Slashdot Mirror
Secret Agents Hold Code-Breaking Contest
Spudley writes "I just heard on the BBC that the British Government's not-so-secret code breaking organisation, GCHQ, has launched a little Christmas crypto challenge for all you budding secret agents. Should be fun to try it out... even if you're not brave enough to actually send in an entry."
... is obviously 42.
Drink your ovaltine?
Unknown host pong.
that page just looks like a few columns of perl code to me.
Trolling is a art,
sdren era syug uoy
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
I live a mile from GCHQ - it looks like a huge donut, and is apparently mostly built underground. The scarey thing is that I recently read that it's the second most desirable terrorist target after the Whitehouse. Nice!
Sunday you're Thinking Different, Monday you're a huge tool, paying too much and waiting to think like everyone else.
We have your IP address. Thanks!
If you can do it, move me to the top of the 'Nice' list please!
Until someone posts the answer on slashdot.
You win the contest, they recruit you, then you spend the rest of your life drinking vodka martinis, getting shot at, and having gorgeous women fall at your feet. (Time to start code breaking!)
Quite obviously the answer is: . . Cowboy Neil
I know it says you can win a book, but this smells like those Google job application tests that were in the magazines a few months back. Come up with enough correct answers on these tests and who knows....
They'll know
1) You're too smart for the good of the country and
2) You're disloyal enough to cozy up to a foreign spy agency.
Can you say "do-not-fly list"? Thought so.
Modern crypto isn't based on oddly configured puzzles [e.g. once you learn the algo the solution is simple].
While this is a nice puzzle and certainly I couldn't solve it in the 2 mins I was staring at it this has nothing todo with modern crypto. Have an AES breaking contest if you want to promote real research.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
..is that all the people listed have really fucked up names.
All your codebreak are belong to uk.
I pity the foo that isn't metasyntactic
To the BatBeowulf-Cluster!
If they can't be recruited.
(In Soviet Russia, code breaks YOU!)
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
GCHQ has launched a little Christmas crypto challenge for all you budding secret agents. To submit your entry to the challenge, just pick up your phone, call your mother, and tell her your solution!
Owhay areway ouyay allingcay away erdnay ourfay eyesway?
...on black helicopters to a secret island somewhere off the coast of England where you will enjoy the amenities of the village.
it would be a good bet in my mind it will be something like what they did before (people tend to repeat themselves)so... previously on gchq
Each of the six extracts is encrypted with a simple substitution cipher. In the first extract, this is a straightforward shift: P=A, Q=B, R=C etc.
In extracts two to six, the ciphertext alphabet is formed by taking a keyword, removing those letters that occur more than once in the keyword, and then adding all remaining letters in alphabetical order. For example, in extract two, the keyword is MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. By taking out those letters that are repeated in the keyword, we are left with: MURDESINTHOG. We then add all unused letters in alphabetical order to give us: MURDESINTHOGABCFJKLPQVWXYZ.
Finally, the alphabet is shifted to give the keyword PUZZLE as the encryption of A in each alphabet in turn (as read down the left hand side of the grid).
1) And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho."
Joshua chapter 2. The Bible, c.550 BC. (An early reference to intelligence gathering.)
2) Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a series of misfortunes had reduced him to want.
Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination: The Gold Bug. The Dollar Newspaper, Philadelphia, 1843. (The first extensive treatment of cryptanalysis in fiction.)
Keyword: MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (another famous short story by Poe).
3) Holmes had been seated for some hours in silence with his long, thin back curved over a chemical vessel in which he was brewing a particularly malodorous product.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Dancing Men, The Strand Magazine, 1903. (Another fictional example of a substitution cipher.)
Keyword: MYCROFT HOLMES (Sherlock Holmes's brother).
4) The American handed Leamas another cup of coffee and said, "Why don't you go back and sleep? We can ring you if he shows up."
John Le Carre, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Victor Gollancz, 1963. (The third in the series of books featuring George Smiley, one of the best known fictional agents.)
Keyword: GEORGE SMILEY (main character in this series of books).
5) An Act to make provision about the Secret Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Headquarters, including provision for the issue of warrants and authorisations
(The Act of Parliament allowing GCHQ to operate, and defining its accountability to Parliament and the public.)
Keyword: ELIZABETH THE SECOND (signatory of the Act), Intelligence Services Act 1994.
6) On the morning of Wednesday, 15 October 1586, Queen Mary entered the crowded courtroom at Fotheringhay Castle. (Some editions of this book list the day as Saturday)
Simon Singh, The Code Book. Fourth Estate, 1999. (Singh's book is a recent tour de force on the subject of cryptography.)
