3svgl/rhzp()gz12kmuuzs5fyeseeneymi.

[gold stinger]

Your 3 hour headstart is just about up as you all go into the first day of this. Lots of interesting takes on how to solve it, definitely not the way I was expecting it to be tackled.

A hint to all everything that isn't letters isn't part of the cipher stop trying to decode it as part of it or you're going to turn your brain into a pickle.

So far codebreakers have earned an honest 15,000 credits.

I'm going to go take a hot shower.

[MarioNintendo]

I legitimately don't know what I'm looking for, here. Do we need a compiler? I'm so lost. wtf.

[DossarLX ODI]

Looking at this thread after an entire day of Fallout 2 scripting was not a good idea.

Just going from anagrams the end of the thread title, "fyeseeneymi", contains something like "yes if enemy". The parentheses give me the thought that there is some function included in the thread title that may be called, and part of the code inside the function/how it works.

[gold stinger]

excellent work Dossar, excellent work indeed. There is definitely math & functions behind this.

Originally Posted by MarioNintendo

I legitimately don't know what I'm looking for, here. Do we need a compiler? I'm so lost. wtf.

You got nothing but the clothes on your backs. If you want to go ahead and try to break it using programs be my guest. There are no rules in this game. None, zippo. This be the real deal junior, and these are some cases that crime detectives are forced to respond to when there's a hostage situation straight out of a movie.

[DossarLX ODI]

I can surely see the "YOU DON'T SAY?!" humor in my post, although at the same time it does bring up the idea that if there is a method determining on somebody as the enemy, the city that's supposedly going to be nuked could be protected if the setting for them was not an enemy.

The irony then would be if you could actually make this nuke blow up at the terrorist's site if they are identified as the enemy haha. But this is going by the assumption that what I said in the first place is correct.

[gold stinger]

ahh you're overthinking it. Not what I meant at all.

the title is a smaller example of the big string for the thread. Haven't used any sort of anagram encryption. It's not anything like jquery or anything ridiculous where it's if ____, yes. if ____, no.

Since we're sitting here though with an empty thread, how are your days today guys? Besides loathing around waiting for a warhead to be dropped? Whatch'ya scripting on Fallout 2?


Codebreakers are now at 25,000 credits.
DossarLX ODI: 10,000
Celos: 15,000

[reuben_tate]

I'll give this a try later when I get off my phone and get on my laptop. I'm wondering if it's a simple substitution cipher of some sort (as in each letter in the cipher text corresponds to a letter in the original message, like q -> e, x -> r, etc). In that case, the letter frequency analysis someone posted earlier will be useful. If it's a simple substitution cipher, letters that appear frequently in the cipher text likely correspond to letters that frequently occur often in the English language (r, s, t, l, n, e, wheel of fortune)

[reuben_tate]

Ok, I don't have anything at the moment, but I'll bring up some points that may be worth considering.

Here are the original messages:
3svgl/rhzp()gz12kmuuzs5fyeseeneymi.
-zm+bakcag-ova11ohvok5jezb3x8fzyt15cbk+kcl4xsg()wzanjgn/kwxzs()vsn13ijgnxjb.

It's been said that we don't need to worry about the non-letters or something like that, so replacing the non-letters with spaces where appropriate yields:
svgl rhzp gz kmuuzs fyeseeneymi
zm bakcag ova ohvok jezb x fzyt cbk kcl xsg wzanjgn kwxzs vsn ijgnxjb

From this, one might think that the title for example is a 4 letter word, followed by another 4 letter word, followed by a 2 letter word, followed by a 6 letter word, etc. However, there is nothing that guarantees that the spacing in the above is representative of the spacing of the words in the original message.

I strongly believe this is the case since I threw fyeseeneymi into a cryptogram solver and it seems no English word has that form (if each letter in the ciphertext corresponds to a letter in the original).

I'm hoping this is a simple substitution cipher of some sort since that's how I'm trying to tackle it at the moment. However, it may be the case that the positions of each character in the original message is used in the encryption as well. Or, it may be a simple substitution cipher, however, maybe each "block" (i.e. section separated by numbers/symbols) is encrypted differently based on those numbers/symbols.

Anyways, looking at the numbers/symbols themselves:
3 / () 12 5
- + - 11 5 3 8 15 + 4 () / () 13

Interesting to note that the number of numbers are close to the number of symbols, as if an expression is supposed to be made with them or something, idk.

EDIT: Also, "jgn" appears twice in the longer string. Also, "kc", "jg", and "gn" are digraphs that make multiple appearances.

EDIT: Also, noticed that the OP didn't properly nest their italics and bold tags. I don't know if that's of any significance.

