200-Year-Old Cipher Finally Cracked

Attila Dimedici writes "A code expert just cracked a code used by a friend of Thomas Jefferson in a letter written to Jefferson some 200 years ago. This code is fairly easy to crack using a computer, but extremely difficult without one. I think it would have been much harder if the author had not included an indication as to what code algorithm he used in the letter accompanying the coded message."

Comments

tl;dr

[Anonymous Coward]

The message says:

"In Congress, July Fourth, one thousand seven hundred and seventy six. A declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. When in the course of human events..."

Re:tl;dr

[morgan_greywolf]

FTFA:

After about a week of working on the puzzle, the numerical key to Mr. Patterson's cipher emerged -- 13, 34, 57, 65, 22, 78, 49.

Hey! That's the combination to my luggage!

Re:tl;dr

[Anonymous Coward]

Make the pie higher

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen
And uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish
Can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

-art major who reads too much slashdot

Re:tl;dr

[mobby_6kl]

Phnglui mglwnafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgahnagl fhtagn!

Re:tl;dr

[V!NCENT]

13, 34, 57, 65, 22, 78, 49?! That's what an idiot would have on his luggage!

Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[netsavior]

the Voynich manuscript is a much more compelling and difficult mystery.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[Em Emalb]

Dude, the Voynich manuscript has been cracked.

It's a variation of the GNAA first post troll.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[jd]

Perhaps, but there's no evidence that the Voynich manuscript is a cypher in the traditional sense. A natural language isn't normally "decyphered", since it was never encrypted in the first place.

Given that there are many hundreds of thousands of natural languages today for which there is no written form, it's entirely possible that this is a script invented for such a language. In WW2, natural native American languages were sometimes used in this way as an "unbreakable cypher" - who's to say that medieval Europeans hadn't done the same thing themselves?

If that is the case, then it isn't particularly compelling (we know of many extinct languages for which no known writing exists - and hundreds more go extinct yearly), and is not so much "difficult" as useless - the text could never be read.

The wikipedia article doesn't say anything about using techniques to detect writing that is no longer visible, so I must assume no such techniques have been used.

(It may be possible to establish some of the content of a missing page if the page after had been underneath at the time of writing. Non-destructive techniques for doing this formed a part of the case against the West Midland's serious crime squad in the 90s, where it could be shown pages of confessions had been altered after being signed. However, if no such analysis has taken place, the presence of such data is unknown.)

Regardless, there are many missing pages. From the articles, the page numbers seem to be relatively new compared to the text, so we don't know how many pages are actually missing, we only know how many went missing since being numbered. This makes understanding the text very difficult and even if the text could be translated, there's no guarantee we could even read it or understand it without those pages.

We know vastly more about Linear A than we do about the script on the Voynich manuscript, including the archaeology of the people writing Linear A, yet after all this time we've got no further than knowing the number system and a few of the numbers in it.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[VeNoM0619]

Agreed, if someone handed us a (random) book written in Japanese (take your pick which writing style), do you think we could "decipher" it without knowledge of the Japanese language? The half backward sentence structure, the combinations of syllables into letters. Right to left, even bottom to top. Each word being spelled entirely different than our English word. Words having multiple meanings, and when combined with other words having even more unrelated meanings.

It is more likely that the Voynich was written in a dead language written by a person hoping to preserve that language in some way.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[netsavior]

First of all, The Voynich is only 500 years old(give or take), from a time when books were not uncommon, and was very very likely written in Europe, hardly pre-historic. This would be a person in Europe, with contemporary writing, art, and binding supplies, writing in a dead language not otherwise documented anywhere else. Linear A is like FOUR THOUSAND years dead... not really comperable.

That is what makes it so compelling, the fact that it happened, not in a vaccum like the Aboriginal Amazon, not in ancient history like Linear A, not in Stone, or papyrus, or etched on tree bark, but that it happened inside of western society, using "modern methods" (for the day), and it is a language/code that can be verified as not being junk, but that nobody had seen before or since.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[Darkness404]

But it still has lots of patterns that every language known has. Anyone can take a bunch of scribblings down and make it "seem" like a language, but the Voynich manuscript is unique that every part of it seems to be a language, not the work of someone insane.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[Yvanhoe]

