Tag Info

First guess the key length(Just try every plausible length, there aren't many). Then for each position where you know both plain- and ciphertext, calculate the key char. If you get a contradiction, the guessed key length was wrong. If the key length is short enough compared to the number of known pairs this will probably give you a large part of the key.

I don't know the solution, but since you say you're only asking for hints, here's a few that occurred to me: If this is a Vigenère cipher, the missing character at the beginning should not matter (much): if you encrypt a message with the key FOOBAR and drop the first letter of the output, you can decrypt the resulting ciphertext with the key OOBARF. As ...

If you have known plaintext, namely one input file that is known in its entirety, this is trivial to break. So I'll explore methods that might lead to a break, if you don't know what's in the input file that was compressed. I suggest that you start by analyzing the DEFLATE stream format carefully (see also these handy notes). This will probably help you ...

This method isn't deterministic. That is, just because a keyword has the lowest chi-square value, that doesn't mean it's the keyword. All it means that there is a good chance that it is the keyword. It's not a guarantee. You should look at the first several likely options to see if the keyword lies there. If you want to automate this, you could compare the ...

It was never determined how to derive the keyword PALIMPSEST from the sculpture or its text. It was, as you stated, found by brute-force hill-climbing algorithms. One theory is that crib-dragging the morse phrase SHADOW FORCES reveals IMPS at SHAD, and working form there retrieving the entire keyword, but I find this far-fetched and implausible. The ...

Strange... WNZTNV is repeated... If i'm counting correct on position 1-6 and 22-27. My guess would be the key length is a divider of 21? 7 seems to be consistent with the other information, but my knowledge of foreign languages is close to none, so i don't recognize anything readable in key or plaintext... key DM''DDS of EN''EET (depending on your ...