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Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Anyone Seen James?

Appearance by KAshley (6/1)

Page 1 of 1 [6 Posts]

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JustLurking
Veteran

Joined: 12 Nov 2004
Posts: 80
Location: Santa Clara, CA

Appearance by KAshley (6/1)

Kevin popped in quickly. He might be coming back, but who knows if/when.

Quote:

[18:39] * KAshley has joined #james
[18:39] * ARGbot sets mode: +o KAshley
[18:40] <KAshley> Hello Anyone here?!?
[18:40] <KAshley> You won't believe what I found!
[18:45] * Brain\Storm is now known as Brain\[gone]
[18:45] <KAshley> I had to put it in code, it is way to sensitive.
[18:46] <KAshley> It is log 2782
[18:46] <KAshley> You need a key though.
[18:46] <KAshley> Shit, phone call.
[18:46] <KAshley> Damn I have to go, I'll tell you the key when I get back.
[18:47] * KAshley has quit IRC (Quit: )

Which gives us this page

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

ALYBA Aayy Riety: Ewb uqi jgcxhfx ixn bshp W lyul gek?
RWY Vryaj Znxh: Cob W aue, lxkm ui Ktbttb'j tdeazlqq?
XHCER Alsi Dulqx: Tl jo, elpr huwt gekl lgqqaw ax ydynm lr?
SYV Vqfek Ytkg: Tmno.
ZREAR Pnva Gteia: Gtkl fuw dnk lssfn lp zt lq lal?
PGS Wxnbj Camb: Pfr'k gtnnu ebmql meai.
WEPGZ Ocwb Bweuo: W zmx'l lyxxkmygnp xxf etk isrj tgn nx zbytt.
VWG Kqqcp Cnyf: Ktg wn wjxzwdmi.

This is obviously Vignere. Conversation between two people, but since the encoding for the first name on the first and third lines are different, it's more than a simple substitution. Tried guessing keys to make the first word some common plaintext (Abdul, James, Kevin, Emily, Agent), but didn't get anything from it.

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 11:22 pm

JebJoya
Unfettered

Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 679
Location: UK

This great headache gives me does. Or something. I'm playing with the two "W"'s going to "I"'s... Oh, and the Ktbttb'j -> ******'s... heh.

Yeah, this is a bitch.

Jeb

_________________
Jeb's ARG coming Autumn 2007...
Last FM Smile

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 12:26 am

Nezuji
Boot

Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 30
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Message decoded.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

I guessed correctly that "W zmx'l lyxxkmygnp" was "I don't understand". After that and some other guesses, I was able to piece together the whole key and decode the message. It wasn't encoded in a standard Vigenere, it was kind of backwards. I haven't had time to think about it as I was too busy decoding! Very Happy

For those of you playing at home, the key was:
FLABBERGASTEDCHEESECAKE

FACAB Eric Blake: Did you recieve the file I sent you?
LEM Jonas Cruz: Yes I did, this is Alesha's location?
FACAB Eric Blake: It is, when will youz people be going in?
LEM Jonas Cruz: Soon.
FACAB Eric Blake: What are you going to do to her?
LEM Jonas Cruz: Don't worry about that.
FACAB Eric Blake: I don't understand why you want her so badly.
LEM Jonas Cruz: She is precious.

Nezuji

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 4:24 am

Nezuji
Boot

Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 30
Location: Melbourne, Australia

I just shot off an email to FACAB:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Hello,

I just thought you might like to know that Eric Blake has been passing sensitive information to at least one terrorist group in South America. Although I am not at liberty to give you any proof of this at present, I recommend that you keep an eye on him.

Nezuji.

Nezuji

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 4:44 am

DiscoJason
Boot

Joined: 01 May 2005
Posts: 19

Nezuji wrote:

Message decoded.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Nezuji

Good job. I knew the one person was FACAB Eric Blake and the other one was LEM (something), but I was trying to do a standard Vigenere and wasn't coming up with anything valid for a key. Please do tell how you decoded it when you get a chance.

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:25 am

Nezuji
Boot

Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 30
Location: Melbourne, Australia

DiscoJason wrote:

Thanks! For those who are interested, here's how the deed was done:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

First, I guessed a few letters here and there. The longest section I had was the one I mentioned before: "I don't understand". I was working with Fig. 2 on this page and only turning up gibberish for the key. While even gibberish is a valid key, I didn't think that anyone would be so cruel as to expect us to crack such a message! Out of desperation, I tried operating the Vigenere cipher in reverse: I used my guessed cleartext where you'd normally use the key, and I started getting sense out of it (as much as "ECAKEFLABBERGAS" can be considered sense). I then guessed that the next three letters of the key would be "TED", and it wasn't much of a surprise when using them decoded the word, "why".

It seemed to me that decoding involved finding the column on the decoding chart which was headed by the encoded letter, dropping down that column until the matching key letter was found, then reading off the letter at the left of the row. There was probably a better way to have done it, such as reversing the shifts on the chart or something, but that's how I did it. Once I used another guess ("Prf'k" = "Don't") on the previous line, the key letters "STED" prompted me to try the rest of the key fragment I had ("ECAKEFLABBERGASTED"), which turned up the name of one of the speakers, and that allowed me to fill in the cleartext for several spaces. From there it was a snap.

Nezuji

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 6:26 pm

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