Puzzle Games Week 1

Elyzabeth Byrd

Elyzabeth Byrd

Active member
🔥🧩Puzzle Games Week 1🧩🔥​

Today's theme: Cryptography​

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Introduction​

Cryptography is the study of secret messages.​

Cryptography has been used throughout history as a means of exchanging private correspondence such as personal letters, military communications and financial information.​

This has created an ongoing  race between cryptographers who design increasingly complex ciphers and the cryptanalysts who attempt to crack them.​

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The problems ahead present a series of puzzles arranged roughly in order of complexity.​

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Cryptanalysis can be a time consuming task requiring patience and focus. The puzzles ahead are largely left to your creativity to solve, but all the clues needed are present within this post.​

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Rules​

Every problem solved gives you points, the more difficult the problem is the more points you get.​

Every day, until the next edition of the games, will be given clues on the resolution of the problems to allow everyone to solve them and get points.  For this reason, the sooner the problems are solved the more points will be given.​

In order to not help other to solve the problems themselves by reading other's answers you'll be required to put your answers in a Google form.​

Every 4 weeks, after collecting all the points you get, a leaderboard will be drawn, and the top 3 will get prizes.​

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More information about today's problems​

Today's problems will cover: steganography, transposition and monoalphabetic substitution.

Below there is a general explanations of each.

Steganography

Steganography (concealed writing) is a form of cryptography whereby a secret message is hidden within another innocuous looking message, with the hope that it will pass undetected.

Steganography is a weak form of cryptography as the secret message is not enciphered and relies entirely on its ability to go unnoticed. Once a hidden message is suspected it can usually be revealed without the need of any special techniques, given enough time and scrutiny.

When cryptanalysis a text you should begin by lookin closely for any unusual aspects of the text such as alignment, spacing, word choice, etc. which indicates the text has been forced into some pattern. Secondly you should look for alternate ways of interpreting the message aside from the obvious.

Here is an example

here is a Sample text. yOu need to reaLize there is something wrong in it. i mean, it's Uncomplicated To find what Is the real answer. did yOu fiNd it?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Transposition

Transposition cipers aim to disguise a message by changing the position of its letters. The word "transposition" alone has over 6 bilions possible rearragements, os it is capable of offering very strong encyption.

However the time it takes to encipher and then decipher a message, as well as the length of the key which must be exchanged, are important factors when deciding on a cipher to use. For this reason most transposition ciphers will use a simple pattern of encipherment, such as reading off every other letter in plain text to create a cipher text

When cryptanalysing a text you should begin working through possible numerical patterns starting from the simplest. You won't need to decipher the whole text using your test pattern as vowel distribution and letter pairings should soon indicate if it reveals an English word. Attempting to find a pattern which links toghether common pairs of letters like 'th', as well as a good eye for anagrams can help speed up decryption.

Here is an example

NOITCELFER

or

CPEIHR
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Monoalphabetic sostitution

Subtitution ciphers aim to disguise a message by substituting its letters for a different set of characters, leaving the original message completely obscured. A cipher may use a simple key such as moving all letters a number of places along the alphabet, or may use a more complex random assignment.

Monoalphabetic ciphers were widely used for hundreds of years until a technique known as frequency analysis completely destroyed their effectiveness.

When cryptanalysing you should note that althought a letter may have been exchanged for another, telltale caracteristics of the original letter remain. For example the most common letter in English is 'e', if the most commonly occurring letter in a cipher text is 'Z' the it is very likely that Z=e.

Once a few important letters have been discovered through frequency analysis the missing letters can often be guessed and the message decrypted.

An example of monoalphabetic cipher is the Caesar Cipher
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


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Problem 1

OHWKSAGHNBDJ

INVISIBLE

PWKFISLAHBFMSS

INK

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Problem 2

TEOUINSEFO HSLTOIBNR

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Problem 3

HTX Q EMLO HOQKEOJ EMIIQHOVV HTJ WHEMIIQHOVV.
KEMK QV KEO THO MHC THGZ KEQHP KEMK Q EMLO KETWPEK JOVOSBGOC M KJWKE QH KEO VTNQOKZ TD EWSMH BOQHPV XEOJO Q EMLO CXOGGOC WI KT HTX MV QH M BWJHQHP EOGG.
OLOJZKEQHP IMVVOV.

hint: One letter words can presumably be A or I.

The solution you have to give in the Google Form is in bold

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Problem 4

QHTQYKSEQLCSIQRAEQ

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Problem 5

)*   .<@   <   :#)\^*   =-(£   £<'   )%   <;#)(   <%£   *^/   =(-=[@   ./#/   @*#)[)%\   *^)#*//%

hint: don't be putt off by the symbols. Using symbols instead of letters adds no cryptographic strenght

The solution you have to give in the Google Form is in bold

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Last edited by a moderator:
Joe Schmo said:
solution is :(=[ i give up this is too hard
Click to expand...
My recommendation on the substitution cipher along with frequency analysis is to look at letter pairings. Like if you see "ZZ", you can infer that it might be "tt" or "ee" or other double letters pairings but it is not likely to be "vv" or "yy". If you break it down, start with a couple letter guesses from the frequency analysis, and then try to infer what some of the smaller words are which can then help you guess larger words that are now partially deciphered. If you find a contradiction (like a letter pairing "pq", you know there's a mistake somewhere and need to backtrack. Smaller words are limited and always require vowels (in, at, on, as, we, to) so that can also be a good place for beginners to start.

I took a graduate level math course on cryptology during college and it was a lot of fun :D  

 
As said in the rules, here are the hints to solve this more easily.

Problem 1

The letters are not important.

Problem 2

The 2nd paragraph of introduction to transposition explains the solution.

Problem 3

One letter words can presumably be A or I.

Problem 4

The Q’s are breaks.

Problem 5

This puzzle is not designed in a format that is simple to provide hints for so you’re on your own, there's no sostantially difference between this and the Problem 3.

 
Elyzabeth Byrd said:
As said in the rules, here are the hints to solve this more easily.

Problem 1

The letters are not important.

Problem 2

The 2nd paragraph of introduction to transposition explains the solution.

Problem 3

One letter words can presumably be A or I.

Problem 4

The Q’s are breaks.

Problem 5

This puzzle is not designed in a format that is simple to provide hints for so you’re on your own, there's no sostantially difference between this and the Problem 3.
Click to expand...
Problem 1

Looking at the problem from a new perspective is important.

Problem 2

The first word is THE

Problem 3

Try and solve some of these first: MV, QV, KEO, M, Q.

Problem 4

This plays on the expectation that all words are read left to right, up to down.

Problem 5

You need to convert the symbols in letters first, then apply the same method as for Problem 3

 
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