

Can you crack a code? - dutchbrit
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/april/can-you-crack-a-code

======
rtb
"To learn more about the types of ciphers and codes that terrorists, spies,
and criminals use to conceal their communications, see ..." made me laugh.
Remember kids, only bad guys use encryption.

~~~
tptacek
That's not what they're trying to say; criminals just happen to be the reason
the FBI cares about code breaking.

~~~
n3rdy
not too long ago, the act of making, using, or distributing encryption
software made you a criminal in the eyes of the fbi

~~~
tptacek
In reality, it has never been a crime to use or distribute encryption
software.

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ceautery
From the javascript:

var bugRiddenCrashPronePieceOfJunk= (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE
5')!==-1 && navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Mac')!==-1)

I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment, but I don't think FBI should
disparage Microsoft and Apple with their variable names.

~~~
WiseWeasel
They are disparaging MSIE 5 for MacOS X in particular, which is indeed a piece
of junk that no one should be using. That's just facts.

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husted
I much prefer what IBM is doing with their Ponder This challenges
([http://domino.research.ibm.com/Comm/wwwr_ponder.nsf/pages/in...](http://domino.research.ibm.com/Comm/wwwr_ponder.nsf/pages/index.html)).
Only problem is that I'm not smart enough to answer all of them :-)

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mu_killnine
"Be...sure...to drink your Ovaltine?"

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carlsednaoui
If you have zero experience in cryptography, how would you go about learning
the necessary to crack this?

~~~
laumars
_SPOILER ALERT_

This looks like straight character substitution, so it's essentially just
trial and error, but the best vector for attack is the following:

Look at the shorter words first (2 and 3 character words), guess what one word
might be, then match the same characters in the other short words. Once you
have a few that seem to pair up, you can start building the longer words from
the answers you've got from the shorter ones.

Puzzles like this one isn't far off doing a crossword or sudoku. There isn't
really a cypher to it, no maths etc. It's just having the patience to guess at
a few placements then seeing if that fits the wider model.

~~~
laumars
Why am I being marked down for that? It's clearly marked spoiler so anyone who
doesn't want tips can avoid it; yet in spite of that, I was very careful not
to give any answers away. All I did was suggest techniques to crack the code.
And most importantly, my post answers the question raised - which is the whole
fucking point of a comments system.

If anyone didn't want to hints then they should have just skipped over the
post the moment they read "spoiler alert" rather than knee jerk reacting with
a down-vote for a post that others might have found helpful.

I swear to god the use of the peer review system on HN has been in steady
decline over the last few years.

~~~
nollidge
Step off the ledge, man. Downvotes happen.

~~~
laumars
I think being off work recovering from a minor op, and thus house-bound, is
making me ratty. :(

~~~
pi18n
It's just internet points, no worries. Everyone who matters can see you were
trying to help. Hope you recover soon.

~~~
tomelders
True, but on the receiving end a down vote feels like someone saying "No! You
are Wrong!" and then offering nothing constructive.

Some days, I wish I could down vote down votes.

~~~
DanBC
Sometimes downvotes are just fat-finger errors.

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iaskwhy
Is the answer in English? Are there any tips on cracking a code when you don't
know the language being used?

~~~
jgrahamc
Yes, it is an English. It is a very simple code. I would recommend printing it
out and using a pencil to break it.

~~~
dutchbrit
Indeed, it didn't really take that much effort.

~~~
iaskwhy
I used to play Covert Action when I was a kid and decoding messages was part
of the missions:
[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110118005142/coverta...](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110118005142/covertaction/images/6/6e/Decoding_EasyCompleted.png)

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brandan
you can use scrabble word pattern searches to determine that there is only one
english word that matches the pattern of the largest set of characters in this
cypher. the rest falls into place from there.

~~~
SonicSoul
can you elaborate ? longest word appears to be 9 letters which has a lot of
matches.

~~~
brandan
<http://www.design215.com/toolbox/wordpattern.php>

it's a pattern search, not just a character count search. check the
instructions and examples, they're pretty straight-forward.

~~~
SonicSoul
wow. of course! that worked like a charm. this just made my week :)

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yownie
Don't work for the fbi, they're fucking bastards.

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gcatalfamo
was this supposed to be hard? I hope they don't plan their recruiting out of
it

