Dr. Stephens, I got it -- I think. Gino W they accuse me of arrogance, and perhaps of misanthropy, and perhaps of madness, such accusations (for which i shall extract punishment in due time) are derisory. It is true that I never leave my house, but it is also true that its doors(whose number is infinite) are open day and night to men and to animals as well. -The house of Csterion-Jorge Luis Borges Solution: I used your program to first count the occurrences of letters. I noticed that there is a large number of cipher d's and t's. I also noted the pattern coe was used a couple of times. I started by substituting "and" & "the" for coe. "the" did not work. Therefore, I used "and". I then substituted s for t's. I noticed the following: AeNdSS.S I then decided since d was used frequently to substitute the E nADNESS. I substituted the m and then the rest of the letters fell into place. I am not sure of the word Csterion. I tried searching through UMBC's database Victor to find a matching title by Jorge Borges and had no luck. XXXXXXXX ************************************************************************ > Jlomw qidyc bbutd ndmgc ppmjc obd,co erdpi crtmg nhtco qipmry, > coerd picrt mgnce odtt.T ubicb butcq hmot(g mpwih biJti ckk > dxqpc bqruo htind oqhoe udqhn d)cpde dphtm py.Jqh tqpud qicqJ > odvdp kdcvd nyimu td,auq hqhtc ktmqp udqic qhqte mmpt(w imtd > ounad phtho ghohq d)cpdm rdoec ycoeo hjiqq mndoc oeqmc ohnckt > ctwdk k.-TidI mutdm gBtqd phmo-f mpjdk uhtam pjdt >  > I know they accuse me of arrogance, and perhaps of misanthropy, and perhaps of madness. Such accusations (for which shall extract punishment in due time) are derisory. It is true that I never leave my house, but it is also true that its doors (whose number is infinite) are open day and night to men and to animals as 994 well. -The house of B sterion- Jorge Luis Borges Dear Dr. Stephens, The author's name from cipher1a gave it away for me. But I'm still not sure about the "B sterion" part !?! Is it correct? I used the program "substitute" that you gave us. It's very helpful. I hope I'd made it to one of the first three people to solve it. Sincerely yours, XXXXXXXX ******************************************************************* ** I am mailing cipher1b to you and handing in my hard copy on Mon. hopefully to have cipher3b solved by Mon. and hw2 as well. I will come to your office before class to discuss project3 and hw2, because I get that X has no inverse Ciphers 1A and 1B are simple substitution ciphers. This is Cipher1B which is the more difficult version. It is worth 25 points. First to solve gets an additional 15 points - second to solve get 10 additional points and third fastest gets 5 additional points. If you solve this cipher and think that you are one of the first, send solution and brief description of your method to : stephens@cs.umbc.edu Jlomw qidyc bbutd ndmgc ppmjc obd,co erdpi crtmg nhtco qipmry, coerd picrt mgnce odtt.T ubicb butcq hmot(g mpwih biJti ckk dxqpc bqruo htind oqhoe udqhn d)cpde dphtm py.Jqh tqpud qicqJ odvdp kdcvd nyimu td,auq hqhtc ktmqp udqic qhqte mmpt(w imtd ounad phtho ghohq d)cpdm rdoec ycoeo hjiqq mndoc oeqmc ohnckt ctwdk k.-TidI mutdm gBtqd phmo-f mpjdk uhtam pjdt The plain text solution of this cipher is: I know they accuse me of arrogance, and perhaps of misanthropy, and perhaps of madness, such accusations (for which I shall extract punishment in due time) are densory. It is true that I never leave my house, but it is also true that its doors (whose number is infinite) are open day and night to men and to animals as well. -Jorge Luis Borges Methodology: I used the substitution program you gave us and by exhaustion, I substituted letters according to the frequency counts. At first, I couldn't see any English words because I was looking for words according to the spaces. Once I got the 'e' and 't' ('d' and 'q' of ciphertext), I guess that 'h' was encrypted by 'i'. I thought I had the word "there" in the first line, but the 'e' did not match to be 'd' and 'c'. Then I figured out that spaces did not matter and continued to substitute until I got the plaintext. I thought you used a shift cipher since some of the substutions where 1 or 2 characters away, left or right. That helped me choose my substitutions. The last line where the work and the author are cited gave me trouble, but I recognized the author from solving cipher1A, and that helped me decipher the