Keyword: FOURTH ESTATE (publisher).
Read Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography, and then do all of the sample problems in the book.
(S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))
What is the connection between the men in the first list and the women in the second list?
They all have very strange sounding names.
No Text
Best Slashdot Co
bloody helll thats a dodgy film. glad im not the only one who was reminded of it.
I learned this watching BBC on PBS. If your around something you think you should know, but dont. Just laugh knowingly and say "how amusing..." This is also my plan faking it on slashdot, only prepending the appropriate acronym "BASH...how amusing"
frequency analyzer
caesar cipher cracker
some other tools also available here
Gan Family Homepage
I was at school with KEZHQ WSNIEC.
J.
What's brave got to do with it? Is this more tinfoilhatism? I think it's a fun idea.
--- Ban humanity.
From the challenge page:
Screw that. If a bunch of secret agents are running a contest, I expect to win at least a friggin' mini-missile launching pen or some C4 toothpaste w/ detonator toothbrush.
Wait -- maybe the books are hollowed out and contain flasks that convert into single-shot 9mm pistols!
Too bad I can't even balance my checkbook, let alone compete in this contest. If you win, let us know if the books including an expandable titanium katana sword bookmark.
IronChefMorimoto
I currently have this nearly solved (should have it by tomorrow barring too much real work).
I was hoping that Slashdot would hold off for a day or two to give me time to blurt out the answer(s).
4 sets of the names are proving to be much harder than the others and I am contemplating how much code I should write, or if I should focus on the next stage instead and then try to back fill.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
I'm guessing one of the men is David Beckham and one of the women is Victoria Adams (Posh Spice)
Now where is my tin-foil hat....
She did work in the aerospace industry before retiring, though. Hmm...
Another good thing about the article was I didn't know Singh had a new book coming out. Cool. I keep "The Code Book" here at work and it's been beaten up through many borrowings by coworkers.
--- Ban humanity.
Kwhqv ozxrx Nud Lpbjq gkt, kmoaute ly yoc dar Cobc!
Heh... Those wild-n'-crazy guys at the GCHQ. What kidders. What will they come up with next? And an off-color joke in a "family" contest? Tsk.
Incidentally we are talking about it here:i c.php?p id=28688
http://www.etraininglog.com/forums/viewtop
That is a site I run. Once I get the full answers I will post it to one of my blogs.
The general idea is that the male/female pair are movie stars and that the pairs share the same encryption type (meaning key alphabet).
From there you go to the next stage to get the phrase and I have an idea on that, but I can't be positive yet.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
You are correct, I only looked at old solutions noticed that they used simple single letter replacement cyphers in prior puzzles, which was where the idea came from.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
"Cowboy Neil"
The Young Ones version? I'll use Rick's cricket bat to solve this problem. *whack*
BZGZD A'GAANZ = PETER O'TOOLE
They are all people who have never been in my kitchen.
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
Anybody else actually attempting this? I've got about 2/3rds of the names, with most of them matched up. I think I've got the hard 1/3 to do..
Guvf pelcgb punyyratr fhpxf. Abobql pna oernx zl pbqr. Zjununununu V bja lbh.
Can you say "Three Days of the Condor" ??
Pfft! Keep your toys. I want to win the date with a sexy Russian agent.
Hey, I spent my formative years with James Bond films. I know how to show a sexy Russian agents a good time as long as she doesn't mind if the Aston Martin is a rental.
--- Ban humanity.
Show off.
To both of you: only I and the makers of the Matrix are allowed to misspell 'cipher'... As it was a name of a rather blah character in the movie and has been the domain for my email address for quite some time, I think we have the monopoly on this one, pal(s). Please immediately cease your infringement on our intellectual properties so as to prevent this from becoming a _legal_ matter.
94143243431512659321054872390486828512913474876027
5 53
0 75
9 84
67195923460238582958304725016523252592969257276
64363462727184012012643147546329450127847264841
62234789626728592858295347502772262646456217613
829519475412398501
Ah, they've used an old Persian cypher, I just dug it up out of an original text in arabic, I have the only copy in the west. Very clever. Here's what it says:
BINLA DENIS HIDIN GATSE VENTE EENHI GHSTR EETCL
APHAM
You are supposed to Never Say Anything about No Such Agency.
I picked the name that looked the easiest to solve: the man's name with the apostrophe in the first column. After about 30 seconds of inspection I cam up with "Peter O'Toole." Your welcome.
This would be a great way for intelligence to work out who they need to keep an eye on more closely. The guy with the most computer power the home beowulf computer cluster cracking joe-algorithms ;)
Got a question about UNIX ask it here : Unix/xBSD Forum
WTF?
