Puzzle #4 - Color Code

reply to post by AboveTopSecret.com


can anyone explain what they actually updated?

reply to post by fLANKED


files.abovetopsecret.com...

they gave us all the letters to now decrypt

some people are trying to decrypt while others are trying to figure out how they made the encryption.

reply to post by fLANKED

They added the letters. (And made the image wider, so the letters would fit). Before, it was just annoying purple color bars.


More info (perhaps?) on the 'first solution':

1: skegrjaih fwblox opgfeh arfsajc hdjarwyyh hwxjz
2: SKEGRJAIH FWBLOX OPGFEH ARFSAJC HDJARWYYH HWXJZ
3: SKEGRJAIH FWBLOX OPGFEH ARFSAJC KGLDWMRRK KMABS
4: SKEGRJAIH FXBLOX OPGFEH ARFSAJC KGLDXMRRK KMABS

1 = the solution just posted
2 = the solution, in uppercase letters
3 = sum of green values of rows 57+67 in the original image
4 = green values of row 19 in the original image, offset by 3 letters

The fourth one there is from my notes from yesterday

Woohoo, a clue! I have no idea how they got those letters (especially no double-letter at the end of the first word), but by god, it's something solid for once.

What does double-cypher mean? Do you solve those letters first, then solve the result again?

reply to post by Deaf Alien

Yeah. One technique on top of another. Like, first figuring out how to decode letters+words from the colors in a picture (one 'cipher'), then solving those as a cryptogram or anagram or something (the next 'layer' of cipher).

Speaking of which, I'm having no luck trying to solve this as a cryptogram. Haven't tried it in reverse yet, though. I take it, from the relative silence, that everyone else is in the same boat (or sanely asleep)?

reply to post by Deaf Alien


the double cipher was

1-color code

2-encrypted letters we now have to decipher for a question to get the thread id and answer

yea what ian said

ahhahaahha

[edit on 11-8-2008 by ragster]

If this hasn't been solved by tomorrow I'm going too write my own program to brute force it using words from ATS. This is taking too long by hand, I need to go sleep. Good luck guys.

Originally posted by DraconianKing
If this hasn't been solved by tomorrow I'm going too write my own program to brute force it using words from ATS. This is taking too long by hand, I need to go sleep. Good luck guys.

if you need algorithm help, pm me

Wow, seems everytime I go to catch some sleep, I come back to find they give us another clue. Perhaps if I slept my way through this puzzle you guys will get the answer?

OK, breaking out the decrypto program for the new letters.....

Just posting to let everyone know that I am awake....everyone's so sleepy. Hopefully someone smarter than me can solve this because I'm ready for the next one...I'm so sick of pink. Any ideas about the image title yet?

F'r gv wvvp isji F rjojwcp iv tajgs isc gijop-jmvoc lcagfvo vd Pctauniv 8.5

I thinks that the words used in this puzzle aren't in the dictionaries of the decryptors we use or there are deliberate typos in the answer.. OR something else..
Great work they've done with this puzzle.

Edit: If this puzzle gets solwed then I'll never want to see another pink/purple stripe again!

[edit on 11-8-2008 by Blue10110]

hahaha thats brilliant, they have had to give us part of the solution. I love the way its worded:

"proven too difficult for some" SOME!? i think you mean ALL

A note of interest....

I took the difference between the actual middle values of the green hex code (ie 6e 66 61 63 6d 65 5d 64 64 00 62 72 5e 67 6a 73 00 6a 6b 63 62 61 64 00 5d 6d 62 6e 5d 65 5f 00 66 63 67 60 72 68 6d 6d 66 00 66 68 5d 5e 6e) and the code supplied on the new picture hint. This is what I got...

554455454 455555 554444 4545454 21310 |15|12|12|2 2|15|27|12|12
SKEGRJAIH FWBLOX OPGFEH ARFSAJC HDJAR| W| Y | Y|H H| W| X| J | Z

I have no idea where I am going with this, only that it doesn't look like a simple substitution cipher to me. The numbers don't seem to follow any sort of maths I know.

(Sorry the numbers dont quite line up, they lined up in the text editor I used but I cant get them in line for this post.)

[edit on 11/8/2008 by Kryties]

EDIT: I really wouldn't mind solving this before my wife leaves me for the postman......

[edit on 11/8/2008 by Kryties]

reply to post by Kryties

I think the last two words were encoded differently. I got the same kind of results when I made a spreadsheet table of the differences between the posted translation and the color values of each row.

As an aside, to get stuff to line up correctly, use the 'code' tag. For example,

[code]First Second Third Fourth
A B C D
Red Orange Yellow Green
1 2 3 4
Alpha Beta Gamma Delta[/code]

Gives:

First Second Third Fourth
A B C D
Red Orange Yellow Green
1 2 3 4
Alpha Beta Gamma Delta

Otherwise double-spaces and stuff to make things line up are deleted.

reply to post by Ian McLean


Ahhh, I learn something new every day /code gotya.....

I thought the same thing about the last two words. As an aside, I got to thinking about the last puzzle you solved that was similar to this. I believe the answer was 'abovetopsecret'. Could this be a key code to decrypt this puzzle? Curiously I ran the new code through a Vigenere decrypter using 'abovetopsecret' as the keycode.
Then I took the results of that and ran it through Decrypto and amongst the top results the words 'comet' and 'erruptive' kept popping up. I would post the top results but I smartly managed to clear the screen instead of clicking 'copy' and I cannot seem to replicate the result again.


[edit on 11/8/2008 by Kryties]

reply to post by Kryties


Well I think Vigenere then cryptogram just introduces new letter patterns, not necessarily revealing new information. There's not much commonality in letter pattern, with either 'comet' or 'erruptive'. Amusingly, there's six other words in my dictionary that match the letter pattern in 'erruptive'; one of which is the misspelling 'illumanti' from the ATS thread-tag wordset.

I've tried Vigenere cipher, alone, on the posted letters, with a key length of up to five letters, with no results; also tried all monotonic Caesar ciphers (letter[x]=offset+multiple*letter[x]), for offsets 0-25 and multiples 0-25: no joy.

I think the overall encryption: "color decode + vignere + cryptogram + riddle" would be too complex, even for this game; it's probably "color decode + X + riddle", where X is a cryptogram or possibly a simple Caesar shift + anagram.

Ok, I'm tired now - enough solving for me for tonight ; good luck to all!

reply to post by Ian McLean


I know you are right, I guess 3 consecutive days of staring at the bloody thing has sent me loopy, nuts, a few fries short of a happy meal........

I think I tried the Vigenere cipher out of sheer desperation. They have given us 2 clues now and I am picturing the looks of incredulity on their faces as we flail about like a fish out of water. I feel dumber for having not gotten this yet.

I've tried caesar shifts and anagrams to no avail. Of course, I'm shifting alphabetically. Perhaps there's a qwerty-type shift followed by an anagram?

Here's the caesar shifts of the shortest word. I can't find an anagram but maybe someone can:

h w x j z

H W X J Z
I X Y K A
J Y Z L B
K Z A M C
L A B N D
M B C O E
N C D P F
O D E Q G
P E F R H
Q F G S I
R G H T J
S H I U K
T I J V L
U J K W M
V K L X N
W L M Y O
X M N Z P
Y N O A Q
Z O P B R
A P Q C S
B Q R D T
C R S E U
D S T F V
E T U G W
F U V H X

Edit: The closest I can find is maybe "Land" and "Rjght" ..."Right"?


[edit on 11-8-2008 by realpsych22]