Many words in one of the syllabic alphabet (katakana) have a pronunciation close to english, as they are foreign words phonetically transcribed in Japanese, like ko-n-pu-ta (computer)
Even without that, it is easy to tell apart the complex ideograms and the syllabic characters, if only because of their frequency of appearance. There are some structures easy to spot : polite forms and declarative sentences end frquently by the same words, etc... There are many structures that are easy to spot. I suspect it is the case in any language. The Voynich doesn't appear to obey to any grammar structure. Such a problem ought to be easy : there is a whole book, presumably about plants, and we don't even manage to find a single common word in all these pages that could possibly mean "plant" ? Or "root" ? Or a single sentence structure common to many places ? My bet is on "nonsense written by someone who wished he could write and had an instability making him believe he could"

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[jd]

I quite agree. And Japanese isn't even the worst. There is a writing style where you alternatively write right-to-left then left-to-right. The dead language of Easter Island, Rongo-Rongo, goes one worse and even requires you to turn the page upside-down on alternate lines. (That's the ONLY thing anyone can understand of it.)

The Wikipedia article states that some words are repeated three times, which strongly suggests that words can be modified not only by other words but by groups of other words. Quite a number of languages also have special symbols (determinants) which can completely alter the meaning of the word they're associated with.

Others liberally mix alphabetic, syllabic and iconographic symbols - modern English is a good example of a language that does this. In some languages, the same character can be used in any or all of these forms, depending on the characters around them.

I suspect you are correct in your conclusion that it was some (alas failed) attempt to preserve a dead language, which may also include my idea that such a language was being used as a secret language but is not restricted to that theory.

It would be interesting to know which language it was, and where, but I'm not sure we'll ever get beyond the (fairly wide-ranging) language family already guessed at.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[Canazza]

Lorem Ipsum dolor sit amet...

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[Jurily]

Sumerian cannot be "completely" translated (whatever that means)

At least we can try from a different perspective:

At the same time, we have to realize that in certain instances it is truly very difficult, or even impossible to read the written text well and find its true meaning, even if we do have the knowledge of the rules of this writing and reading and also use the only good key leading there, which is the Hungarian language in establishing the sound values. After all, we are dealing with the spiritual heritage of a world of 4-5000 years ago; the workings of the minds of the people then was completely different from ours. This difficulty can be bridged only if we become thoroughly familiar with the belief system, statesmanship of the ages BC. It is for this reason that when we do translate a text we must sometimes add lengthy explanations to a given sentence. The following examples will clarify this statement.

The Egyptian and Sumerian texts frequently use the following names of their Sungod: Égúr, Székúr, Kerek Úr, Napúr, Õsúr, Magúr, Útúr, Honúr, Szemúr, Égetõ Úr, Vörös Szemû and some at least twenty more expressions. Western scholars who are not familiar with the key-language understand only the Úr suffix of these words which they translate as God. They also believe that as many such words with Úr endings exist, that many gods were worshipped by the ancients. For them there is a God An, God Utu, God Sek and so on. Anyone familiar with the key-language and the ancients' religion will recognize these words as the names of the same Sungod; the ancients stressed one of the Sungod's characteristics and function by a given name. We may compare this practice to the Roman Catholic Church's practice to call God the Father in his creative capacity, the Son is his redemptive function and the Holy Spirit as his sanctifying function. We will fully understand the Sungod's many names if we are familiar with the concepts of the ancients concerning the Sungod. According to them, the sun, this heavenly body is God's visible picture. Since this picture appears round, they name him Kerek Úr (Round Lord). Since the Sun brightens everything and sees everything, like a giant eye another name of his is Szemúr (Occulate Lord). Since his eye is pairless, they call him Egyszemû (One Eyed), according to the sun's color Vörös Szemû (Red Eyed) and since the Sun resides in the sky they also called him Égi Szem or Égszem (Eye of Heavens). When they contemplated its immense heat they called him Égetõ Úr (Scorching Lord) and Sütõ Úr (Shining Lord). They also believed that he is the only Lord in his world so they called him Honúr (Lord of his Home) and Égi Király (King of Heavens). As they saw the apparent motion as he rises in the morning his name then was Ra-Kel (Ra rises), the rising on the eastern borders Kel-Út (The Road of Rising/East) where he sits down onto his chair: Szék-Úr (Lord of the Chair or the Seated/Settled Lord), later on he sits into his chariot and travels the shiny roads of the skies: Útúr (Lord of the Road) and when he finished his daily journey and reaches the west: Nyug-Út (Resting/Western Road) and as he sinks below the horizon: Esút, Este (The Falling/Evening Road, Evening). As we clarify this section of their belief everything becomes clearer and also realize that the ancients whose religion was connected with the Sun were never polytheistic, they only had one God.

Re:Wake me when the Voynich is cracked

[glwtta]

Hieroglyphs, dammit; 'hieroglyphic' is an adjective.

just cracked??

