Unsolved: The World’s Greatest
Codes and/or Ciphers
Craig Bauer
editor, author, ambassador
Ancient Ciphers?
Illiterate imitations
-orencrypted texts?
This example is c. 1050–1250
and is from Denmark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8rup_runestone
Voynich MS.
1404-1438
Emperor
Rudolph II
bought it by
1608.
Weird Plants
Partial Nudity
Low Entropy
Rohonc Codex
La´ng, B. 2010. ‘‘Why Don’t We Decipher an
Outdated Cipher System? The Codex of
Rohonc,’’ Cryptologia, 34(2):115–144.
The Dorabella Cipher, 1897
From Edward Elgar…
…To Miss Dora Penny
Mauborgne’s 1915 Cipher
Coinventor / Reinventor
of the One Time Pad
only a few years later…
Relaying a Challenge
The following cipher message and explanatory letter
from First Lieut. J. O. Mauborgne, 8th Infantry, is
submitted to the Signal Class. Officers interested in
Cryptography are invited to translate this cipher
message, and turn in the translations to the Director’s
Office.
Guartel de Espana, Manila, P.I.,
October 23rd, 1915.
The Challenge
From: 1st Lieutenant J. O. Mauborgne, 8th Infantry.
To: The Director, Army Signal School.
Subject: New type of military cipher.
1. Having evolved a cipher which I believe to be suitable to
military use, and superior in many ways to the regular cipher
disk or the “Playfair” cipher in the matter of ease of
employment by the enlisted man, and extreme simplicity,
coupled with indecipherability, when properly used, I request
that this cipher be turned over to the instructors and student
officers of the Signal School for attack from the point of
decipherability, and for discussion with a view to its adoption
as a standard cipher for use in the service.
2. To the end just stated, I suggest that the Director permit the
enclosed cipher message to be put on the bulletin board
where it can be copied and worked upon by the officers at the
school, in their leisure time; a time limit of three months
being allowed for solution, inasmuch as it is well known that
the leisure time of the student is a very small quantity.
3. At the expiration of the time mentioned, the sealed
envelope herewith, marked “Cipher No. 1, Translation” might
be opened if the Director is willing, and the translation of the
message placed upon the bulletin board to show why the
standard method of attacking a substitution cipher fails in this
case, and to see if the officers at the school can develop any
method by which translation might be obtained from the
cipher given. It is believed that this will stimulate invention,
and perhaps, result in something of service to the army.
4. After another month has elapsed, the other sealed
envelope enclosed herewith and marked, “Cipher No. 1,
Method of enciphering and key used” may be opened, and,
with the consent of the Director, submitted to the School for
discussion, with the object stated in paragraph 1.
5. I am told that the Signal School has developed some men
who have become exceptionally keen in deciphering captured
cryptograms, and I trust that the Director will consider my
request favorably and permit these officers to attack this
message in the manner outlined.
6. If any attack upon this cipher is successful, I shall be glad to
hear of it.
J. O. Mauborgne, 1st Lieut. 8th Infantry.
CIPHER NO. 1
“This is a simple, single-letter substitution cipher
adapted to military use, which is believed to be
practically indecipherable when used in the manner
employed in the production of the cipher given below,
and which can be used by the enlisted man with greater
precision and facility, after five minutes instruction, than
either the “Playfair” or the Cipher Disk in use in our
service at the present time. If you are able to decipher
the following message, please inform me of the number
of hours necessary, and the method used. I believe this
cipher will be found to dodge all the rules of deciphering
now in our possession.”
PMVEB
RLKRW
BGXLA
RWCZV
RWLJG
AXIJU
RGNLE
ZGRAN
IVONS
RMJZL
ZCZNI
QOBQ-
DWXZA
ZCNBC
GLZCZ
TIZAQ
RANKZ
RCRCP
RAFXO
IFIZD
TNADX
IKEFV
GFHGN
XKKHQ
FCONW
GWXAH
LVEYI
ECVAW
EVPGR
VBOBU
MFZEZ
UNQDY
CDRRN
ESUNR
RNFMJ
FNOEZ
RITNW
QVZMO
TRLBW
ORAXA
CUXGT
OVCJS
PERRB
RHENC
LYKDA
VATAD
QLEJB
ZCQYR
RWQHL
URVSP
EFIQV
UEVBR
DPRJH
PNSOR
TKAXZ
AVAVX
YRJON
HUVLY
KFWVL
CBWZL
KXWFR
QNIRV
ZSZSO
HVCRG
ZCLRE
ESKDR
QYVEQ
FGRKD
OPFIN
CYGZE
HBPEF
DOHAR
CNMTE
RZIHE
IPCIF
MLZKR
GZCXD
FMWET
J. O. Mauborgne, 1st Lieut. 8th Infantry.
Manila, P. I., October 21st, 1915.
