Reader Orion has made a really cool Windows program that will do all the decrypting for you (if you have the pad). I think I’m going to redo the message, though, because I messed up a but (the word “GO” is part of the code; yes, my secret message has the word “GO” in it). More details soon.
I never got my pad … but then, I’m not sure if the email list even signed me up, it gave me all kinds of problems.
It took me 20 minutes just to decrypt the first 3 words. Yeah, maybe I’m just slow. This is definitely challenging my loyalty. Do I work on the all-important code, or should I spend my time raising the kids. Hmmmm….dilemma.
I signed up again … maybe it will show up today?
The GO definitely threw everything off. I had to start from the back and work my way up, but I still haven’t decoded the whole thing.
I signed up, but no e-mail ;_;
I signed up but never got an e-mail.
Did you guys check your junk e-mail folders?
Great. I run Mac OSX, so I’ll still have to decrypt it manually. Plus I already had three lines done!
I checked my junk folder, but no email 🙁
I run Mac OSX as well. I just assumed there was no way to decrypt it without Microsoft Calculator. I still don’t really have any idea how to do this.
Wow, that’s pretty darn complicated, Frank. I think I’m gonna have to wait until finals are over before I have enough time to decode that whole thing. Maybe that can be my summer project… I mean, who needs a job when you have secret messages to read?
I never got my decryption pad, even though the thing told me I had successfully signed up.
I run Mac OSX as well. I just assumed there was no way to decrypt it without Microsoft Calculator. I still don’t really have any idea how to do this.
Let me see what I can do for the Mac OS X folks…
That might take me a bit longer than this Windows tool though. Hrms…Maybe a quick web page would work…
Orion
Paulski, try this online calculator. It’s tedious, but it works.
http://www.calculator.com/calcs/calc_hex.html?0
On the calculator, enter the message code, click the XOR key, enter the one-time pad code, then click the = key.
And then spend the rest of the day entering and clicking your life away.
Frank, this message had better be the holy grail of messages.
I’m imported fifteen Chinese people just for this!
And the secrete message is
“GO, buy a IMAO: Know thy enemy T-shirt.”
I’m being a rebel IMAO loyal reader and not bothering with this silly code, cause I have too many other things to do, sorry Frank! And, I knew someone else would decode it for me anyway, thanks rasta! haha.
For those of you using OS X, Panther (and possibly earlier versions) have a Hex calculator, you just have to turn it on. Here’s how:
Navigate to where the Calculator is installed (likely the Applications folder.)
Control click the application and select “Show Package Contents.”
Navigate to Contents/Resources in the Calculator Contents. In this folder you will find:
ExpressionSheet.calcview
Graphing-2D.calcview
Hexadecimal.calcview
Copy these to the Contents/Plugins folder
Then open calculator, and select View -> Hexadecimal.
Apple, is there anything they can’t do? 🙂
Bah. Where’s a windtalker when you need one?
OSX’ers, here are a ton of calculators. I don’t know which one works best though.
Thanks Perlwizard. I think that’s gonna work the best.
Gee…I feel like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story”. He finally gets his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring and the secret message says “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine”. I’m worried that by the time I decode an entire message, my four kids would have starved to death and then I would have to seriously maim Frank for depriving me of my chief source of labor and instruments to humiliate in public!
Thanks for the advice, guys. Now to try them out.
Sorry about the double post–I don’t know how that happened. I only clicked the button once.
Aww. Stop whining. Decoding is supposed to be fun 😛
Man, it only took me an hour to decode it. It’s quite easy if you know how to set up all the windows.
Yeah, you set up all the windows, then you get lost. Tip: when writing down the answer and you get to the end of a line of code, skip to the next line on your paper (or the next line in notepad), so it’s easy to check your work. I got about about 3 lines done, then decided I had better things to do.
orion, what language did you write the tool in?
I did a couple of lines, but decided to wait for a repost of the code, in case it is changed significantly. It’s going to take me a long time, so I might as well not make it take any longer than necessary. As it is, I’ll probably only be able to make myself do it a little bit at a time.