[reuben_tate]

Originally Posted by gold stinger

yeah they're launch codes for a 550 kiloton RT-2PM Topol SS-25 Sickle ICBM warhead, encrypted.

a little birdy reminded me of this post. If the original messages really are launch codes then I'm guessing the original message is probably not intelligible in English. However, I don't know much regarding launch code syntax for warheads and I feel like googling such will have the NSA knocking on my door.

EDIT: And it's not like launch codes are made publicly available to everyone online, that'd be silly~

EDIT: I'm going to wait until I get some feedback from gold and/or there is more input from others because I don't want to possibly go off in a wrong direction with this.

[danceflashrevo]

d/w ben they made incognito mode for a reason

[rushyrulz]

Originally Posted by danceflashrevo

d/w ben they made TOR for a reason

ftfy

[danceflashrevo]

ah yeah. tor. haven't ever used it lol

[Epicman9001]

Originally Posted by gold stinger

I am the terrorist.

Called the feds, hope your not in the middle of smashing keys when the swat arrives.

[V-Ormix]

Originally Posted by gold stinger

Besides loathing around waiting for a warhead to be dropped?

I thought this was a launch code encryption, also id partake but im stupid

[Silvuh]

Originally Posted by reuben_tate

However, it may be the case that the positions of each character in the original message is used in the encryption as well. Or, it may be a simple substitution cipher, however, maybe each "block" (i.e. section separated by numbers/symbols) is encrypted differently based on those numbers/symbols.

I thinking the same thing about the positions. More variables are necessary to make two different letters map to the same letter and vice versa, and that's an easy variable to use. About the symbols, though ...

Originally Posted by gold stinger

A hint to all: everything that isn't letters isn't part of the cipher; stop trying to decode it as part of it, or you're going to turn your brain into a pickle.

(added punctuation for clarity)
"Not part of the cipher" is a little vague, depending on your understanding of the word. The cipher is the algorithm, so maybe it means that they do not play a part in the decryption method. If the symbols are not part of the ciphertext, then they could be related to the cipher, but they are not symbols that get shifted. Would be nice if they really are the correct spaces and nothing more.

Originally Posted by gold stinger

There is definitely math & functions behind this.

Anyway, this makes me believe that to get from the input to the output, there's some kind of function of the position of the original letter in the alphabet and in the message. That the "first clue is already given" makes me think that at least of the words in the first few sentences in the OP should be in the thread title. I was trying things like this game, this code, thread, and codebreaker, which fit into the "symbols being spaces" thing. ("Codebreaker" would be an odd last word in a sentence, so I was trying things backwards, too.) Wasn't able to come up with anything though. The distance between the input and the output might be the remainder of some larger number divided by 26. Haven't taken into consideration yet any kind of reordering. Having to guess at both that and the shifting function would be a loooot of guessing and checking.

[gold stinger]

You got 56 hours, 19 minutes, and 34 seconds remaining.

Codebreaker reuben is the closest right now to solving the code.

Codebreakers are now at 45,000 credits.
reuben_tate: 20,000
Celos: 15,000
DossarLX ODI: 10,000

Just like a nerd's math test reuben you got a lot of stuff right and some stuff wrong.

[reuben_tate]

I was thinking about taking into account the position of each letter in the message (and not just the position in the alphabet) but I didnt try anything yet in that regard since I didn't want to try anything too obscure yet.

Anyways, I've taken into account the position of each letter in the alphabet. If c is a character, and ord(c) is the position of the letter of the alphabet with a starting at 0, I've tried applying the following function to each character for every possible choice of A and B:
f(c) = char( (A*ord(c) + B) mod 26 ) where char(n) is the letter with the nth position in the alphabet and n mod 26 is the remainder when n is divided by 26.

When A=1, the above function turns into a regular Caesar shift so I've already looked at that and when B=0, it becomes a basic multiplicative cipher so I've looked at all of those as well. Anyways, I looked at every possible choice of A and B but didn't get anything meaningful yet.

Edit: ninja'd by gold's post, thanks for the update!

[gold stinger]

Can I get a confirmation on whether or not reuben_tate got his credits? I may own an evil empire with the goal of enslaving the human race but at least I'm honest.

I swore I sent 20,000 with the message of "You are about one third the way there" but it's not showing up in my credit transfer log.

[reuben_tate]

Originally Posted by gold stinger

I may own an evil empire with the goal of enslaving the human race but at least I'm honest.

That's very heartwarming :')

Anyways, I didn't get the credits yet, I was thinking for a sec it was one of those things where I have to wait until the conclusion of the event to obtain them.

[gold stinger]

get paid