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=cypher :-p',',',',
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
They're all Klingons for a start
... Like in Enemy of the State? Will I get assassined if I break it?
Cool...
The first rule of NSA is you do not talk about NSA.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I remember seeing that film at the movie theater! I wonder what ever happened to Sparrow Hawk?
I then looked at the web page and thought, "somebody at personnel should hire a proof reader!" I guess the folks over there are vowel challanged.
The cross logic I soon realizeed was that unless the state department for Fortress-White-House green lighted my solution, I couldn't get my free book! This sucks!
Oh well, I guess I'll go to work now...
Haha! I got it and I'm not telling any of you!!!
I want to win the date with a sexy Russian agent.
I wouldn't. More than likely Bond has already had a date with her, and I don't want to be diagnosed with diseases Bond1 -Bond18 . Better to have a cool gadget in my book -- if You Only Live Twice I'm not going to waste one of my lives suffering with venerial diseases.
Y|
ahhah nowik knowh owthe micro softc
dkeys gotpu blish edwit hnobo dynot
icing
Aren't these just ordinary Polish names?
I stand corrected. Amazing how common misspellings eventually become part of the vernacular... and sad.
I was looking this over last night before I went to bed. I thought it was interesting, but I didnt think I would really find any solutions.
This morning I looke at the computer, and found that my 9 year old son had solved 2 of the problems before going to school.
So should I send them in or format the hard drive...
This is actually quite trivial. The key lies in the encrypted mans name BZGZD A'GAANZ. Note the apostrophe. It is reasonable to guess that A==O because many british surnames begin with O-apostrophe.
Apply the substitution and you get BZGZD O'GOONZ. It is reasonable to guess the last name O'TOOLE, which gives us the solution for T, L, and E.
This name is PETER O'TOOLE, and with these letters, the rest of the name is easy to solve.
Or better yet read Edgar Poe's The Gold Bug and follow the recipe
Here Legrand, having re-heated the parchment, submitted It my inspection. The following characters were rudely traced, in a red tint, between the death's-head and the goat:
53++!305))6*;4826)4+.)4+);806*;48!8`60))85;]8*:
46(;88*96*?;8)*+(;485);5*!2:*+(;4956*2(5*-4)8`8
!8)4++;1(+9;48081;8:8+1;48!85;4)485!528806*81(+
4;48)4+;161;:188;+?;
"And you really solved it?"
"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to take interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having once established connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a thought to the mere difficulty of developing their import.
"In the present case --indeed in all cases of secret writing --the first question regards the language of the cipher; for the principles of solution, so far, especially, as the more simple ciphers are concerned, depend on, and are varied by, the genius of the particular idiom. In general, there is no alternative but experiment (directed by probabilities) of every tongue known to him who attempts the solution, until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now before us, all difficulty is removed by the signature. The pun on the word 'Kidd' is appreciable in no other language than the English. But for this consideration I should have begun my attempts with the Spanish and French, as the tongues in which a secret of this kind would most naturally have been written by a pirate of the Spanish main. As it was, I assumed the cryptograph to be English.
Give it a read. Great stuff, especially considering Poe lived in first half of 19th century.
3.243F6A8885A308D313
This is a straigh copy-and-paste from the GCHQ solution page. Why was this moderated up?
And let them know how much I know??? I don't think so.
I created a cypher myself a few months back as a challenge to one of my co-workers (he gave up). I still have it and this seems like an appropriate place to post it. Here is the cyphertext.
n mt maxyfl7eovult4xyrhu6tma7tihllb4bebmrth8t6vu8xy3mut 3g6tma7gtp3bmvu6t8hkt3gthiihkmngbmrth8t6xy873mbg9t mavutxygf7rv"
"lngtmsntl3b6tma7t9hh6t8b9amvuklth8the6t8bklmti
Hints for fairness sake:
1. It is a bi-layered, nongrid cypher.
2. The input/output characterset is 41 characters, comprised of a-z (no capitals), 0-9, space, comma, period, !, and ?. (the period at the end is just a period stating the end of the sentence)
3. The plaintext is a quote from a book considered widely known (not the bible though).
4. The "quotes" at the begining and end of the cyphertext are not part of the cypher, they only show start and end.
I don't know if the third hint actually helps or not. Be assured this IS an actual cypher, not just random characters. I look forward to seeing if my fellow slashdotters can meet the challenge.
Grab a list of celebrity names (you should already know these are movie stars, paired by movies they were in) and have a script check by length and monoalphabeticallity to list the possible equivalencies of each name.
