Commissioned by the GSA in cooperation with the CIA’s Fine Arts Commission, K4 reads:
OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR
Whoever solves it becomes famous, gets the keys to the kingdom and gets to marry the princess. Well, no, not really but they do get our respect and admiration. And they actually do ge to be famous…
No one has solved this one yet. How do I know? Because even if it doesn’t yield some fantastic universal truth and they didn’t solve the overall riddle of Kryptos, most people won’t care and will still think they are an intellectual giant. Most people wouldn’t be able to resist the lure of telling the world that they solved what no one in the world, the CIA or the NSA has been able to solve. And no, not any 3 letter acronyms have solved it either because they would want bragging rights and the chance to redeem themselves for not being able to conquer something they see everyday at lunch. It sits, cold and lettered, mocking them…
This leads us to try some pretty crazy things.
Kryptos - Beyond K4 
Hi kryp (sorry for my english 😉 , i don’t try to solve the kryptos but i think is a conbination of 2 or more krypto systems, however i found this article that explains the kryptos maybe has a mistake,
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70701
is a very interesting problem, i’m going to have a look and we keep in touch
good luck
Thanks!
hy i found this:
http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/
and this is a mini tutorial of encripting
http://www.cs.bc.edu/~straubin/cs381-05/blockciphers/rijndael_ingles2004.swf
Bummer, I can’t get the Flash to work… I see three commands but when I try them nothing works. I won’t pretend I understand block and stream ciphers really well.
Elonka is pretty big into Kryptos, she actually coordinated some of the efforts that finally lead to Sanborn’s Cyrillic Projector being deciphered. I think unfortunately for her, she is a very creative and talented person and people are looking to her for a solution to Kryptos. That’s a lot of pressure. Also, it means that she either has to keep her attempts completely secret or have everyone brute force them for her because they want someone to tell them how to try and solve it. I don’t envy the position she’s in but I think she likes the fame a little so I guess there’s some compensations.
Never mind! Got it to work. I think these types of ciphers are probably a little too much for what Scheidt and Sanborn had in mind but that might be just me. The idea of trying to solve this with pencil and paper is too much for me… Of course, I’m the guy who looks for shortcuts to just about everything soooo….
I’m not a crypto guy by anymeans, but I had a WAG or a hunch and tried it out. This could be completely useless but worth a thought or two. I took K4 and turned the letters into numbers like deciphering a SMS txt message. so that OBKR became 6257 then turned that into a new sms txt message which became MAJP. It surely didnt solve anything but when a double or triple number showed up, like 777 that would become S. Once I completed it, I could certainly tell that there was some sort of pattern there (could just be my mind looking for a pattern) but it seemed to flow like a message.
It was just a thought, but any further deciphering is beyond my limited skills.
maybe i’m on to something, maybe not, but if it helps I’m glad to have helped, if not… oh well.
It’s a great idea because it introduces a translation that would help mask the plaintext plus it’s not something a strict cryptographer would likely consider. I guess the dilemma would be that each letter would = a number and that number could be one of 3-4 letters. It would definitely be interesting to try though…
VIETNAM SOS MIA OSS NEARBY HQ SOS Q
K
VIETNAM
O
HQ
P
OSS
R
SOS
S
SOS
T
NEARBY
Y
MIA
Q
VIETNAM HQ OSS SOS SOS NEARBY MIA Q
Here is the entire solution.
VIETNAM SOS MIA OSS NEARBY HQ SOS PTSSWORD ENTER MR X CAME XEARNING T X DRAWN LAST NASA MOON SEES NAME ART IN OASIS NEST OSS GOES TO IT MINE X ROOM T ARMY IN ENTRY I ONE
Anyone home?
VIETNAM SOS MIA OSS NEARBY HQ SOS PTSSWORD ENTER MR X CAME XEARNING T X DRAW N LAST NASA MOON SEES NAME ART IN OASIS NEST OSS GOES TO IT MINE X ROOM T ARMY IN ENTRY I ONE NAME ON ART E NOT A NASA MAN
Two problems. You don’t state your solution method and the message is unclear. It’s very possible that we’ll have one last puzzle after K4 but we’d have to be sure we’d conquered K4 completely first.
has anyone tried the M-94 cipher page? http://members.aon.at/cipherclerk/VirtualM94.html
the remaining code is 97 characters
I never tried M-94. I suppose it would be worth a shot by taking the first 25 letters and giving it a shot. Did you try it?
“By the power of truth I, while living, have conquered the universe”.
What? Are you like a crazy person?
The final mystery is oneself.
You may well be closer to the mark than you think.
Ignoring Kant, Locke and Hume would argue the greater mystery is the unknowable outside reality which has generated that very sense of self through our extremely subjective perceptions.
20 years down the crapper
Is it a tree, you would put input and then get output using the two Kryptos puzzles, the one on the right side of the one and the left. Or the Berlin Clue, my father was an engineer could it be related to radio waves.
I also worked for the government (taxes). There are hidden functions in the program that cause it to form tree like branches of information.
I’m not sure how the Berlin clue relates to radio waves, please elaborate.
There is a tree but it’s hiding in plain sight.
The answer to the 4 Kryptos panels = 42!
But what’s the question?