capitals. *************************************************************************** anonymous.......... they placed a wreath upon his door soon they will carry him away he stopped loving her today you know, she came to see him one last time we all wondered if she would and it kept running through my mind, this time he's over her for good george jones -"he stopped loving her today"- I used the program you gave us to look at the different possible rectangles, to see which rectangle would give the best possible english text by the numbers of vowels in their columns. The rectangle with 18 rows seemed to me the most likely. So I printed them out and played around anagramming the first row. I came up with the word "placed" and worked my way from there. ******************************************************************* /***************************** * Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXX* * SSN: YYYYYYYYYYY * * Submission: Dec 6, 95 * * Solved: Dec 6, 95 * * CMSC443 CIPHER 6 * ****************************** Original Cipher: ---------------- The "hard" vector is 10001 20002 6705 3409 36821 10340 10679 4765 19531 5763 21527 9755 10300 30601 27903 19211 The cipher is below: 77585 79301 150922 133819 104438 147042 108102 155489 105984 61734 199627 187405 71735 109902 156685 130787 -1 67529 128056 155877 71735 108430 99279 123273 114552 118444 114818 154876 177404 95146 105984 71622 135703 131278 105889 120223 153276 177404 134554 108102 150922 133819 104438 147042 81736 179625 -1 135277 125149 109902 145120 142580 128056 84907 114759 109902 105587 123273 156214 108443 115514 111164 138925 115665 105984 105759 104438 162806 58325 112464 128527 187405 -1 134276 150338 124215 153276 95146 146101 189626 129753 118444 150996 147042 115023 -1 84158 189626 129753 54690 61621 141167 133349 95146 105984 118444 170453 179625 78599 108226 138925 61621 123273 88328 112292 132519 153276 55029 112464 95021 -1 84158 109902 128527 174333 177404 72223 124760 149980 124215 153276 91737 174407 95146 105984 81623 99279 153276 109902 162806 101851 130582 162410 72223 -1 67529 129395 106529 72223 67529 144688 209628 95146 99279 100671 135762 109902 150054 120919 81736 184109 177404 71622 108996 153276 -1 84158 109902 120223 126569 100126 118526 119169 109902 162806 88441 149113 117756 160094 81623 156214 170453 183392 150697 131823 77986 -1 121734 165265 61621 150339 177404 91737 133274 61621 123273 101851 189626 71735 197705 100671 101992 61621 125231 137287 109260 -1 84158 109902 143746 144217 108430 146645 108430 175633 61734 142221 109902 88375 128527 174333 177404 108443 172337 177404 77986 -1 104237 119657 138925 81736 125420 142805 152409 138546 84806 105984 112292 165265 81736 125420 133274 127286 -1 120866 125149 132466 109902 159226 120202 192922 58325 175633 164877 115588 101851 189626 125149 152335 78599 128056 127511 183167 119169 104438 192922 95146 142805 123273 177404 77986 - 121734 165265 125149 99279 100671 114759 170812 81623 109168 100126 114759 109902 150697 90371 162806 95146 105984 61621 133520 112464 115023 -1 120321 133819 165265 88328 166215 141167 120806 55029 165878 118444 168173 160884 103893 114759 109902 135703 138229 104438 162806 78327 129057 130787 -1 122749 155264 109902 162881 152335 124553 132549 125420 129940 138925 100671 138925 95146 179625 124760 153276 105147 79144 -1 159025 84907 145120 192922 109902 162806 95146 135703 150883 127511 114552 71735 175633 177404 125515 114552 61621 123273 125149 135703 153276 134554 -1 101222 109902 129395 125965 183863 108226 88441 130582 121523 95146 105984 125149 192922 117510 81623 129170 88328 172337 140018 -1 84158 109902 148529 108430 175633 125149 105587 126644 127286 65030 105889 158643 155877 114552 95146 105984 88328 135516 100671 162806 81736 145517 132804 77986 -1 111979 118444 160884 78599 88375 124760 147042 101851 189626 108443 175633 120016 61621 123273 78327 138925 90371 159226 120202 151938 130582 103893 -1 120866 61621 120919 95146 105984 101851 130582 162410 72223 114759 109902 160340 164877 112292 72223 129170 90371 114759 109902 176761 105700 120487 -1 121734 165265 61621 150339 177404 91737 133274 61621 123273 101851 189626 71735 197705 100671 101992 61621 125231 137287 109260 -1 162321 71735 149285 101992 101851 189626 81623 129170 78327 137287 100126 114759 109902 129978 129753 100671 165878 125149 130695 130242 -1 104237 119657 138925 81736 125420 142805 152409 138546 84806 105984 112292 165265 81736 125420 133274 127286 -1 120866 125149 132466 109902 159226 120202 192922 