TSVWF
ZMHWC
NQRNI
PROVE
RSRJJ
LKHDC
FVWCN
WHUKB
YZNMN
SQFGD
ZODJY
TCRWC
RZULG
JFEPS
ZFWGZ
NFJRT
RXISG
OBPED
NHKTV
PJMQB
CXSTE
RMLZJ
Craig’s Guess
M-94
Navy version was called CSP-488
IRA Ciphers, 1920s
D’Agapeyeff’s Cipher, 1939
“Mr. Alexander d’Agapeyeff is well qualified to write
about Codes and Ciphers, for after joining the
British army as a private at the age of sixteen, and
getting a commission in the field at seventeen, he
became intelligence officer with the North Russian
Expeditionary Force, and was with the British
Military Mission in the Baltic till 1921, where he
became au courant with the spying and counterspying activities between Germany and Russia.
After a short post-war time at Cambridge he went
to Africa, made a rough survey of the route to Lake
Chad, and became ‘blood brother’ of a wild tribe;
and as surveyor and administrator of a tract of bush
country in the back of beyond, had an opportunity
of studying native customs, mythology and
religion.”
•
D'Agapeyeff, Alexander, Codes and Ciphers,
Oxford University Press, London, 1939, front
inside dust jacket.
On page 158 of the first edition of his book, d’Agapeyeff wrote, “Here
is a cryptogram upon which the reader is invited to test his skill.” The
challenge is reproduced below.
75628 28591 62916 48164 91748 58464 74748 28483 81638 18174
74826 26475 83828 49175 74658 37575 75936 36565 81638 17585
75756 46282 92857 46382 75748 38165 81848 56485 64858 56382
72628 36281 81728 16463 75828 16483 63828 58163 63630 47481
91918 46385 84656 48565 62946 26285 91859 17491 72756 46575
71658 36264 74818 28462 82649 18193 65626 48484 91838 57491
81657 27483 83858 28364 62726 26562 83759 27263 82827 27283
82858 47582 81837 28462 82837 58164 75748 58162 92000
Not Even D’Agapeyeff!
The book covered systems that were no longer
state of the hand systems it described had already
been replaced by machine ciphers for the most
important messages. Thus, the solution to his
challenge should not have proved too elusive. Yet,
nobody managed to find it. Even d’Agapeyeff was
unable to help, for by the time frustrated enquiries
reached him, he had forgotten the method he used
to create the ciphertext! Perhaps in an effort to
stave off more enquiries, d’Agapeyeff omitted the
challenge from future editions of Codes and
Ciphers.
from Shulman, David (under his ACA pen name
AB STRUSE). The D'Agapeyeff Cryptogram: A
Challenge, The Cryptogram, April/May 1952, pp.
39-40, 46. A portion of page 46 reproduced
here.
References
1. Barker, Wayne G., The Unsolved D'Agapeyeff Cipher,
Cryptologia, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 1978, pp. 144-147.
2. D'Agapeyeff, Alexander, Codes and Ciphers, Oxford
University Press, London, 1939.
3. Shulman, David (under his ACA pen name AB STRUSE). The
D'Agapeyeff Cryptogram: A Challenge, The Cryptogram,
April/May 1952, pp. 39-40, 46. Reward offered!
4. Shulman, David (under his ACA pen name AB STRUSE).
D'Agapeyeff Cipher: Postscript, The Cryptogram, March/April
1959, pp. 80-81.
Somerton Man, 1948
Found at 6:30 am
December 1, 1948, on
Somerton beach in
Adelaide, Australia.
Believed poisoned.
“a tiny piece of rolled-up paper with the words "Tamam
Shud" printed on it was found deep in a fob pocket sewn
within the dead man's trouser pocket”
It means "ended" or "finished" and is from the last page
of the The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam.
“The theme of these poems is that one should live life to
the full and have no regrets when it ended.” (Wikpedia)
A Lead?
Having seen the case described in a newspaper, a man
came forth with a very rare first edition copy of Edward
FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat (1859) by
Whitcombe and Tombs in New Zealand. He found it (!)
in the back seat of his unlocked car about a week or
two before the body was found.
The book was missing the words "Tamam Shud" on the
last page, and microscopic tests indicated that the
piece of paper was from the page torn from the book.
The back of the book contained a cipher.
(Wikipedia)
Paul Rubin, 1953
On the morning of January 20, 1953, Private
Madrid King was walking to board a plane at the
Philadelphia International Airport, when he
discovered the body of a man at the bottom of a
12 foot ditch. The deceased was later identified
as 18 year-old Paul Emanuel Rubin. About 20
minutes before his body was found, Rubin was
seen walking in the area by Rev. Robert M.
Anderson, who described him as “wild-eyed.”
