A challenge for JThorson?

[Jeremy]

quote:

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Originally posted by brkster:
Any chance the code is a decoy, and the answer lies somewhere in the letter itself???

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Man I sure hope not! If this guy posted this supposed encrypted text that everyone is working to decode and it is a fake, he may be (insert one: shot, hung, shunned, forced to find a cache hidden in a beehive while naked and covered with honey) at the next geocaching event he attends!

Anyway, I checked out my “brute force” results and found nothing. And for you manual folks, you can also forget trying numbers 1 through 10,000 as the key.

Maybe a different method of encryption than what I am (and everybody else is) trying was used, though I don’t see how that is possible…

And I’m in for $25 if someone can figure out the mystery!

[QwertyToo]

I’ve spent a little time working on this and it has only given me a headache and has me wondering about a few things.

1. Why are there 35 characters per line(except for the last line)?

2. Why is the word offset in quotes?

3. Is it possible that the message is double encrypted using two different encoding schemes?

and what I think is the most important

4. Why am I spending so much time trying to figure this thing out?

[brkster]

Double encrypted? Whatever it is..it’s got me baffled. I’m convinced it’s beyond my skills of interpretation..but I haven’t given up just yet. Count me in for 25 dollars as well.

[jthorson]

quote:

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Originally posted by QwertyToo:
Why is the word offset in quotes?

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That’s bothering me too. Looking at Jeremys attempts, I’m afraid his techniques might miss because an ‘offset’ is added at the last minute to change the value.

In other words, one encryption on top of another. So you need to know the key phrase and the magnitude of the offset. And does the offset change with each character?

Other assumptions:
English,
meant to be read top to bottom,
left to right…

[Jeremy]

Quick heads up to everyone:

Try the key:

iodsiodsown

offset 23

Should decrypt to:

pigs-got-cap6z,88yhsa363ka00299,
tvfaioxaovwabqonac8.t7s9i,0huflu…

How did I arrive at this weird key? 7/8/04… seventh paragraph, 8th word, fourth letter from start (periods… last four letters are iods). Next number in the letter is $2000, assume you repeat it (‘iods’) 2 times. Next number is 3k, so you skip ahead 3 words (shown) and pick up the last 3 letters. Next number in the letter is 4th, so you think you’d repeat ‘own’ four times, but this gives a weird result. This is where I got lost… I would assume the next word is cache or cash.

We may have some sort of pattern, so let’s see if we can figure out the rest of the key… it appears like the rest of it is quite long because I tried adding pad characters and got no additional parts of the message to decode.

[brkster]

I keep trying to pick out common words too, such as ‘hidden’ or ‘tree’ which would have two consecutive letters/symbols. Not like I know what’s going on with this..but it’s aroused my curiousity.

[ecorangers]

Good luck to all who are trying this!
Put us down for $25.00 as well. Tami

[Linus4Cache]

C’mon you guys…what’s up? I haven’t heard from Tony and Rhonda yet. As for me, I’m in for the $25…goodness knows the brain won’t get me there! LOL! Don’t forget that the one who decodes may not want to cache alone…they need $ for a companion fare.

Here’s the list so far…I’ll try to keep it updated: AS OF 2/12/05 THE TOTAL IS: $250.00

Flushingrouse
Miata
fishcachers
jvechinski
brkster
echorangers
Linus
AuntieNae
greyhounder
Flamingo

[This message has been edited by Linus4Cache (edited 02-10-2005).]

[This message has been edited by Linus4Cache (edited 02-12-2005).]

[AuntieNae]

Add AuntieNae’s $25
to bring that total up here

[greyhounder]

I can add $25 to the pot too!

I certainly can’t solve the puzzle!

Bec

[Flamingo 4]

I think we need to use the chat room to get together and find out what everyone has tried and discuss ideas that we might have to break this code.

How about it?
Sunday night at lets say 9:00ish

You can put me down for $25

Flamingo 4

[greyhounder]

quote:

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Originally posted by Flamingo 4:
I think we need to use the chat room to get together and find out what everyone has tried and discuss ideas that we might have to break this code.

How about it?
Sunday night at lets say 9:00ish

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Good idea!

Bec

[Jeremy]

quote:

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Originally posted by Flamingo 4:
I think we need to use the chat room to get together and find out what everyone has tried and discuss ideas that we might have to break this code.

How about it?
Sunday night at lets say 9:00ish

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I’ll try to make it… you mean the “Flushingrouse Wisconsin Geo-Chat” chat room, right?

Anyway, I worked on it for an hour tonight and made no additional progress. I really thought I was on to something yesterday, and maybe I still am, but I can’t figure out how the pattern continues. If you look at what I posted yesterday and want me to try something, let me know.

If the key truly begins with ‘iodsiods’ or even ‘iods’, I’ve proven that ‘iods’ never appears in the key string again… this means it is not a short key that repeats, which is what most people have been trying.

[teameverest]

Team Everest, having members/friends of the team who are majoring in computer cryptology. We believe we are getting real close to cracking this. So close were planning on taking off from work/school. But we cant say for sure yet. We’ll let ya know.

[Jeremy]

quote:

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Originally posted by teameverest:
Team Everest, having members/friends of the team who are majoring in computer cryptology. We believe we are getting real close to cracking this. So close were planning on taking off from work/school. But we cant say for sure yet. We’ll let ya know.

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Don’t pack your bags just yet. On Feb. 9, “Tharagleb” posted this note which I just decrypted:

i-have-solved-the-code-and-am-coming-
to-get-the-money-this-saturday.-i-have-
communicated-the-entire-text-of-the-
message-to-nfa-and-he-agrees-it-is-the-
correct-solution

So it sounds like we are out of luck and shouldn’t bother with a chat session.

If you want to know what other encrypted notes people have posted to the cache page, let me know…

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