Break my code challenge

[Marbles]

Andrew

I opened your message in paint, and tried to look at it as one of those 3d magic pictures, just in case you were winding us up, now that I'm cross-eyed, I can rule that one out.

 

[ExcelChampion]

Hmm, I'm not going to attempt to figure it out, because I don't have time.

But, my initial thought process flows in the direction that each coloered pixel has a numeric value or a pantone number or something of the sort. Then, hmm, perhaps there is an identifiable pattern to the number combinations (the colors that are next to each other.) That pattern could then ultimately lead to a cross ref to the alphabet. But, I'm sure there is some high level mathematics in there as well that you need to plug these numbers into.

That's about where the flow stops. If I think of anything else I'll post, but doubt I will.

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Hi Aaron

Yes all messages are 101x10 pixels, it uses standard ASCII characters (including the upper 128 characters), the same key key is used for encryption and decryption, and yes it is worth cracking (but I don't expect to pay out!). Understood regarding your points - the bmp format is as you say, a big block of numbers, but given the key is at least as long as the message, I'm picking there are too many combinations to actually crack open the message. As mentioned, sample software will be released for analysis etc once I have resolved a couple of legal issues.

Andrew

perhaps there is an identifiable pattern to the number combinations (the colors that are next to each other)

Hi Todd

There shouldn't be any pattern to the colours but if you find one I'd like to know about it!

Cheers
Andrew

I opened your message in paint, and tried to look at it as one of those 3d magic pictures, just in case you were winding us up, now that I'm cross-eyed, I can rule that one out.

Hi Marbles

This isn't one of those images where you have to blur the image by looking behind it (and widening your gaze) so don't give yourself a headache trying!

Andrew

 

[rconverse]

I'm halfway through a sixer of Busch beer. Bet I have this* done by the time I crack open number six.

*this = sixer of beer, not encryption challenge

 

[RichardS]

My kind of code cracking

 

[hatman]

Cryptology is not one of my hobbies, exactly, however, I still find cryptology to be rather fascinating, in general. Just wondering, Andrew, if you have stumbled across Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I read and enjoyed it immensly, as the story it's intended to be. If you read it, just wondering what you thought...

 

[Andrew Fergus]

No I haven't but I will see if I can find it! Thanks for that.

 

[rconverse]

Is the answer "Roger Coolpants"?

 

[hatman]

Here's the website. Complete with like the first 50 pages of the book as an excerpt.

But I just realized there isn't a plot summary... how about:

Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods--World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, cryptanalyst extraordinaire, and gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first.... Of course, to observe is not its real duty--we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed.... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes--inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe--team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.