| |
 |
|
|
Science Forum Index » Cryptography Forum » Zodiac340 cryptogram
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Larry Hammick |
 Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 10:59 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Hi all,
I'm new to this room. I've been feeling my way through the 340-character
cryptogram from the unidentified serial murderer known as the Zodiac:
http://www3.telus.net/ldh/340.txt
It seems to be in somewhat the same system as an earlier one from the same
guy, which has been solved. Here is the earlier cg, with a look at how it
works:
http://www3.telus.net/ldh/3part.txt
Anybody got a partial crack of Zodiac340, or links? I'm only interested in
the crypto, not in theories about Zodiac's mind etc. 
One other thing. Is sci.crypt archived somewhere?
TIA,
Larry |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Douglas A. Gwyn |
| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 5:13 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Larry Hammick wrote:
Quote: Anybody got a partial crack of Zodiac340, ...
I've looked into it. While it is too short (for the
system used) to expect a solution without some lucky
break, I noted that the recovered alphabet for the
solved cipher showed a distinct pattern in its
assignment of symbols to English letters, so I was
hoping that Zodiac340 would have a similar pattern.
I didn't manage to get anywhere with it, though.
Good luck!
Quote: One other thing. Is sci.crypt archived somewhere?
Probably in Google's archive that usd to be DejaNews. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Larry Hammick |
| Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004 9:18 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
"Douglas A. Gwyn"
Quote: Larry Hammick wrote:
Anybody got a partial crack of Zodiac340, ...
I've looked into it. While it is too short (for the
system used) to expect a solution without some lucky
break, I noted that the recovered alphabet for the
solved cipher showed a distinct pattern in its
assignment of symbols to English letters, so I was
hoping that Zodiac340 would have a similar pattern.
A similar pattern is present. E.g. in the solved cg, plaintext F is
represented by J, then Q, then J, then Q, ... In Zodiac340
http://www3.telus.net/ldh/340.txt
look at the appearances of 25, 26, 42: they appear in the sequence
25 26 42 25 26 42 25 26 42 25 26.
These three cipher symbols seem, therefore, to represent the same plaintext
letter. (H? U? No doubles appear.) If we had enough data of this kind, the
whole thing would reduce to a simple substitution. It won't be that easy,
but we do have samples of Z's writing, and an assortment of probable words.
Cipher 30 ("+" in Z's notation) may have some special function. It appears
about twice as often as any other symbol.
LH |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:43 am
|
|