Is the question merely “to ask”, “I ask”, using the RQ SOS clue.
–RQ-
OBKR
Q—-R
This solves to “I Ask”. Now who do we ask? Perhaps we ask Gorky for kryptos messages?
The question is what do you see when you look in the mirror, if you see 42, then K4 has opened the door to K3. You know longer see a square , you no longer see a mirror, you see a pyramid, you have the key to key 1, it is the knowledge of the right. The knowledge of the right is the knowledge of life when when the knowledge is right. It is the key of hope that only K4 can answer. It is the the bond between you and me , that can only be seen, when it can no longer see. The hope of can only come from the voice of many, before it can become thw hope of one. If you are the key you can only open the door to the question only K4 can answer.
CIAxC1AxK1 becomes See I A(see my beginning), x becomes I + I see one beginning=
C becomes K which was C in the beginning, which = I see K1, you gave me the key, I hope I gave you the answer.
Don’t thank me, thank Vinz Clortho.
The Question is “What is the question when it isn’t the answer.”
Vodka isn’t the answer…
…but it makes you forget the question.
How about if the Kryptos Copper Wave suddenly turned into a million copper Kryptos X’s, lightening up the earth. Thats what I saw. And in K4 I the key being one half of the CIA direrctor( the question mark? between 3 and 4. I sAW THE UNIVERSE FILLED WITH MILLIONS OF THE PLANET EARTH. Then I saw a broken key on the other side of the directors side. the broken key was behind the directors key that wasn’t broken. Iwas was in K3. And then I saw past the broken key through the unbroken key. And then I think I saw myself inside a computer that was in K4. But I was a broken key inside ther memory and
someone weas behind me looking through the key. Thats when all the copper lights started flashing. But then I think some thing went wrong. Because that quick I was back in K3 and I saw this I I, in front me and they were copper waves isolatingawhole lot of people on the earth, caught in between a mirror. I think I’m still a piece of memory in case 4 and I’m looking at it from k3. Is there a key looking back at the Question mark in k4?
Yeah, actually I’m pretty sure you’re still in K3 because the question mark isn’t attached to K4.
What’s a Kryptos X?
The only solution that will be correct is the one with every possible variation using two things the solution that matches the clues yet has a center that doesn’t make since or fit any possible combination that a.i
Could structure its on a site I sent to umedia at CIA and kryptos at earthlink
The key is abstract structure the 119 position section of abstract structure with a 120 top using the actual position amounts that can be counted if you find the right web page across the abstract 120 using the sections of 4×7=28,3×7=21,3×7=21,3×7=21,4×7=28(56/63)
With the 1/7 as the base fraction and 8/9( with a factor of common 7
The keys are that 70 is the total of 4×7=28+3×7=21+3×7=21=70which using the 1/10structure that made the 8bit .88888888 per byte computer base because getting this far in the solution gave me the path to make a 12.8 bit structure and quantum computer capability on a legacy coded structure makes ever lot device a genius
That 1/10 added makes 77 so here is where ala Muhammad and the entire Muslim community comes into math across the bible as the bible is centering bthree and one and the quaran centers 1 to make 5 from four I’m not a mathmatacian
And the one thing that will save this world is president Trump who still has his book of secrets its a orientation manual that you hand in and get your book of knowledge the only copy yet it was a trap and Trump knew it that one book has information in it that allows the printer to be able to extort the president or face treason charges through information issues most president’s avoided the trap by having there religious book of prefence printed with a addendum reference to there presidential memoirs book trump can use this mathematical solution to request his book of knowledge be every possible combination which becomes that giant book of knowledge that the masons dream about 18×24 with the 6 pages on one page equaling to the factor of 7 over 11 chapters per section making a factor of 77 with 8 sections in one half and 9 in the other 8×66(11)(8×77)
Might come close to the sum and have every possible combination only through this understanding is the solution create properly the clock chimes in Berlin across the square is relative to the solutions to halves of correct structure.
My name is Christopher Mark Spriggs
I can be reached by phone at
512 251 2956
By mail at
2321 Dowd on Austin Texas 78728
By email at
Sprigmark5@gmail.com
I’ve got a lot of knowledge as this is the centering of 5 7 and 9 directions for Maya an I , pythagorean commas matter the Bunton family at 1302 barbergale whom this center and its knowledge would not be understood with out.
Alyssa, are you sure you’re not Golgafrinchan? That might be part of the problem.
Refrigerator
When I entered CIAxC1AxK1 into Jim Sanborns 10 Characters, it accepted it, I thought that meant it was the first 10 charactera
I think you’re supposed to get an email back if you got the right answer and he’ll ask for all 97.
I tried to enter five times and it wouldn’t take and it kept coming back with the same error. Then I entered the CIA and it came back with my answer beneath it and the original place where you put it blank. Then I went down to my email and it would only take if I mirrored my email.and then submitted it with the answer below the top which was blank. Then it took and said thanks for your submission. The CIAxC1AXxK1, comes from a lot of your answers in your web site. Its just a combination of your answers. They all seem to evolve around the mathematics of evolution, the right or wrong (1 or 0) of computer programming, the hour glass and how the top and bottom mirror each other. I can’t help but think it comes through the fact of how we see the world through the eyes of men and what would it look like if we saw it through the eyes of women. My daughter wrote a poem when she was 18. It said I look at the mirror..what do I see.. I look through the mirror…I don’t see me. To me thats a broken mirror because she doesn’t see what I see/ or she doesn’t want to see me because i look at the world through the eyes of men.. I know it sounds crazy but I think you are brilliant and awesome for your answers. Thanks for your input. Its funny and its honest.