58325 175633 164877 115588 101851 189626 125149 152335 78599 128056 127511 183167 119169 104438 192922 95146 142805 123273 177404 77986 -1 168644 138812 115514 109902 156685 128056 91737 96134 105949 104808 77986 109736 129110 154689 183937 164803 -1 168173 129170 125231 142580 127286 78327 135703 119657 114759 109902 118512 181941 118810 105889 135517 57986 108996 103893 124088 125702 -1 Solution: -------- SHE loves me ... she loves me not. I tear my hands, scatter the broken fingers... loves me not As we scatter the random riddling heads of daisies Tumbling through summer. Though I adopt the smooth chin and greying hair, The silver, tinkling out the change of years, I hope, I know that age will never bring The final shame of prudent common sense. It's after one and you must be asleep. The milky way is like a silver river. I'm in no hurry. There's no need To wake you or disturb you with telegrams or thunder. It's what they call the end of the affair Love's gondola has struck the rocks of fact. We're quits--no point in totting up Our score of troubles, miseries, and wrongs. See how much peace the world can give. The sky is wrapped in stars, the gift of the night. At such a time you rise, and find you speak To all the years, the future, and the world. It's after one and you must be asleep. Or maybe you can feel the night as well. I'm in no hurry. There's no need To wake you or disturb you with telegrams or thunder. suicide note of V. V. Mayakovsky translated from the russian by Erik Korn Method: ------- The method used in solving this cipher revolved around a program I wrote to take each cipher text number and find its sumed parts in the hard vector. For each Hard vector element that was part of the sum of a particular cipher text number, it received a 1 and all others received a 0. This then created a string of 1's and 0's that represented 16 bits. I then broke up the 16 bits into 2 bytes (8 bits each). I reversed the order of these bits and the corresponding bytes represented their ASCII equivalent. Please Note, in order to solve the characters > 128, I had to take the (plaintext) mod 128. This then gave me the proper ASCII plaintext. There were still a few characters I had to fix according to the following character mapping: 4-r (-e 5-s *-g 8-u - k $-b :-w %-c The program I wrote did all the work and is included in the handout. **************************************************************************** This one got on my nerves! But finally, a solution My way is in the sand flowing between the shingle and the dune the summer rain rains on my life, on me. My life, harrying, fleeing to it's beginning, it's end. My peace is there in the r receding mist when I may cease from treading these long shifting thresholds and live the space of a door that opens and shuts. Samuel Beckett - Poems in English (zzzzh) key matrix inverse = 1 0 0 0 0 25 1 0 0 0 0 25 1 0 0 0 0 25 1 0 0 0 0 25 1 I better be the first to solve this because I made sooooo many mistakes trying to break it using the program you sent us. I'll write a full report in the hardcopy. ************************************************************************** Here is my solution to Cipher 4: `r c4.out XXXXXXXXXX Cipher 4: Viginere Don Juan was sitting on the floor, by the door of his house, with his back against the wall. He turned over a wooden milk crate and asked me to sit down and make myself at home. I offered him some cigarettes. I had brought a carton of them. He said he did not smoke but accepted the gift. We talked about the coldness of the desert nights and other odinary topics of conversation. I asked him if I wwas interfering with hi normal routine....... carlos castenada journey to ixtlan I started out breaking this cipher with a Kisiski attack, quickly discovering that the key length was five. This agreed with my guess from the spacing of the $'s in the ciphertext. Next I did a frequency analysis of each of the five alphabets, and guessed the shift of each of the alphabets not just from the highest frequency (which I sometimes falsely assumed was E), but also looking for three high-frequency letters in a row (i.e. RST). As it turned out, I had the first three letters of the key right, and I saw that the First three letters of the plaintext were 'Don,' and figured that the next two would be 'Ju,' since it fit so well with the rest of the line. The final key I used was 'NALTX.' ********************************************************************