Help with Geocaching puzzle
- Synch
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
(Apologies for the double-post)
I can't seem to get it to work Davecom, any ideas?
I'm using the download from here: https://www.fourmilab.ch/codegroup/
I've placed the encoded puzzle into a .txt file, then run the codegroup .exe and entered:
codegroup -d [-u] [code.txt[code2.txt]]
which works, and spits out ZZZZZ YGDGP GEGFG HHCGP HFHAC ACNGE CAFLC NHFFN CAFLG DGPGE
However this is much shorter than the original encrypted puzzle. I presume it's been double-encoded and I need to decode it again, but decoding the above mentioned results produces nothing of use
What am I doing wrong?
I can't seem to get it to work Davecom, any ideas?
I'm using the download from here: https://www.fourmilab.ch/codegroup/
I've placed the encoded puzzle into a .txt file, then run the codegroup .exe and entered:
codegroup -d [-u] [code.txt[code2.txt]]
which works, and spits out ZZZZZ YGDGP GEGFG HHCGP HFHAC ACNGE CAFLC NHFFN CAFLG DGPGE
However this is much shorter than the original encrypted puzzle. I presume it's been double-encoded and I need to decode it again, but decoding the above mentioned results produces nothing of use
What am I doing wrong?
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- WearsHats
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
I'm not sure what functionality the one I linked to actually provides. The description looked promising, but I'm on my phone. I knew there'd be some simulator out there.Quarg wrote:No I was referring to the actual machine logic turring himself built to test multiple possible settings...WearsHats wrote:You mean like this one?
edit: Actually there are British Bombe simulators available but most rely on having a crib or a set of plain text likely to correspond to a message to determine the wheel settings...
The cache instructions say you'll have to use historical techniques. Well, when Enigma was cracked, much of the code work was brute force. Run through different wheel settings until you see real words. The bad news is I don't have a room full of Polish women willing to spend all day doing that. The good news is that I'm pretty sure my phone has more memory and processing power than the sum total of all computers on Earth in Turing's day.
What you really need is a script that runs the code through the simulator at successive wheel settings, then returns the results that have at least, say, three known dictionary words. It should be possible. And it shouldn't take that long if you assume a three wheel model.
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Some potentially informative links, should you be interested:
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Some potentially informative links, should you be interested:
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- Synch
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
No status return, I'll take a screenshot...Quarg wrote:What was the status return on codegroup?
Java isn't letting me run it at work. The script you're talking about to decode is the codegroup.zip the others are talking about.WearsHats wrote:I'm not sure what functionality the one I linked to actually provides. The description looked promising, but I'm on my phone. I knew there'd be some simulator out there.
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- Quarg
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
And I was suggesting using a Turing Bombe simulator which is what turing used to break the code rather than an actual enigma machine when we don't know the wheel settings etc...
what does it say in the actual return file?
what does it say in the actual return file?
- gamecreator
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
But it might be four or five wheel model with a plugboard. You can not brute force a plugboard setting without additional info in any conceivable time.WearsHats wrote:What you really need is a script that runs the code through the simulator at successive wheel settings, then returns the results that have at least, say, three known dictionary words. It should be possible. And it shouldn't take that long if you assume a three wheel model.
- Synch
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- Location: New Zealand
Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong with this software? See screenshot above, no return file.
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- Quarg
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
I don't think your doing anything wrong...I think your trying to use the wrong software...that is a binary to alpha code tool...I still don't understand why it was suggested...
- Synch
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
Yes but if its a 5-letter code group, shouldn't codegroup.zip be decoding it to binary at least?
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- Quarg
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
Try decoding the binary example on the web page...
Also try doing it without the [-u] component
edit: Quoteing the people supplying the puzzle
You must use the same techniuqes used at Bletchley Park...
Aka cribs and a Turring Bombe....
Dave based his recommendation on generating a five Alpha code today...not what people were doing in 1940...
Also try doing it without the [-u] component
edit: Quoteing the people supplying the puzzle
So the cache is dedicated to people working on decoding the Engima codeBletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England. During World War II, Bletchley Park was the site of the United Kingdom's main decryption establishment, the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), where ciphers and codes of several Axis countries were decrypted, most importantly the ciphers generated by the German Enigma and Lorenz machines. It also housed Station X, a secret radio intercept station. Although interception was soon moved to a location with better reception, the name persisted for the Bletchley Park wartime activities.
This cache is dedicated to the women and men who worked secretly at Bletchley Park during World War II deciphering German messages encrypted using the famous Enigma machine.
In order to crack this one, you will need to employ techniques they used at Bletchley Park. You'll probably have to do a bit of research - there is at least one very good site on the internet that takes you through some increasingly difficult deciphering exercises. You might want to start there.
That's about all we can say about this puzzle, but it is definitely deserving of it's 5 star difficulty. No hints will be given, publicly or privately, other than to say that the cache is not hidden at the published coordinates and that the message below contains the coordinates and a hint to the hide.
You must use the same techniuqes used at Bletchley Park...
Aka cribs and a Turring Bombe....
Dave based his recommendation on generating a five Alpha code today...not what people were doing in 1940...
- Synch
- Game Master
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- Location: New Zealand
Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
Ok well that just seems impossible then! So many possibles.
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- Quarg
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
Synch wrote:Ok well that just seems impossible then! So many possibles.
I think someone suggested what the crib was supposed to be...
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- Game Master
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Re: Help with Geocaching puzzle
I did solve some enigma riddle while geocaching, but none were as brute-force as this. Some infos were there, sometimes the rotor, sometimes part of the key or final message. But this...nothing but a long text block.