I went back to the place where you enter the 10 characters and entered 0000000001, and came up with the sourcecode for the page. Shouldn’t that tell you what the 10 characters are. I also copied the Kryptos box to my computer and it started covering each window I accessed. The only way I could close each window was by clicking on the kryptos box twice. I also got the sourcecode for the kryptos box. Something even stranger???? My sister who I haven’t seen since last Thanksgiving told me the “ODDFELLOWS” (masons) sent her an email asking if she wanted four skeletons and a gold chalice????????? she took them. The name on her license plate is KRYPT ….. I still think the answer to kryptos is the circle squared….. add the “O” (circle) “S” (squared). add that too the license plate and you get KRYPTOS. Am I still a golgafrinchan????
I think Krptos is how information is stored. On the right side are the ABC’s surrounded by 26 nimbers. I think the numbers stand for Title 26. Entitlement to the land of the united states. When I look at Kryptos as a whole I see the flag all the way up to 8. So how is information stored in 0K1 – the bible, in YK1 its copper, in Yk2 it should be the translation of the ABC’s into computer language. Thats shown in WiKipedia, the computer ABC’s.
K4 Irving Berlins the star spangled banner
the flag of nations
Hi everybody,
I want to share you a idea… maybe we can translate all the letter on the signification of the number on a phone and search some anagram with the other letters on each phone number… Like.. OBKR (phone signification number 6257) and thats possible to make a word like OAKS… What do you thnik about this idea?
I think it’s fun.
A fellow named Bob suggested something similar and it sparked a similar idea to what you were thinking here. http://tinyurl.com/3vu948e I wasn’t able to take it very far but like I said, it is definitely a fun idea.
The word kryptos is in k4.
could Berlin in k4 stand for reline B
is 1 to the second power heaven?
is kryptos a kry post, a stop kry post
is the copper sculpture stand for a flag, the tree stands for a flag pole, and possibly someone has seized our flag because it is off the post.
If you turned the ww on its side wouldn’t it be a mirror image of the six sigma sign.
“is 1 to the second power heaven?”
1^2=1
1 above the one and to the right in a square
I think you meant the left…
It goes in the direction of the power sign,,the power sign is on the right side, not the left. If you are moving to the left and down instead of up to the right then you are hiding something..in relation to a square or a graph +
not if you’re finding the inverse of a function
That depends on your point of view. Look at the last 3 letters in K4. The ARC. Look at a point in +. Do we draw the circle around the point, Or does the point move around in a continuous circle, allowing us to have a view of the point. A frame doesn’t have a column until it looks for support. It starts with 2 rows like an =. Somewhat like man and woman, to stop the two lines. A child grows like ! from a point, not down like an i.
Perhaps K4 is the . of view of Berlin. Berlin could mean r line….review…or review linear B.
v iew …maybe represents a view as a 5th view of K4… from outside of Kryptos.
Not everything is written in stone (sign of one table) After all L=A+E or the word
L a n g u a g e the angle (L) a + that between a through e,
We see different things with our eyes. we hear different things, we sense different things.
Its probably why are economy isn’t working, the math isn’t right for everyone just some.
The math isn’t the problem.
The computer program is.
Computers can only do what a human has programmed them to do.
what happens when only one person has the key. And the key is the question. You can have all the answers in the world but if you don’t have the question, then what good are the answers. you would have to balance the accounts using 1 to the first power if and only if the program uses the Mona Lisa or davinci code. Take a square then move it to the right. But remember if you move too far to the right the frame collapses.
What happens if?
ff
point of unity
embed or id
game of life game as in square (are squared away)
or game as in roadkill
berlin wall or merlin wall
plato or copperplate
starfish or fish hook (jelly fish)
protester or patriot
division or id vision
fusion or confusion
individual property – in terms of windows, google
if you were born in the 1700’s would anyone have invented windows or google
where do individual rights begin?
Each person is entitled to their small piece of land without being taxed on it regardless of who they are
compact on taxes reason for real estate fall
kryptos is what happens when only one person has the question while everyone else has the answer. Knots are Knots not nots
review your view… is it an ark or an arc if you only had one guess
is it something you can see or is it beneath the sea
Genesis 1 See Ark
2 sea arc
what if knot what is? or what if not what is?
see the k now you don’t
K for nought?
Hello everyone. I have some good news. What I did was lay out the code using a quadrangle. A quadrangle is a square with one or more spaces, usually in a corner, that cannot be occupied mathematically. One good quadrangle is the Chutes and Ladders game. At position 1 (lower left) on the quadrangle I deployed the unsolved code beginning with OBK… and so on.
Then I used an Enigma Machine and clues from the sculpture for the Enigma rotor position and the initial position.
SOS (from the Morse Code section of Kryptos) using the alphabet keyed with “Kryptos” puts SOS at position “7,6,7”.