Did Rubin know his life was about to end?
Cyanide Poisoning
Rubin was a chemistry major at New York
University.
Was it suicide?
Coroner Joseph Ominsky believed Rubin was
placed in the ditch post-mortem, because of the
position the body was found in, and that it was
therefore not a suicide.
Contradictions in the Press
It was reported, “No vial or container of any kind
was found at the scene or in the youth’s
pockets, according to Ominsky.”
But the next day, accounts described a “five-inch
long test tube” that was found about five feet
from the body. Oddly, no traces of poison were
found in the tube.
A Mystery Within A Mystery
An enciphered message was taped to Rubin’s
abdomen with a six inch long and two inch wide
strip of tape. The cipher couldn’t be seen until
the tape was removed, as the paper it was
written on was rolled up under the tape. Rubin
had a habit of sending enciphered messages to
friends, so he may been the author. Also, Rubin’s
mother recalled seeing her son cut some strips
of adhesive tape before leaving home that
morning.
Cryptography… Cyanide….
A Quick Check…
• January 20, 1953 (Paul Rubin’s death)
• June 7, 1954 (Alan Turing’s cyanide death)
FBI Interest
John Foster Dulles was designated by President
Eisenhower to become the new Secretary of
State.
Dr. James B. Conant was President of Harvard
University and slated to become American High
Commissioner in West Germany.
Or Maybe…
NSA historian David Hatch pointed out other
possible identifications for “Dulles”
1) John Foster’s brother Allen, incoming DCI
-or2) Eleanor Dulles, the State Department desk
officer for West Germany.
Another link to Germany
Rubin’s fake alligator skin wallet, instead of a
picture of a girlfriend, contained an image of an
airplane with a Nazi swastika on its tail
assembly.
Rubin was Jewish.
The photo carried the notation “France Field,
Panama” on the back. The only other picture in
the wallet was of Rodin’s famous sculpture “The
Thinker.”
A Typical Teenager?
Other items found on Rubin’s body that one might
not expect to be in the possession of a typical
1950’s teenager included:
1) a plastic cylinder containing a signal fuse (a prop
used in magic tricks)
2) the casing of a spent .38 caliber bullet (found in a
pocket of his topcoat)
3) a fountain pen gun
4) forty-seven cents (odd since he left with $15 that
morning – where was the rest?)
Misinformation?
More typical was the February issue of Galaxy
Science Fiction. It was reported that “Officers said
that one article in the magazine, entitled “Mystic
Numbers,” and written by a Dr. Bell, was concerned
with cryptography.” E. T. Bell wrote science fiction
under the pseudonym John Taine, but he didn’t
have an article in the given issue, nor was anything
dealing with codes or ciphers contained therein. It
was also reported that Conant and Dulles’s names
appeared in this issue in different stories, but this is
also incorrect.
Another Contradiction
Edwin S. Schriver, a homicide squad detective, said at the
inquest that Rubin was failing his classes and was in
danger of being expelled. Schriver was convinced it was a
suicide. But Samuel Rubin, the teen’s father, said his son
started college at age 16, “hardly did any homework,” yet
was a good student and was in good spirits when he left
home the day before.
Perhaps the presently unsolved cipher associated with
the case will one day shed light on why Paul Rubin never
made his classes on January 20, 1953.
Part 1 of 3
Solved by Donald and Bettye Harden
“I like killing people because it is so much fun it
is more fun than killing wild game in the forest
because man is the most dangerous anamal of
all to kill something gi”
Unsolved
Unsolved II
Unsolved III (came with a map)
The Map
A Later Clue
http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/radian.htm
Gareth Penn
Zodiac in New York?
Kryptos, 1990
Ciphers 1 and 2
Ciphers 3 and 4
Right Top Panel
Right Bottom Panel
Example with Key = GAUSS
Message: MATHEMATICS IS THE QUEEN OF THE SCIENCES
KRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ
GHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEF
ABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOS
UVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQ
SABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
SABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
plaintext
alphabet 1
alphabet 2
alphabet 3
alphabet 4
alphabet 5
Example Continued
KRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ
GHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEF
ABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOS
UVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQ
SABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
SABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
plaintext
alphabet 1
alphabet 2
alphabet 3
alphabet 4
alphabet 5
MATHEMATICS IS THE QUEEN OF THE SCIENCES plaintext
GAUSSGAUSSG AU SSG AUSSG AU SSG AUSSGAUS key
OHZQLOHZUIN VR DQX RJLLS FA DQX GTULSJSF ciphertext
Cipher 1
• Keywords: KRYPTOS, PALIMPSEST
• BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE
ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF
IQLUSION
Cipher 2
• Keywords: KRYPTOS, ABSCISSA
• IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE ? THEY
USED THE EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION
WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO
AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT
THIS ? THEY SHOULD ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE
X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW THIS
WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY
SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY
SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR SECONDS
WEST X LAYER TWO
Cipher 3 (transposition)
SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF
PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER
PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED WITH
TREMBLING HANDS I MADE A TINY BREACH IN THE
UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER AND THEN WIDENING
THE HOLE A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND
PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM THE
CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER BUT
PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM WITHIN
EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE
ANYTHING Q ?
