantra777 wrote:

Omega0 wrote:

Just in case anyone is curious, each of these messages (except the first one) was encrypted using a Vigenère cipher.  The way this cipher works is that each message has a keyword, and each letter in the keyword corresponds to a number: 'a' represents 0, 'b' represents 1, 'c' represents 2, and so on.  For example, if the keyword was "matrix" it would represent the numbers 12, 0, 19, 17, 8, 23.  In order to decrypt a message using this keyword, you would shift the first letter by 12, the second by 0, third by 19, fourth by 17, fifth by 8, and sixth by 23.  Then you would repeat the process for the next six letters, shifting the seventh by 12, the eighth by 0, the ninth by 19, and so on.

Here are the keywords that were used for each of the messages:

#2 - valkyrja
#3 - apothecary
#4 - caboclo
#5 - vigilant
#6 - threezerothree (the number of the room that Neo was shot in front of)
#7 - guinnesslake
#8 - manager
#9 - ouroboros
#10 - bip
#11 - halloween
#12 - cerulean
#13 - hovercraft
#14 - choppers
#15 - argon
#16 - whiteknight
#17 - archivistsociety
#18 - agentgriffin
#19 - metacortex
#20 - erehpsrepyh ("hypersphere" spelled backwards)

 

Now then, I have a question for either Conrac, Aquatium, or Evaluator.  Could you please explain how the hell I was supposed to figure out the keywords by looking at hidden text like this:

ORRNLQJIRUDKLQW?MDFNLQWRWKHPDWULADQGVHQGDQHPDLOWRHYDOXDWRUTLWKWKHVXEMHFWOLQH"CAK." 

KLQWVDUHVHQWGDLOBDWILYHSP

so how did you get these Keywords (which I assume is the 'key' ) then???

By comparing each ciphertext to its corresponding plaintext (after Conrac or Aquatium solved it) and counting how many times you had to shift each letter of the plaintext to get the ciphertext.

Omega0 wrote:

mantra777 wrote:

Omega0 wrote:

Here are the keywords that were used for each of the messages:

#2 - valkyrja
#3 - apothecary
#4 - caboclo
#5 - vigilant
#6 - threezerothree (the number of the room that Neo was shot in front of)
#7 - guinnesslake
#8 - manager
#9 - ouroboros
#10 - bip
#11 - halloween
#12 - cerulean
#13 - hovercraft
#14 - choppers
#15 - argon
#16 - whiteknight
#17 - archivistsociety
#18 - agentgriffin
#19 - metacortex
#20 - erehpsrepyh ("hypersphere" spelled backwards)

 

Now then, I have a question for either Conrac, Aquatium, or Evaluator.  Could you please explain how the hell I was supposed to figure out the keywords by looking at hidden text like this:

ORRNLQJIRUDKLQW?MDFNLQWRWKHPDWULADQGVHQGDQHPDLOWRHYDOXDWRUTLWKWKHVXEMHFWOLQH"CAK." 

KLQWVDUHVHQWGDLOBDWILYHSP

so how did you get these Keywords (which I assume is the 'key' ) then???

By comparing each ciphertext to its corresponding plaintext (after Conrac or Aquatium solved it) and counting how many times you had to shift each letter of the plaintext to get the ciphertext.

well like i said, a Great Vigenere Decipherer Cracker tool would be my guess as to how they manage to get the Keywords, minutes from the when The Evaluator sent the enciphered messages.

Mantra in actuality I used three cracking tools in concert.

There is the old standby Vigenere cracking tool at http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/index.php.
This tool is basically a single shot key guesser.

There was a "index of coincidence" tool I downloaded from http://pajhome.org.uk/crypt/vigenere.html.
This tool requires you to make a guess as to the key length aided by some coincidence statistics and
then guess at the letters of the keyword also aided by statistics. As in most cases during this exercise
the ratio of the keyword to the message length was large so the statistics were not very good (i.e. not
enough letters for the given key position to make a good guess). It turns out that this tool will give the
solution to the message #10 directly provided you guess the keylength of 3 up front.

My main tool was a TCL/TK script I wrote to do a mass decryption of a message using about 1000 Matrix
related words and names that I took the time to compile. The database was initially confined to the
names listed in the Prima Guide but as new clues came in I had to expand the key universe to Matrix fan
sites to pull in names and locations from the movies and from the MXO storyline. I also took the time
to run around the Matrix and add information broker names and anything else not already in the database.
The script produced a scrollable list of decrypted messages that I had to look through to find the solution.
As in most things in life, being prepared up front is a great help for the time you have to put the petal
to the metal.

An interesting feature of the Vigenere Cypher is that if you input the plain text as the key to a encrypted
message the key will be displayed in the decrypt area. Since the message text for this excerise was
The Evaluator's Dossier, and since the messages where all broken at word boundaries (except for #19) one
possible strategy for cracking this code was to guess at the first word of the current message based on the
contents of the previous messages. With luck one could then recognize enough of the keyword to perform the
full decryption. I was able to use this technique in some instances to quickly scroll to the appropriate
range of keywords to find the solution.

So yes it is true we had a couple of hints up front ..

1.) The Key would have to do something with the Matrix.
2.) The messages were all part of a coherent narrative.

And finally

3.) The showdown nature of the competition and the strength of Aquatium as a competitor.
I had to do things at 1000% simply because that was what it was going to take in order
to trimuph against Aqua. Aqua simply inspired me to do the best I possibly could. My hat is
off to the man.

I didn't save any of the hint messages... but for example the message 20 hint went something like this

Below is a clue which if you understand the meaning will lead to a key for the cypher.

SOMATS

mantra777 wrote:

Just out of Curiosity, Can anyone post what the Evaluator email look like for hints to get the 'Key'?

I deleted mine.  

Evaluator:

These will not be exact, but the clues were similar to the following:

2. An Exile said to be of those who rise from the shadows themselves to prey on the innocent. Her gaze can be terrifying.

3. This Exile was said to have been able to kill with a wave of the hand.

4. Former Unlimit member savagely attacked for questioning the direction of the group.

5. Said to be recognized for their heroics in actions in days leading up to the truce.

6. "Heart O' the City"

11. "It's that time."

16. One of many deadly virus programs found in the Matrix.

19. "There's a call for you on line 7, Mr. Rhineheart."

20. SOMATS

The others were solved before a clue was presented. Again, I am very impressed with the data from this exercise, well done to the participants. If my plans go as well as I'd like them to today, I hope to have the data for Evaluation 7 here within several hours.