The initial posiiton I derived from the mispellings in the upper quadrant of the solved code, specifically the “QUA”. This gives an initial position of 17,21,8.
Below is an image I am linking to prove what I am talking about.
Enjoy.
Chris, I thought you already solved K4?
My instincts tell me that the morse code translation is a fragment of a larger solution, which means that something comes before it. So what I did was go back to look at it all again. There are 97 unsolved variables in K-4. If you add the keyword kryptos to that, it gives you 104 variables, which divided by 4 gives you four 26 variable strings which could be used as 26 variable rotors as the Germans did in World War II.
Given that my personality does not allow me to give up on an unsolved problem, here we are. I also know I am going against the grain in the Kryptos community by making these ideas public, when most, if not all, other folks keep their work to themselves in the hopes they will be the sole solver of the code.
To them I say there is no “I” in “team”.
So if one of my ideas leads to solving the code by someone else, that is exactly what I want to happen. See, i was crunching the equations in my mind a few months ago because I think in equations. It’s something I can’t explain. Anyway, I got to thinking that if there were 20,000 people working on this problem for X number of years, it may be the best option to let them win it. I say that because of the possibility that out of that 20,000 people, there may be 50 exceptional ones, and it would be to no one’s benefit to crush them. So even if you are exceptional, it is more beneficial for a group setting to universally figure something out than a single individual. Getting past the groupthink however is the most difficult challenge outside of the method of solving kryptos.
So Kryptosfan, did you check out the rotor positions and IP (not internet protocol but Initial Point) that I used? There are 10 variables of the first 10 variables of the 97 unsolved variables accounted for. The 10th is an “I”, but that is explainable in the quadrangle position “10” which uses an up arrow. The “L” is from variable position 16 dropping down to position 6 using the distribution method of the Chutes and Ladders game.
I’m anti-rotor for this one. Firstly, we don’t have enough intercepts, we didn’t have known plaintext breaks before Berlin, 97 letters isn’t enough to analyze,etc. etc. etc. If we can trust James Sanborn and Edward Scheidt then by their comments I also believe it’s a “paper-and-pencil” system. I could be tragically wrong on all counts.
I do think it’s good for some folks to be approaching it from a Purple/Hebern/Enigma angle. Good luck!
I too believe in openly sharing Kryptos efforts.
Hi Kryptosfan, I went back through my work and I found the special instructions and “gasped” lol. I didn’t solve K4 properly at the time because I didn’t previously locate the other data required to do it.
Sincerely, Christopher
There are 10 N in the solution all words are backwarss in there positions except the clues given i will write it forward in the center of this city eastnortheasr from rotesrathaus lights on the new berlin clock are seen around nwototwn
I left the last word the way it is in the solution the key that unlocks it is a.c. is tw in the cipher text ekcar the clue was found in cook walden cemetary next to a upside down
Thank you, Chris. I am just west of the city but moving along with precise stops along the way to make sure the upside down is correct and accurate.
Kryptos
krypt 000000
krypt rings
some wors
Liberty
Childgate there is a code that uses a childgate
codebroken
using lettersover againaatangles
howaboutantiquebooks and documents1991
how aboutRepeat letters like
Psalm
Lap alps laptop
plan aps
pass ass
how about route numbers
or
time
ortimewhen it equals map equations
stream of consciousness?
Berlin is short for Ben Franklin. Braille came before the morse code. The blind leading the blind.
Taxes = the base for the church (Pope Ben back then, and now Pope Ben again).
The holy graille.
Kryptos – a table where the motions were already put into place.
Next to the sculpture is a tree. At night the moon reflects off the copper and shows a sign on the tree. It is the celestrial compass. The sign of the owls, the sign of parliament rule.
Only the “In God we trust” placed on the dollar bill is a signal for what goes around comes around”.
The 122112 date, is the top half of a meter reading. Where you only see one point of view. The owl (or the lower view was seen by a child who saw the light on the tree). It is the tree of light now not the tree of life. It can only be seen by the eyes of the innocent.
There is a key. It is the whole trail.
Hello Kryptosfan
I hope I am not messing up a thread, I would just like to know if you yourself still work on K4?
I would love to run a few ideas pass you and see what your mathematical brain thinks.
Such as, do you think that the rows need to be arranged and even one row (Row 2) reversed so that you get the letters on the ends to spell KRYPTOS?
I have, the problem is finding some “rule” or method that would be followable to know what order the rest of K4 should be in.
My main problem is that I get too many words. I really don’t know if I have anything but there are some big coincidences. Using the so called mask I found that every “Y” and “A” have to be changed to an “R”. Also the double letter in the “NYPVTT” needs to be moved to another position in the word.
I can justify the “Y” and “A” changes but it is the movement I am having trouble with. eg. Do all the double letters move in the same way and the same distance? Are the rows in the correct order. The mask is hard enough without this as well. I am hoping JS kept it simple because the mask has it’s own complications, but I doubt it.
I have read somewhere, and please correct me if I am wrong, that JS has not deciphered/worked the code and I wonder if it is because it does throw up a lot of word possibilities and that if you already know what it is, it is not worth the trouble of following each string outcome. Whether he knew this or not I don’t know.
