The Puzzle
- There is a cryptogram on page 32 of our book Malicious
Cryptography: Exposing Cryptovirology. The cryptogram is
uimibfdscjuiebuspfxfjtjtg. It doesn't take a Cray supercomputer
or anything like that to crack. The Vernam cipher wasn't used, and it
is a crackable symmetric cipher. The winner's name will be posted here.
- Interestingly, a
book review hit
unbelievably close to home in terms of describing the nature of the plaintext. It appeared in
SECURITY.ITWORLD.COM on 08/10/2004. It states: "...The exposure of malicious cryptography as a weapon
is a startling revelation, but the details are presented in such an arcane manner as to make the
book read similar to an alchemical spell book..." Given this along with a little Internet
data mining (about one of us), the most difficult substring will be revealed. This should provide
enough known plaintext to break it.
[Full ciphertext will go here]
[Full plaintext will go here]
[Winner's name]
[Date]
[Explanation of the encryption algorithm and the key that was used]
[How it was found]
- If you believe you found it, please send your name and the plaintext to feedback-at-cryptovirology-dot-com.
If you feel so inclined, please explain how you got it.
