The Puzzle:
We have been tracking a gang of thieves, code named Big Fish. Intercepted messages strongly suggest that a cache of valuable items has been hidden in deep cover in the woods of Westchester County.
As described below, the Big Fish Gang communicates the coordinates of secret locations using a code book and a one-time pad. Although one-time pad ciphers are normally unbreakable, in this case the same one-time pad was used to send two messages, giving us an opportunity to crack the code. In addition, we have recovered a copy of the Big Fish code book. Your job is to crack the code and find the treasure.
Here is the first cipher text:
67009 48105 64953 07924 08589 35281 46882 61109 02346 65584
Here is the second cipher text:
05590 79658 93473 93753 25647 53170 06502 75509 30954 93151
Here is the code book:
UTM |
20778 |
WGS84 |
68269 |
degrees |
11110 |
east |
58357 |
easting |
47456 |
eight |
08452 |
eighteen |
56803 |
eighty |
56546 |
eleven |
85037 |
fifteen |
09196 |
fifty |
61748 |
five |
39526 |
forty |
85323 |
four |
21313 |
fourteen |
66797 |
|
hundred |
69032 |
latitude |
26374 |
longitude |
70801 |
million |
40076 |
minutes |
46054 |
nine |
55090 |
nineteen |
41126 |
ninety |
94111 |
north |
75158 |
northing |
20844 |
one |
33285 |
point |
54772 |
seconds |
04718 |
seven |
07846 |
seventeen |
51482 |
|
six |
94052 |
sixteen |
26383 |
sixty |
12544 |
south |
43346 |
ten |
60800 |
thirteen |
42177 |
thirty |
56217 |
thousand |
10930 |
three |
66485 |
twelve |
97308 |
twenty |
11425 |
two |
36060 |
west |
98859 |
zero |
42911 |
zone |
44605 |
|
The decrypted coordinates will lead you to a decon container hidden under sticks within a multi-trunked tree. Total walk is less than a mile round-trip through a pleasant nature preserve with a few stream crossings. We encourage you to stay on the trails until very close to ground zero.
Background:
The Venona code is a double-encrypted system in which words are first converted into numbers by using a code book and then the numbers are scrambled using a one-time pad. Code systems that use a one-time pad are theoretically unbreakable if they are used correctly.
The first step in the Venona code is to look up the words of the message in a code book that maps words to numbers. For example, if the code book contains:
agency |
91348 |
anything |
63165 |
never |
51076 |
no |
11641 |
say |
61089 |
such |
14902 |
then the phrase "no such agency" would be converted to:
no such agency
11641 14902 91348
The second step is to apply the one-time pad. The one-time pad should be a completely random and unpredictable string of bits. Suppose the one-time pad contains the following "random" blocks:
61723 61135 45799
To complete the Venona encryption, write the encoded number above the one-time pad and add the digits one by one, without carrying. Thus, the final output would be:
encoded message 11641 14902 91348
one-time pad 61723 61135 45799
-----------------
final cipher text 72364 75037 36037
To decrypt the message, the recipient must also have the same one-time pad. Simply write the cipher text above the one-time pad and subtract, again without carrying:
final cipher text 72364 75037 36037
one-time pad 61723 61135 45799
-----------------
coded message 11641 14902 91348
The coded message blocks are looked up in the code book and the original message is reconstructed.
Crypto systems that employ one-time pads are theoretically unbreakable if they are used properly. But if the one-time pad is re-used, and the code breaker has access to two cipher texts created with the same one-time pad, then he or she can exploit the difference between those two cipher texts to reconstruct the original messages (plain texts).
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.