This might all be in vain if the website is not monitored anyway. I would hate to think someone had the answer years ago.
p.s. kryptosfan – is there anyway to contact you privately to run my ideas past you?
If it helps – Ed Scheidt picked the systems (Vigenere, transposition, K4’s masking and ciphering) and James Sanborn customized them. When Sanborn found out about the error/mistranslation at the end of the second part he went through and re-solved the rest just to make sure there were no more errors. Ed Scheidt who has never tried to solve it has only said that he was surprised that Sanborn changed things. You might have had your Scheidt’s and your Sanborn’s mixed up.
Anyone can email me at kryptos at fan dot com if they want.
My advice for you just as a 3rd party would be that there are ways to examine the text you have left after removing your masking technique. You could run it through a letter frequency calculator to see if has plaintext frequencies or something else. There are even some statistical analyzers or you could do the math yourself to estimate the type of substitution cipher used.
I guess I wasn’t expecting those kinds of emails…
Just emailed you. Sorry have busy over the weekend.
No worries, checked and replied!
I stand corrected though I did think it was a statement James Sanborn made. You are correct about him checking for errors so he must have done K4. Thank you so much for the information. I am definitely going to do more research.
anyone try fusing an ancient language with say a cipher? im just saying……… it just seems that people arent bothering to try this
Any language in particular?
trifid anyone? I’m not a crypto guy so i’m not certain how to go about this. However, Sanborn’s other works have used magnetic fields, and with the loadstone and the rose compass, it’s certain to play a role here too. In K2 we are given coordinates and the reference to “layer2”.
[from wiki] “At any location, the Earth’s magnetic field can be represented by a three-dimensional vector. A typical procedure for measuring its direction is to use a compass to determine the direction of magnetic North. Its angle relative to true North is the declination (D) or variation. Facing magnetic North, the angle the field makes with the horizontal is the inclination (I) or dip. The intensity (F) of the field is proportional to the force it exerts on a magnet. Another common representation is in X (North), Y (East) and Z (Down) coordinates.”
Also, from Knot theory notation, are there any transposition possibilities? My original sorting of K4 started like this: (more can be done and brackets and parenthesis can be added but i didn’t include it because i already think I’ve lost my mind and don’t want everyone else to think so too.It’s really horrendous looking.)
OBKRU
OXO GHULBSOLIF
BB WFLRV
QQ PRNGK
SS O
TWT QSJQ
SS EK
ZZ WATJKLUD IAW I NFBN YPV
TT MZFP KWG DKZXTJCD IGK
UHU AUEKCA R
My immediate instinct, after the Berlin clue, was to run K4 backwards so that YPVTT would all end up on the same line, giving this:
RACKEUA
UHU KGIDCJTXZKDGWKPFZM
TT VPYNBFNIWAIDULKJTAW
ZZ KE
SS QJSQ
TWT O
SS KGNRP
QQ VRLFW
BB FILOSBLUHG
OXO URKBO
I’m also wondering about pattern I’m seeing here. Seems that between every palindrome (UHU, TWT, OXO) there are three sets of doubles. What does all this mean? Or is it all meaninglessness from playing in the rabbit hole too long? Ohh, Yea, My wife thinks I’ve lost my marbles.
Thanks folks.
I’ve been trying to think of how to say this for awhile for other folks and I may muck it up here so please don’t get offended. The best way to not lose your way with a problem like K4 is the method should come first and be independent of your result. If you get them backwards and find yourself increasingly frustrated and upset with yourself and critics then you should probably start fresh and rethink your strategy.
For example, I get an idea of a METHOD that could have been used on K4. It’s a pretty clever idea and with the loose and widely interpretable CLUES people are always going on about, I think it just might be how Sanborn did it. So I use the METHOD on the letters of K4 and come up with gibberish. At this point I make a CHOICE to continue. That can’t be it, maybe I just need to try some different variations of my METHOD. Nothing produces a word or sentence except some 3 letter ones that just encourage me to try harder. What if I take my METHOD with my favorite variation and starting with that output I reverse engineer something to refine my METHOD to give a word or sentence? If I just change the rules of my METHOD then it must be right. And so I get a couple letters or a word that with some short steps can be modified into something that almost seems like an answer but it’s not quite done. I’ve taken it this far, I should go rouse some interest in my METHOD and someone out there will surely help me finish.
It’s not that people think you’re crazy or stupid or anything bad about you really. It’s just that most of them are pretty caught up in what they are convinced is the right way and they’re hoping that they can convince you to follow them as well.
I’m not sure what other folks will say. I will say that you have some good observations but where you’re taking it doesn’t seem like it’s going to produce a good, rational two-part cipher mechanism that we can reverse to find the plain-text of K4. You will lose nothing by going back to your wife and saying, “Hey honey, I’m sorry. I should have listened to you.”
And don’t give up on Kryptos, codes and ciphers are a fun hobby. Someday we’ll finish it and look back at all the fun we had getting there.
Hello, I think that Mr. Sanborn was referring to a conversation with Director Webster when he encrypted the 98 variables. This is what I think the solution is based upon my decryption of the 98 variables. If this is correct I will provide the decryption method because it is difficult. Thanks!
