Slashdot Mirror
CIA Sculpture Code Partially Cracked
A reader wrote in with tidbit about the encrypted sculpture at the CIA's headquarters. One of their analysts, on his own time, after nine years has partially cracked it. I like cool art.
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
The information says,
Good luck to any Slashdotters who try.
A quickie check of the USGS's mapping sites reveals that the magic spot isn't quite in Langley, and doesn't even seem to be near any roads. I've got GIFs saved of the finest grain info I could get without paying cash to the USGS; I'll prolly forward them either to the folks doing the crypto breaking or put them on a website somewhere.
Also, yes, they probably DID use the magnetic field to hide it. Specifically, a compass. :) The only USGS maps available of that fine grain are typically topographic maps used by hikers and engineers, or county maps. Most of the topo maps also have magnetic declination marked (how far off magnetic north is from real north) because they're meant for use with a compass and landmarks.
Of interest to those searching--the magic spot seems to be located in Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC along the Virginia/Maryland border. For those ordering maps, the Washington West or Falls Church maps seem to be best bets for finding general area.
I'll also see what other stuff I can dig up with various mapping sites on the net, too (to get road names and whatnot).
As for the bits on getting rid of debris and hiding it underground...that sounds suspiciously to me like it could have been hidden in a cave or possibly an abandoned mine (yes, abandoned mines are fairly common in this part of the country). I wouldn't be at all shocked to see that the key was hidden in a mineshaft...
Good luck!
June 16, 1999
- --- - ---
The Kryptos Code Unmasked
Here are the first three passages of the code on the Kryptos statue as
deciphered by Jim Gillogly, including misspellings (of "illusion," "underground"
and "desperately"). The second passage identifies a location near the C.I.A.
headquarters; the third is taken from Howard Carter's account of the opening of
King Tut's tomb in 1922.
-----------------------------------------------
Related Article
C.I.A.'s Artistic Enigma Yields All but Final Clue
(June 16, 1999)
-----------------------------------------------
1. Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.
2. It was totally invisible.
How's that possible? They used the earth's magnetic field. x The information was
gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown location. x Does Langley know
about this? They should: it's buried out there somewhere. x Who knows the exact
location? Only WW. This was his last message. x Thirty-eight degrees fifty-seven
minutes six point five seconds north, seventy-seven degrees eight minutes
forty-four seconds west. ID by rows.
3. Slowly, desparatly slowly, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the
lower part of the doorway was removed.
With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left-hand corner. And
then, widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in. The hot
air escaping from the chamber caused the flame to flicker, but presently details
of the room within emerged from the mist. x Can you see anything?
I hope no one tries to export this. Terrorists and child pornographers may use this piece of art to kill us all.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
It's a cookbook!
A cookbook!
--
--
The Internet is the Suppository of All Knowledge. You get it in the end.
bp
Whatever the cypher is it can't be to simple of someone would have broken it by now, that almost certainly rules out any cyphers with operating on individual characters.
The lines themselves are not all the same length (which I would expect means that the block length
the lines are not all of equal length and given the size of the variance it looks like there isn't going to be a common factor of the line lengths apart from one which I imagine means that each line is not a block to itself (see above)
I'd also be suprised if part of one of the blocks was a key if only part of the message had been cracked. If the key was available then all that would be needed is to find the right cypher.
So what does this leave? well I don't know, I enjoy tinkering with crypto but I'm no expert - I'd guess that there must be some form of stream element to whatevers been used.
I think if I speculate any more I'll just make a fool of myself infront of others who do this sort of thing more seriously.
Tom
Uh, stupid question, but wouldn't this sort of sculpture be more appropriately placed at the entrance of the NSA?
I'm surprised no-one's picked up on it, but I really wonder if those mis-spellings *are* mis-spellings or merely a clue to be used in the final paragraph...
It looks like a lot of effort has gone into this - I'm not sure the creator would make mistakes like that without a reason...
This Website has a bunch of information on the code, including a picture and a detailed description of it from the CIA.
Asking for no computer intervention is missing the point -- unless you know and understand the encryption algorithm you can't brute force attack it.
If any slashdotters are attempting this, they'd better look at the text file here which shows how far people have got already.
They suspect the message is broken into a number of chunks, which appear to have been encrypted several different ways. They think that the last chunk of the message is encrypted with some kind of one time pad system, meaning the key is the same length as that section of text.
If you want to guess the key then be my guest, but it really would be smarter to try an intelligent attack involving all tools available to you -- computers and wits included.
+++++
+++++
The harder you look the less you see. That's what we're up against.
The near decryption of this message comes as no surprise to me and many others, given the timing. The message encyrpted within the sculpture will be in itself a mystery. It won't make sense and will sound more like a bunch of artistic, mystical jargon with no purpose other than entertainment.
The truth about this sculpture, however, goes deeper than a simple puzzle. This sculpture is the creation of a secret underground organization, spanning multiple governments and religeous institutions. The future has become quite clear to them. World War III is imminent. The antichrist has been located in Egypt. It shall be noted that Nostradamous predicted in the 16th century that the Antichrist would be a man presently living in the Middle East, and educated in Egypt. The opening sentence of the message in the sculpture describes the opening of an ancient egyptian grave. This organization has been secretly planning their part in World War III over the past 10 years. It is unknown to me what their motives are.
Nostradamous predidcted World War III would probably start in July 1999. The people who are decrypted the sculpture do not know about any of this. Are being used as tools. Once the message has been completly decrypted, it will signify the begining of the third and last World-Wide War.
Actually, my theory, and I don't know if it's naive or besides the point... It seems likely that the last portion was encrypted by a one-time pad, at least according to Kryptos. As we know, a one-time pad is unbreakable if the sequence of characters is truly random.
I don't think the artist meant for the cipher to be unbreakable. That means using a truly unbreakable cipher would be besides the point. So, we are left with two theories:
1) The one-time pad used is not truly random, and understanding the pseudo-randomness of the sequence is part of the deal. My guess is, the one-time pad used was something like an encoded message. Perhaps even a previous part of the encoded message?
2) (More plausible, but less interesting) The one-time pad is actually buried at the coordinates specified in the first parts. Has anyone tried to dig there?
Anyway, I bet this is one of those things that'll basically say something inane like, 'Congratulations! You broke the code.' Hey, there's a few crib ideas...
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."