unforum

[foresting]

I have a code that I need help ciphering please

[BrianEnigma]

There seem to be 4392 characters, meaning they can be easily split into groups of two or three. Single-letter frequency analysis shows LOTS of 3's and 4's:
Character 0x34 (ASCII "4") 1542
Character 0x33 (ASCII "3") 911
Character 0x32 (ASCII "2") 547
Character 0x36 (ASCII "6") 281
...etc...

Three-digit frequency analysis shows a lot of 429's and 360's:
Item "429" has count 211
Item "360" has count 199
Item "438" has count 118
Item "433" has count 106
Item "442" has count 76
Item "444" has count 65
Item "443" has count 65
Item "432" has count 65
...etc...

Two-digit frequency analysis gives:
Item "43" has count 255
Item "42" has count 224
Item "44" has count 208
Item "36" has count 117
Item "29" has count 115
Item "04" has count 112
Item "60" has count 98
...etc...

I don't know what this gets you, but a lot of the 2-digit stuff looks vaguely-ASCII-ish, but not quite.

Edit: Added text file with detailed frequency counts
Edit: My counts were one high.

[AnthraX101]

Attached is my frequency tables for 2 digit and 3 digit combos. If the number is not shown, its frequency is 0.

AnthraX101

[AnthraX101]

The text was ciphered using this: http://dinofilias.com/encrypt.htm

The keyspace for this algo is really small. To find the key, add the ascii value of all letters in the key together. The proper value needed for the decode is:

[Caterpillar]

[jamesi]

Can the author (or me) edit the first message so that we can eliminate the horizontal scrolling please?

[Caterpillar]

He/She's a guest (can't edit).....so I'd say go ahead

[colin]

cross reference: this relates to >that<

[rinne]

I'm really confused. If I use http://dinofilias.com/encrypt.htm on the code given in the first message, with the number given by AnthraX101 I get something completely different (no real text also). I'm very new at this stuff, so I'm probably doing something wrong, but I have no idea what. Can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong please?

[AnthraX101]

Yes, this is related to the puzzles at http://www.findtherings.com/

I was invited by the post starter to join his "team" (apparently he has multiple), but don't exactly trust him. He was doing a contest and got us to help him without telling us that there may be monitary reprocussions.

rinne: You can't actualy enter that number for the password, it's actualy a form of the password that the program uses (the variable named "len" after CalcKey() is called). More or less break up the numbers into 3 digit chunks, subtract that number, and then convert to a raw binary format.

Short explanation for those who arn't programers: Enter this password:

[colin]

[joebrent]

I agree with colin. You guys are so good at cracking puzzles, you shouldn't offer your assistance to anyone outside of Unfiction, or else word will get out and everyone will be coming here for your expertise, with no incentive for you. Then eventually, the FBI will get wind of your abilities and you'll find yourself in a dimly-lit room with a computer screen in front of you, and some guy with a lot of gel in his hair will be saying, "you have 60 seconds to decode this string. Go!" And you'll do it, and maybe nail Halle Berry, except it will turn out that the guy wasn't from the FBI at all but some splinter cell of a top secret right-wing militia organization that operates without supervision and under the CIA's radar, and then you'll have to break into their supersecure base at Langley to steal a disk containing the information you need to get out from under the gel-hair guy's clutches, and one of your guys will turn out to be a double agent working for the CIA guy who first told you about gel-hair guy, and then Ben Kingsley will appear from your past and seem really cool before telling his goons to kill you, and he can sound really creepy when he wants to even though he played Ghandi, but he also played that psycho guy in Sexy Beast, but anyway, you'll escape from Ben Kingsley only to find yourself in an even more dangerous situation possibly involving oil, and then in ten or fifteen years it's food, and then plutonium, maybe even sooner, and by now you've sub-referenced two Robert Redford movies, but that's ok because just when you think you've figured it all out, your computer screen will go blank except for the words "wake up, colin", and doesn't it always suck when that happens?

I swear, I started out trying to write a serious post.

[colin]

if Halle is involved i'm cool with it

[Guest]

AnthraX101 I'm impressed. Clearly I have a lot to learn. But, I have now been able to solve three other similar codes on my own for the very first time. So, thanks a lot!!

On the findthering thing for those interested. The following indeed seems to imply that teams of 4 might have to be formed:
quote:
"all shall join the hunt
four strangers will unite
four voices will merge
ignorance is denied

the search starts 5 2004"

Rinne

[aliendial]

Yeah, no question teams of 4, competition for prizes. Which means shame on foresting for trying to use UF to move his team ahead without telling us. If he'd been honest someone probably would have helped anyway. Cuz we aren't like that.

My suggestion to UF members - help findtherings players if you want, but post the answer on the findtherings forums for EVERYBODY. Or join a team and help your teammates. And to foresting: we like honesty much better.