WW OPENS PAGES ENTER IS PAUSED NAVY IS ABOARD AND RADIO A BOAT RUNNING TAKE UP BERLIN GO PRODUCE X BUILD ENOUGH VITAL CIA
is there a method to decrypt the plaintext ?
Yes.
Have you submitted your answer to Sanborn’s site yet?
Yes, I submitted the information there. I got an error a few times in the email address block at the site, but then it accepted the submission. How long does it usually take to get a response from that site?
You only receive a response if you were right…
OK, thanks for the response. lol.
I will keep plugging away then.
That’s all we can do, right? =)
If nothing else, know that you’re not alone in the effort…
After looking at it again, the first part could say:
WE OPEN A PAGE SENT Q X IS PAUSED
I submitted that a few minutes ago to the site. If folks saw how I was solving this, they would understand that it appears to be the method used. But then again, I am not a professional cryptographer, nor am I claiming to be. 🙂
Absolute precision is something I am still working on, obviously.
This link is very interestimg, not the actual article, but the comments from October 02, 2013
http://theruraldemocrat.typepad.com/the_rural_democrat/kryptos-part-4-solved-method.html
Which one in particular?
Here is my deciphered Kryptos Forth Code(Part Four) message. It reads; “NEAR ROUND DINNER BELL IN BETWEEN NORTHWEST BARRACKS ROW ALL INSIDE NSA LIMITS AND ALL VANN KNOWS WE KNOW TOO CROSS ASKEW NORTHWEST CROSS AND YOU SALUTE A ROSE IN VALOR”.
John Paul Vann believed that the Phoenix Operations Project during Vietnam War listed one-half of the VC listed as killed to meet Phoenix Goals. he said that they were “Post Facto” Identification.
The “ROSE IN VALOR”, is The United States of America Flag. I believe that I have solved the Kryptos 4 Code.
Rick A. Roberts
Where is “BERLIN” ? Without “BERLIN” in the text as Mr Sanborn has said himself over and over again, your answer is incomplete/has errors. By saying that “BERLIN” is not in the text then you are saying that Mr Sanborn is lying????
If you are convinced that your K4 answer is correct then why not post some of your workings. You do not have to post all of them just some so to get some feedback.
Thank you for your response to my posted Kryptos 4 message. Here is my intermediate step that I refer to as my decipher. It reads, “NEARONDNERNBELNBTWEENWBRAAXROEALLNSNSALAALLVANNNOSAABOUTONTOWEOKXASSKNWANEUAANDSALUTEAOROOOVALOR”. As you can see, “NYPVTT”, does not equal “BERLIN”. “BERLIN”, as a word is not even present in my decipher or the message that I posted.
However, I do believe that perhaps that there is something buried where the flag was positioned back in 1990. Also, I believe that Mr. Sanborn mentions some geographical directions such as latitude and longitude. The direction may coordinate somehow with the geographical direction that Berlin is in. These may coordinate with the position that the flag was in. many people believe that something is located where there was a manhole cover inside NSA limits.
I never said that Mr. Sanborn was lying. As a Disabled American Veteran, I salute him and all who have served and are serving our country and its peoples. Please do communicate further with me on this site. All responses and information sharing is welcomed. Thank you very much,
Rick A. Roberts
Hello Rick
After thinking about it, I am sorry about the lying part. It was a bit harsh.
I think that you should have a look at this link as it provides proof to NYPVTT being BERLIN by Mr Sanborn himself.
https://kryptosfan.wordpress.com/tag/nypvtt/page/2/
Also this link will tell you what used to be buried.
There is as evidence out there that points to the latitude and longitude being just outside the CIA.
Personally I couldn’t give a flying fig about Mr Sanborn. He has given so much disinformation over the years. He also let his website expire and has not since made a new one. This was the one way that K4 solutions could be verified.
I believe that he does not want Kryptos to be solved. He would lose too much if it was. The fame and fortune would cease.
Good luck with your work.
To Rick,
NEAR ROUND Your BELL … Very
interesting – Wow, what A Wonderful solution I must say!
I’m sorry I haven’t been able to comment. I am slow, and
follow with difficulty.
Additionally I have taken up a new hobby besides
Kryptos – the Delightful modern Art of Dada-ism, which is
unbelievably time consuming, especially when ones
collection has grown by Two-in no time at all!
With Kryptos, it seems to me, where there is one,
there is always two; and many times where there is
two, there is really four. Like all good modern art,
it leaves room for multiple interpretations. Of
course, other interpretations might suggest this is
Calculated to please Younger Audiences as well.
For example, I like the following “adjustment” very well:
“WYE ON B-H-HERO ABUZZ”
And where there is one, there is another great HERO,
who has cousins who OPenly practice YOGA at the feet of
some Goo-RU. Who which, I want to believe is the
real heart of Kryptos and Of which I think you’ve found too.
I acknowledge, Perplexedly at First, that from your message
and solution, and from Mr Vann’s statement –
from Leipzig that, Our great HERO, his is an unfortunate Brothers Grim
tale instead of something in a style better associated with tragic
Rudyard Kipling Prose – as suggested.
I assumed that something sub-rosa would tell something different.
However, if no expeditions have been conducted, as of yet,
and considering the slippery, misdirecting, nature of artists with inside help,
I would not be surprised to find an ancient copy of “die goldene Gans” Brought
to light.