[macxcool]

A code expert just cracked a code

The article says "After unlocking its hidden message in 2007". This is hardly 'just'. The solution was more recently published though. Interesting article.

Re:just cracked??

[gEvil (beta)]

What? You actually expect the article submitter to RTFA?

Re:just cracked??

[bitt3n]

A code expert just cracked a code

The article says "After unlocking its hidden message in 2007". This is hardly 'just'. The solution was more recently published though. Interesting article.

he's obviously using the same definition of "just" that I use when I tell my wife I just took out the garbage so get off my back

Contents of message

[wjousts]

"Hey Jefferson, you might want to try keeping it in your pants. I saw that slave girl today and she's starting to show. People will start asking questions."

Re:Contents of message

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Going by the fact that you got modded "troll" rather than "funny" I'd say that somebody is clinging to the American history they learned in elementary school a little too hard...

Re:Contents of message

[ChrisMaple]

The DNA evidence for this claim is inconclusive because it does not eliminate other members of Jefferson's family. In particular, one close relative had a poor reputation, and is a likely candidate for this misbehaviour.

Re:Security by obscurity

[phantomfive]

Obscurity IS a level of security, which is good, but it's only one level. Hopefully you have a security system that is robust enough that even when the obscurity is pierced, it is still secure. In the past when people complain about Microsoft depending on security through obscurity, they were referring to the fact that Windows was at one time so insecure that it was only a matter of obscurity that gave it any security at all. That isn't to say obscurity is all bad for security.

In this case, unless you knew the key, it would have been extremely time consuming to discover the solution, even if you knew the algorithm used. Notice it took the guy a week to solve it, even with a computer, and modern cryptanalysis techniques.

This is a textbook example of Schneier's Law

[WhiteDragon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneier's_Law

Re:Biggest letdown ever

[0racle]

Most likely for the reason that was presented at the end of the article, it was for a bit of fun. It was meant to be an exercise in cryptography, by enciphering something Jefferson knew, he would know when (if) he deciphered it correctly.

lotto...

[Narnie]

After about a week of working on the puzzle, the numerical key to Mr. Patterson's cipher emerged -- 13, 34, 57, 65, 22, 78, 49.

This week's lotto numbers, here I come!!!

Re:lotto...

[Keeper Of Keys]

Given that these numbers have just come to light, in the incredible coincidence that they also happen to be this week's winning lottery numbers you'll win less money because you'll have to share your winnings with all the other wrong-headed people who think this increases their likelihood. (I am having strenuously to fight my intuition, which is telling me that they are now *less* likely to come up.)

The trick was finding the decoder ring

[rev_sanchez]

The message was: "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

Fine, but...

[93 Escort Wagon]

... it's not going to do much good for President Jefferson at this point.

Could have been done earlier

[houghi]

... but they had to wait for the copyright to expire.

He used a computer

[tkioz]

He used a computer, he cheated. If he really wanted to work out it as a test of skill he should of used only tools people in that time had.

Re:Security by obscurity

[AvitarX]

I don't know, port knocking starts to sound like a password to me.

Zodiac Killer 360

[Korey Kaczor]

The elusive Zodiac Killer's 360 character cipher was never cracked, either, and it's been decades since he mailed it to newspapers. That cipher also seems a bit grid-like, with spacing made deliberately in rows. I wonder if this method would help, at least in part, in cracking it?

If anything, would be nice to see something come up to ascertain his identity, and if alive, put him behind bars.

Re:Biggest letdown ever

[Cross-Threaded]

You'll shoot your eye out kid...

Re:Security by obscurity

[Repossessed]

Port knocking is a form of password in essence. I can know everything about the method of security, but without the actual sequence it does me no good.

Changing ports on the other hand, requires at the absolute most for me to brute force all ~32k ports, there are port mapping tools that will do it much more simply. Thus obscurity, since once I know what the method is, I can break it easily.

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence

[tyrione]

He wrote the entire draft. The only parts that changed were minute portions and the choice of language he used was replaced by less forceful language for fear of being too alienating to the common man. The WSJ cites him as a contributor. The author needs to read Jefferson's letters. It's right in there. I suppose Stephen King or any other author should be called a contributor to their work after an Editor comes in and helps modify it.

Not a strong cipher.

[jonadab]

The only reason it's not been solved until now is because no serious cryptanalyst was working on it. As soon as I read the description of how it's done, I knew it would be highly vulnerable to a known-plaintext attack. (The guy who cracked it used frequency analysis of letter pairs, because there was no known plaintext available. But if someone were using the cipher on a regular basis, there would be.)