unforum

[konamouse]

Re: Blackvault.com Whois

[sauceykat]

hey kona,
i don't think it's ingame...there are hundreds of members and many posts...rather I think it is being used as a contact point/drop by our mysterious friend (Jake? Reggie?)

[LazarusLong]

[Nyght_Shyft]

The site is definitely not in-game. I read about it years back.. started by some 18-year old kid to exploit previously classified information that was released to the public with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Of course.. they could be collaborating.

[dishboy]

FYI: www.blackvault.com is one of the kickout sites for logon.html

(I'm determined to find a use for that thing!)

[addlepated]

[y2kbozo]

Article 29

[teeman11]

Is it normal to just brute force the key like that? I thought you usually got clues to try and figure the key out.

[Duluoz]

Brute forcing would be trying to decrypt the message with all 11881376 instances of a five letter key. That wouldn't be very sporting, not to mention rather boring. The aforementioned program uses standard cryptographic techniques such as coincidence indices and frequency analysis to determine the key. It is not foolproof.

Perhaps the PMs were expecting us to find out the key through some other means. I don't know. The Vigenere cipher has been around for a long time, however, and is rather weak by todays standards. You get what you pay for.

[sauceykat]

I agree...I mean we all have access to a vigenere decipher on this very website (web tools). Besides, they had vigenere decipher machines in WWII so the only difference now is that we have a much more efficient program...unless they were planning on giving us the key by other means, because it wasn't in the original message.

Just my thoughts...

D-

[aliendial]

Two ways to decrypt vigenere - be given the code word (how it was originally intended to be used), or break it with normal cryptography techniques. There are ways to make vigenere harder (longer code words, and that one in Lockjaw - I forgot what they did on top of the standard encryption), but standard decrypt techniques are perfectly permissible. Brute force issues arise where there are no reasonable solutions other than to try millions of random combinations that suck up bandwidth to no good purpose. And frankly that has more to do with resource conservation. If legitimate research techniques bring you to a solution, that's not brute force.

[teeman11]

I understand all of that and I guess my question wasn't really clear. What I was trying to get it is this: Should I be trying to figure out the key from clues that are provided ie, the symbols at the bottom of the email or should I be working with the decrpyt program to try and figure it out on my own. Which is more common? Are there ever Vigs were there are no clues to the key, that just need to be worked out the hard way?

For example, the other vig we got from artilce 29, the key was bcagh(or something like that) and it was found using the decrypt program. Even knowing the key I don't see any clues that would have lead us to find it. This leads me to believe that there aren't always clues and that you almost have to break it using the decrypt program.

I'm just trying to get a feel how things are done usually around. Plus if there were clues that would have lead to that other key it might prove useful in finding out what the new key is.

T

[MageSteff]