I believe one of the lessons of Kryptos, which it might
show better than first intended, or better than what first glace presumes,
is about the “Allusiveness of Truth”.
A very good lesson to be remembered while living and working
in a dangerous world of doubles and mirrors.
Responses and information sharing are welcomed, and
again, thanks for your solution and I hope I haven’t misinterpreted !!!
Selam and Happy Discoveries and Decrypts,
Ibn Sifre
I know nothing, barely read an article ten minutes ago about this. Noticed something in the article that I’m sure the thousands spending considerable time with codes and this particular code probably already know. I don’t care to crack it. But here’s something I noticed I thought I’d share…
The first message Q is out of place, the word correctly spelt would be ‘illusion’ that’s K1
The second message X is out of place, or holding a place, 5 times. The second message also gives a precise geographical location. that’s K2
The third message is an account of discovery buried within the tomb. The two reference letters X and Q appear here as well. DETAILS OF THE ROOM WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING Q
Could it be… details of the room within emerged from the mist @ the coordinates offered in K2, can you see anything illusion at that location, perhaps a key to k4.
Unfortunately that would limit only someone having clearance to go to that location to be exclusively able to decipher k4.
Just speculation, like I said I know nothing… and other things I saw, that prove I’m just passing through, and offering thoughts on my quick glance:
Staring at K4 for a bit I was able to also notice added and missing letters from the full pattern, the most interesting being in the top left and lower right corners. And also saw that when my eyes were out of focus I could see a cylindrical pattern with the upper left and lower right corners of K4 forming the only parts that didn’t fit into the cylindrical pattern that goes from the bottom left, to top right. But I’m an artist, not a code breaker. So maybe those two triangles and the letters that they’re composed of, outside the repetitive cylindrical pattern of exclusion, mean absolutely nothing and their just pretty optical illusions.
Have fun, cause that’s all that really matters 🙂
Regarding speculation of the misaligned letters YAR and extra L on the two bottom copper plates:
Has the speculation been made that this is the “LAYeR two” Referenced at the end of k2.
I wouldn’t doubt if the third frame on the vigenere table was intentional. With as tedious as it is cutting copper plate with a jig saw, and a letter count approaching 2000, no one wants to make any more cuts than they have to. I’d speculate that the vigenere table is supposed to be flipped for k4. According to Sanborn, k4 starts at the “?” so there’s no doubt it is reversed.
The final message is likely the first thing written down, the first is likely the last.
“Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion”. This phrase, with or without the substitution of Q for L, is likely intended as the key for k4.
What are your thoughts?
– JMR, A new enthusiast in the world of crypto-anything.
Who would really relish the incessant inquiry?
Some people just love the adulation that comes with
success, but not all. Remember the actor that played Gil Favor in the western series “Rawhide”?
Probably not; I believe his name was Eric Fleming; he died filming a scene on an upper tributary of the Solimoes.
As for me, I would rather live in a cabin in the woods than a 10,000 sq. foot house,
regardless of how much money I had. But that’s just me.
I remember somene saying once, I believe it was Stephen Hawking, the greatest accomplishment in the world of physics would be to discover the secrets of the universe. As for me I would rather know that GOD exists, then I would be happy to know GOD. Oh well, I believe that time will tell. (then maybe all this nonsense on this planet will cease)
I am posting this as a possible solution using the first 10 variable format of the 97 variables.
X SORTING AQ
If that is correct, please respond. Thanks.
I wish I had a list of all the cities listed on the Urania Clock. Perhaps a quote by sanborn himself is encoded via a 24 hour timezone method. ie 1st letter of city per zone?
Már korábban írtam, hogy a megfejtés egy konkrét földrajzi hely, csak senki nem figyel. A bejegyzéseimet meg törölték. Persze ez nem véletlen, mert véletlenek nincsenek. Lehet hogy mégis figyel valaki. Hogy lehet hogy még senki nem keresett meg zsíros állással.
Lol, three years later and I come across an email stating anonimus has commented, that sparks my interest again. I’m “a” above.
Thought I should add this article about a new clue being provided by Sanborn from the end of 2014:
https://www.wired.com/2014/11/second-kryptos-clue/
Have fun, cause that’s all that really matters 🙂
The solution is a geographic location.
The algorithm I’ve created shows it far beyond what we think.
The force is with me.
Knowledge is not for sale.
if you create the algorithm you will receive it
K4 Solution : Mount Everest
Krypto is a Comic Book super character
King Clock is a Comic Book Super Character
Captain Berlin is also a Comic Book Super Character..
K4 solution
It is a symbolic geographic location
When i said you’ve missed out something,
WATCH X’s !
look at the picture => https://imgur.com/a/bSf9yyc
In plane site…. #cartesian
well, i got news for you…. since like 1 year ago i found 2 new words… i have no idea about chriptography but i belive this is not about that, is about intelligence… the words are “GOD WAIT.”….all together GODWAIT, i talk with sanborn, but he said that this words doesnt help to solve K4, and that he didnt show it to the poeple interesnting in this clue, but i dont belive in that, i think is a mistake and selfishness because this words can help to someone who is working on this clue, in someway. so i decide to make it public. if you want more details about my work go to https://decryptingkryptos.blogspot.com/, ill be updating the site.