If you don't waste your time following celebrities, you can use google by a script to match them up. The more results a pair has, the more likely that pair is to have stared in a movie together.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
...I think I'll wait for the next secret agent contest. I already have enough fast cars as it is.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
I would have second thoughts of advertising myself as a "freelance" cryptographer.
I don't want to make a big deal out of this but what happened was a bit disturbing. IMO it isn't the work of some big conspiracy but the actions of one police officer of subnormal intelligence.
While driving on a major highway I noticed a State Police cruiser following me. I didn't think much of it since I was driving a very nondescript six month old minivan with no bumper stickers and I haven't had a speeding ticket in about fifteen years. I suspect I might of peaked his interest because a moment before I was fumbling for a CD on the center tray.
All of a sudden the lights came on. I pulled over. The officer came up to the car and asked for my license, registration and proof of insurance. I gathered the requested items but before giving them to him I asked why I was pulled over. He said I swerved out of my lane. I told him he was wrong and he once again demanded my papers. I turned them over and he went back to his cruiser. About five minutes later he came back, gave me papers and said he was going to be a "nice guy" and let me go without a ticket. I thanked him. He asked if he could do a quick search of my car. I ask why. He said it was just routine and something they "randomly" asked different motorists. I declined stating that I didn't have time. He said he could just search anyways without my permission and giving it would make things "easier". I pulled out my ACLU "bust card" (next to my ACLU membership card) from my wallet and told him he needed a warrant. He told me to place my hands outside the window, not to move and proceeded to look through the windows, something perfectly legal. On the passenger's seat was a copy of Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" (with "... The book the NSA wanted never to be published" on the cover) and some of my notes about key exchange. He opened the passenger's side door and looked at the book. He asked me what it was. I said:
"It's a book"
"Don't be a smart ass, why do you have it?"
"To read"
"Are you a 'hacker'?"
"What's a hacker?"
The continued to look through my notes and asked me to explain them.
"I can't explain them to you, you wouldn't understand."
"I'm taking the book and notes"
"Why?"
"Because they're possibly criminal tools."
"That's ridiculous. It's just a book."
"If you want them back go down to the State Police barracks in XXXXX and pick them up."
"Am I free to go?"
He didn't reply.
"Are you charging me with a crime?"
"No"
"Unless you tell me to stay I am now leaving".
No reply.
I pulled my hands back into the car, started it and left. He returned to his cruiser and stayed there as I left.
The next day I went down to said police station to claim my book and notes. I was told by the desk officer the items had been turned over to the District Attorney's office for further investigation and if I wanted them back I needed to get a lawyer. I called the DA's office and was told they had no idea what I was talking about.
I know when to let "sleeping dogs lie". It was just a book that I can reordered from Amazon and the notes can be recreated. I'm sure I pissed off the officer with the ACLU bust card, not consenting to a warrantless search, catching him in a lie about the search and refusing to explain my notes (he clearly would have not understood them). Oh, and I look a bit like RMS.
What bothers me is that this could happen in the US. I not going to spend thousands of dollars to get a $50 book back with the added benefit of having a raised profile with the police. I guess I should just grin and bear it as our rights erode away.
Has Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" ever been classified as a "criminal tool"?
qopchedy qokedydy qokoloky qokeedy qokedy
on the other hand, your domain name is now worth much more!
#!/usr/bin/english
The code on the first line should be:+ (;:+* 8!83(88)5*!;
i d=PoeGold.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/eng lish/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1
53++!305))6*;4826)4+.)4+);806*;48!8`60))85;1
It's forty, not tweny.
See, for example, this transcription:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
It's a DMCA gag order...
Jw
It says "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine"
-- Mace only makes me hornier.
SPOILERS
This is like when I play chess with my two-year-old, where I purposely do only stupid moves so that she stays interested. It's so easy to make a totally unbreakable cipher nowadays, they have to put effort into it to come up with a crypto challenge that can actually expect to break. Like how they preserved spaces and apostrophes and carriage returns: they probably had to go back and add those in because their normal instincts (replace everything) produced something too imposing.
I knew that someday my austistic abilities would come in handy!
Cheers,
Adolfo
... that this "contest" is like the short story (later made into a Twilight Zone or Amazing Stories episode) where all children have to take a special aptitude test, and the ones that pass are eliminated because they are too smart?
Bruce
number 16 male is peter o'toole like someone already said...
but you will all be happy to know that number 6 male is star wars' HARRISON FORD.
these are movie characters or famous people!!!
woot. I am available for employment...
This is completely false. This is not a sig.
