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[carlitoxxi]

UPDATE: virtuquest homepage

[JimmyImpossible]

I started on that track but gave up after no success. I had gotten the following words out of the message before I stopped:

"The new qnd file matrix user password is" but the rest of the letters didn't do anything for me. Maybe someone else can have a crack at it, hopefully I was on the right track.

[Guest]

Was there a method to how you got that?

[JimmyImpossible]

nope, just pulling out words that it made sense to me should be in there. I also referred back to the old message that came out of the messaging system last time, which had similar wording.

[Ehsan]

Big hints below.. I had too much fun solving this to spoil it right away

We started with:

TDFTF XXOSI NHEQL RUSER IERNE OMFMM
IEEAF WPDTH RRPST RRASO ISEEN NIXWS

Distribution is standard English so no substitution here.. some had already find words like QND and MATRIX in the letters..

And we always knew that 10 was the magic number

TDFTFXXOSI
NHEQLRUSER
IERNEOMFMM
IEEAFWPDTH
RRPSTRRASO
ISEENNIXWS

Except that it's transposed (from the hint) so you need 10 rows, not columns

T D F T F X
X O S I N H
E Q L R U S
E R I E R N
E O M F M M
I E E A F W
P D T H R R
P S T R R A
S O I S E E
N N I X W S

And that will give you the new password..

if you don't get it I'll post the solution in a couple of hours...

[Ehsan]

And this will come in handy:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MersennePrime.html

[Caterpillar]

Hey isn't that what the "spoilers" are for....what about those of us that don't have access to some tools (i.e. cipherclerk), don't understand what that page you linked has to do with anything, and have been fiddling with P&P for the better part of 4 hrs.
C'mon....................
At least from what I can understand there are sooooo many ways you can transpose the plaintext (top to bottom/bottom to top, diagonallyx4, backwards...)

Oh BTW....I also found Themis Strim in what was left after pulling "The new QND File Matrix Password is.."

I would actually enjoy doing this by myself....but that hint isn't enough for this dimwit...could you at least put another hint in a spoiler (for someone doing it with P&P)? Pretty Please?

[Ehsan]

hehe okay cem,

Look at the 10 row grid I created, from top to bottom look for the following: "THE NEW PASSWORD..." It's a zigzag pattern.. It's actually a transposition cipher but I couldn't figure out the key..

[teeman11]

This should make it easier to read.

[Caterpillar]

Did you use a tool to figure out the zigzag pattern?
I was at this all morning trying everything ( except that one...lol)
I did figure that there were two X's at the end...but just couldn't get it to jive.

Thx

[Ehsan]

No tools.. I tried the keys with cipherclerk but they didn't work.. brushed up on my transposition skills by doing some reading and then it sorta popped out.. can anyone figure out the key and the exact cipher used now?

[grumpyboy]

It's called a route transposition. Basically filling the plaintext in a certain pattern and reading off the ciphertext in another pattern.

As for cipherclerk, use "abcdefghij" as the key (i.e. unkeyed but you have to put it in to make cipherclerk work)

Fill in "by lines" "top left" "alternate"
Take off "by columns" "top left" "alternate"
(doesnt matter if you check "permeate" since it's unkeyed)

Do that and the message comes out properly...

Good job Ehsan