After reading the 2020 interview where Jim Sanborn handed us another clue northeast. Along with Berlin Clocks – It became clear that one could easily be lead to jump to conclusions. He made one thing very clear that was not a very math savvy. That got me thinking..
Everyone jumped on Berlin Clock yet side stepped the World Clock (Alexanderplatz) in Mitte, Berlin.
As we know Jim loves his ciphers… and I believe this one is about graph theory. We were lead to it by berlin clocks northeast.
Why? Alexanderplatz is an Icositetragon it is situated in the north east of Berlin. Why is this significant well so happens in the mathematical field of graph theory, the Schläfli graph, named after Ludwig Schläfli, is a 16-regular undirected graph with 27 vertices and 216 edges. It is a strongly regular graph with parameters .
Now how it relates to K4 I am still trying to work out. I have no clue how graph theory is applied. Maybe someone with that knowledge can shed a light. In the meantime I am going to try to see how it all works..
“`
?OBKRUO
XOGHULB
SOLIFBB
WFLRVQQ .EASTNO
PRNGKSS RTHEAST
OTWTQSJ
QSSEKZZ
WATJKLU
DIAWINF
BNYPVTT .BERLIN
MZFPKWG CLOCK..
DKZXTJC
DIGKUHU
AUEKCAR
“`
With both BERLINCLOCK and EASTNORTHEAST, I think he’s really trying to point out all those doubles with a period of seven (the same number of letters as in KRYPTOS, the key).
So… some sort of block or transposition (bifid?) on top of whatever’s reducing the IOC (fractionation, beaufort…).
I like “–IDBYROWS” as a masked hint, “BIFID BY ROWS” or “TRIFID BY ROWS” (but Sanborn claims IDBYROWS is not really in play anymore, so I’m probably just seeing things).
It’s much harder to see without a monospace font. But I’m convinced we should be leaving the ? in as a placeholder, to get these clean rows of 7 with so many doubles at the end.
I tried virtual every known method… that is documented. It has to be a hybrid of 2 or three.
There is 96 characters .. I thought that it maybe a frequency of how many times a letter occurred or how many times it didn’t occur. That lead me down numerous rabbit holes.
Then I thought substitution.. if it is substitution its a variant of more than one
Sanborn stated that he is not mathematically inclined . I was thinking a enigma type machine or logic machine. Berlin Clock and NorthEast are solution or red herrings …
I think what is needed is to go back to the books he was exposed to and influenced his cryptography addiction.
Was he reading Kahn, David – The CodeBreakers ..what other books written at that time would of inspired him. The clue has to exist in those books.
Take last krypto print it out fold lines only where they line up prefect and not fold over letter it is weird on the folding be careful you be surprised. that simple mathematics is not always needed.. and every site I go to everyone has simple idea in mind mathematics when my child of mind took it tried to fold a plane and saw what is weird then once folded hold it up to the lights
Could very well just be that it was a convenient folding line for stuffing the papers into a binder when traveling to work. The idea is interesting though and I’ve hand written the notes the same as presented and folded over. Nothing pops out immediately which kinda eludes to it being a red herring over a context clue.
Been a while since the latest posts on this forum but figured I’d reach out and see if anyone else is still following this. After the minor bump in popularity from Youtubers picking this up, started checking it out myself. Y’know, for the shiz and giggles.
Some strong ideas already posted already like Jacob’s catch on the flipping of K4 in reverse using the Layer 2.
Adrienne’s – https://imgur.com/a/bSf9yyc
With the interesting alignment of the X’s in K2-K3.
I’m also drawn to the misspellings like most with desparatly, Iqlusion, and undergruund. The AnythingQ and IQlusions draws some attention too.
Could IQlusion be a nod towards thinking of IQ, or quotients, the Berlin Clock (the light one) is based on set theory, X is also a form of noting multiplication. hmmm… to much grasping at straws though. anything more than 2 degrees of assumptions is going to lead to obscurity.
I don’t have an answer like the rest of everyone else, just some advice for anyone else digging into this who has gotten to the bottom of this forum page looking for answers.
1. Mr. Sanborn is not a mathematician, so crazy math requirements to solve is already a bad assumption.
2. Mr. Sanborn is not a cryptographer, but he did have advice from those who are to develop the code. So it should be possible to solve, rule out anything that would be impossible to solve with a critical part missing and no way of generating it.
3. Pretend all you have is the info of K1-K3 and some of the sculpture to work with, will keep you from going into any rabbit holes about book passages and locations.
4. Be mindful of your degrees of assumptions. If you have to assume something based on another assumption, stop and start from the beginning again. Compounding assumptions leads right into how cryptography traps layman would-be code crackers.
My name is Christopher Mark Spriggs
I live in pflugerville/Austin Texas
Here is my solution the multi directional layout makes it non understandable from one direction only using the 97 positions of kryptos this lines the sentence.
10. 2030. _N_T
605040. _C_E_H
20191817161514_T_I_C_S_I_H_T
34333231302928_T_S_A_E_H_T_R
48474645444342_A_H_T_A_R_S_E
62616059585756_H_T_M_O_R_F_S
76757473727170_R_A_K_C_O_L_C
90898887868584_H_T_S_S_O_R_C