Wrote up something quick to find some of the names based on letter placement. ? denotes many other possibilities. lowercased and junk at the end to get around lameness filters.
kcrvkxhl eujdxz
humphrey bogart
wknjvwl gswoxu
richard morely ?
hyue wreeycs
sean connery
qfdx ornqtp
nick farnes ?
vtwmac ueiiml
albert finney
ofiiptyx lyij
zgrt bpdiirnn
alex guinness
xct gsxxjyuq
rnbtcnp tcoshnm
anthony hopkins
xivl vfbd
john hurt ?
nrikusl uiqormdb
charles laughton
ufiv wkxxzy
jack lemmon ?
dyfjn wcleqpj
tobey maguire
lvzd conklnfk
ewan mcgregor
pzss tebbmj
bzgzd a'gaanz
peter o'toole
jrfjwri xfcs
gregory peck ?
qjamdu zwwvdu
walter hopper
gmthyl ikubgmfptpsspm
arnold schwarzenegger
kezhq wsniec
kevin spacey ?
tvfami wvyvtt
bacall lauren
khp fnwhqbev
kim basinger ?
mtjxmg ehxjrdt
ingrid bergman
orerc viuwfnue
honor blackman
aikusbs ehsmkhnr
marlene dietrich
uqpidjx hexid
kirsten dunst
tzmmdr wdncrm
carrie fisher
ecwhx ycmbxa
jodie foster ?
lrnu fhzohvn
yvtlg ugzvynht
linda hamilton
yaerfi kfxbarv
audrey hepburn
ougeudlrz ezbvjdr
katharine hepburn
cqmbsvdd lnymiccni
scarlett johansson
dgofbl aguczd
nicole kidman
aqsewkc xfiwfsyk
shirley maclaine
rkuuc vhmpuupt
kelly mcgillis
czntbxd cfdnfe
marilyn monroe
osxfsxcz xbzgcxduxa
margaret rutherford
bqkdvgboj oviqxw
cwuifblsk hsogsb
sigourney weaver
kcrvkxhl eujdxz humphrey bogart wknjvwlgswoxurichard morely ? hyue wreeycssean conneryqfdx ornqtpnick farnes ?vtwmac eiimlalbertfinneyofiiptyx lyijzgrt bpdiirnnalex innessxct gsxxjyuqrnbtcnp tcoshnmanthony opkinsxivl vfbdjohn hurt ?nrikusl uiqormdbcharleslaughtonufiv wkxxzyjack lemmon dyfjn wcleqpjtobey maguirelvzd conklnfkewan cgregorpzss tebbmjbzgzd a'gaanzpeter 'toolejrfjwri xfcsgregory peck ?qjamdu zwwvduwalter hoppergmthyl ikubgmfptpsspmarnold chwarzeneggerkezhq wsnieckevin spacey ?tvfami vyvttbacall laurenkhp fnwhqbevkim basinger ?mtjxmgehxjrdtingrid bergmanorerc viuwfnuehonor lackmanaikusbs ehsmkhnrmarlene dietrichuqpidjx exidkirsten dunsttzmmdr wdncrmcarrie fisherecwhx cmbxajodie foster ?lrnu fhzohvnyvtlg ugzvynhtlindahamiltonyaerfi kfxbarvaudrey hepburnougeudlrz ezbvjdrkatharine hepburncqmbsvdd nymiccniscarlett johanssondgofbl aguczdnicole idmanaqsewkc xfiwfsykshirley maclainerkuuc hmpuuptkelly mcgillisczntbxd cfdnfemarilyn monroeosxfsxcz xbzgcxduxamargaret rutherfordbqkdvgboj oviqxwcwuifblsk hsogsbsigourney weaver
Does BZGZD A'GAANZ = PETER O'TOOLE ??
i got that one after staring at it for about 5 mins, the letters fit but it could be a fluke.
But cipher comes from the French cifre (which originally comes from the Arabic sifr). So it seems that it was spelled with an I first, though I haven't found a reference that says that explicitly.
yup, that's one (they are all actors/actresses)
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
See NSA Kid's Page.
Cypher was the name of those things in Metal Gear Solid 2 wasn't it?
I don't really remember, when I was playing I was more interested in things like you know, not getting shot. Still took me like 8 hours to finish the whole thing on easy.
Well, there's my off-topic post for today. Mod down as necessary.
Took me longer than it should've, but I got it. What I'm wondering is why people are sharing answers. This is a contest people! :-)
Beyond that, they might be spoilers to people who got started late. I didn't really read anything until I was done, so now I can appreciate how far wrong some folks are...
ab