Cipher 4
Hint from Sanborn (Nov. 2010):
NYPVTT (letters 64-69) deciphers to BERLIN.
James Sanborn
“People call me an
agent of Satan, because
I won't tell my secret.”
Craig’s Guess
Matrix Encryption.
Positions of errors in previous ciphers indicate
the key somehow.
RSA-2048
Once worth $200,000!
25195908475657893494027183240048398571429282126204
03202777713783604366202070759555626401852588078440
69182906412495150821892985591491761845028084891200
72844992687392807287776735971418347270261896375014
97182469116507761337985909570009733045974880842840
17974291006424586918171951187461215151726546322822
16869987549182422433637259085141865462043576798423
38718477444792073993423658482382428119816381501067
48104516603773060562016196762561338441436038339044
14952634432190114657544454178424020924616515723350
77870774981712577246796292638635637328991215483143
81678998850404453640235273819513786365643912120103
97122822120720357
Decimal Digits: 617
Decimal Digit Sum: 2738
(from 1991)
Ricky McCormick, 1999
McCormick was found in a cornfield in St.
Charles County, Missouri, on June 30, 1999.
No official cause of death.
FBI later listed it as a murder.
Some Background
41 years old, lived off and on with his mother
Unemployed, high school drop-out
Did 11 months in prison for statutory rape.
We would not expect him to have developed a
mathematically complex cipher….
Contradictions
“According to members of McCormick's family,
McCormick had used encrypted notes since he was
a boy,…”
“His mother, Frankie Sparks, said ‘The only thing he
could write was his name. ... He didn't write in no
code.’ His father, Charles McCormick, said Ricky
‘couldn't spell anything, just scribble.’”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_McCormick's_e
ncrypted_notes
From
The Phoenician
(an NSA retiree
Journal)
2004
David Rayburn kills his wife, Linda Rayburn, and
her son, Michael Berry, with a hammer.
He then hangs himself in the basement, leaving
a strange cipher behind.
The top
rectangle
was added
later by a
family
member.
Hundreds of Comments at
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/0
1/handwritten_rea.html#comments
Klaus Schmeh’s 2007 Challenge
Double Transposition Example
Message:
YES SOMETHING INVULNERABLE UNBURIABLE IS
WITH ME SOMETHING THAT WOULD REND
ROCKS ASUNDER IT IS CALLED MY WILL SILENTLY
DOES IT PROCEED AND UNCHANGED
THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
Key 1: FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
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Key 2: GAZE INTO THE ABYSS
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Final Ciphertext
NLIEI
MDELO
EIMIE
LPNYE
UNTOH
NTIRL
UUEAA
TSRDD
BSBAR
EUGEH
RAEDD
SDLIS
UUNOR
CTHAM
RLBSI
SATHY
HODNN
OMHWH
WSKYR
TTIGN
LNWIA
EETUE
AAUSN
SEEI
ICELD
TOGYL
TETLO
CCGNR
HSNEV
The Double Transposition Challenge
VESINTNVONMWSFEWNOEALWRNRNCFITEEICRHCODEEA
HEACAEOHMYTONTDFIFMDANGTDRVAONRRTORMTDHE
OUALTHNFHHWHLESLIIAOETOUTOSCDNRITYEELSOANGP
VSHLRMUGTNUITASETNENASNNANRTTRHGUODAAARAO
EGHEESAODWIDEHUNNTFMUSISCDLEDTRNARTMOOIREEY
EIMINFELORWETDANEUTHEEEENENTHEOOEAUEAEAHUHI
CNCGDTUROUTNAEYLOEINRDHEENMEIAHREEDOLNNIRAR
PNVEAHEOAATGEFITWMYSOTHTHAANIUPTADLRSRSDNOT
GEOSRLAAAURPEETARMFEHIREAQEEOILSEHERAHAOTNT
RDEDRSDOOEGAEFPUOBENADRNLEIAFRHSASHSNAMRLT
UNNTPHIOERNESRHAMHIGTAETOHSENGFTRUANIPARTAOR
SIHOOAEUTRMERETIDALSDIRUAIEFHRHADRESEDNDOION
ITDRSTIEIRHARARRSETOIHOKETHRSRUAODTSCTTAFSTHCA
HTSYAOLONDNDWORIWHLENTHHMHTLCVROSTXVDRESDR