You can download the decoder program at:
http://www.griffon-ltd.com/katana.zip
Unzip it into any directory and run Setup – all it does is install the executable and the help file.
Enjoy! Comments and suggestions welcome…
Orion
Sorry – missed the earlier comment. Katana is written in Delphi-5. Total development time was about 2 hours including graphics, debugging and documentation.
Orion
That’s excellent, Orion. My only criticism is that it doesn’t handle carriage returns too gracefully.
Presumably it can also automate the encoding for Frank, since XOR is reflexive. (is that the right term? I mean that “if A XOR B = C then C XOR B = A”)
good now what is a “dewails”?
Yeah Clam, I made a reverse utility to make it really easy to generate the messages too – which should help remove errors.
It had troubles with the EOL markers? I’m not surprised. I don’t have any Pads to test with, so I had to make my own for message testing – and I had to tweak a bit around the EOL’s.
I’ll get a patch in for that and let y’all know when that’s in. Need a Pad first! 🙂 (I’ll make the patched executable available so you don’t have to reinstall).
Anyone find the Easter Egg yet? LOL
Orion
Patched – You can download the patched executable at http://www.griffon-ltd.com/katana.exe
Thanks for the bug spot! I got my pads in the mail, so I was able to do a better job testing.
Orion
cool! the new ver works a lot beter!
Glad to hear it! Now, perhaps, Frank J will ask Chomps to release my nether regions from his indefatigable grip…
🙂
Orion
Damn, nice work Orion! I actually whomped up a program in Java last night to do this. It isn’t exactly pretty (it’s command line only) but it might work in OS X (which, IIRC, has the latest version of java pre-loaded). This might be a bit tricky for some, but probably easier than XORing 512 numbers by hand. 🙂
1) Download the source code here. Save it somewhere convenient.
2) Open a new terminal window, navigate to the directoy where you saved the file, and type: javac decrypt.java
3) If that worked, you should get a new file called decrypt.class.
4) Save both the pad and the message to separate text files in the same directory as before, stripping out any blank lines.
5) Type: java decrypt messagefile padfile
If all goes well, you should get a success message, and a decrypted file called “decoded.txt”
5a) If the above doesn’t work (i.e., you get cryptic error messages about classpaths and such), try typing this instead: java -cp . decrypt messagefile padfile
Let me know if this works for you mac people. If it does, I’ll see if I can find the time to put together a better user interface, so nobody has to muck around with files. 🙂
I could decipher most of Frank’s typos, except the 8th line. Sure hope a new code comes soon, because otherwise I am lost.
Orion: under help, what does “wakazachi” mean?
cerberus:
I’m clueless with Terminal. I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “navigate to the directoy where you saved the file.” I went to “Open” from the “Shell” menu and navigated to the file that way, but it would not let me select it. (It was grey and all.) Is there some other way you mean to navigate to the file?
cerberus:
I’m clueless with Terminal. I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “navigate to the directoy where you saved the file.” I went to “Open” from the “Shell” menu and navigated to the file that way, but it would not let me select it. (It was grey and all.) Is there some other way you mean to navigate to the file?
Secret decoding games aren’t really my bag. Will I have to give up my fan club membership?
I could be the club bouncer I suppose. All those years of martial arts oughta count for something.
Personal announcement: Today I shot all my weapons for the first time in about a year. I am still enjoying the afterglow of watching a target disintigrate at a 100 yards under a hail of .223 and .308 rounds.
Viva la 2nd Amendment!
cerberus:
I tried just typing the line “javac decrypt.java” into the Terminal window and it responds “error: cannot read: decrypt.java
“1 error”
Also, when I try to paste the text from the downloaded file into the Terminal window, it sort of freezes the application. (The mouse cursor spins around indefinitely in its thinking mode.)
The file “decrypt.java” downloads as a SimpleText document. Is that wrong?
One other thing: did you mean to type “java decrypt.java” when you typed “javac decrypt.java”, or did you type correctly?
Hmmm. I’m not as familiar as I should be with OS X, but I think if you select the folder that contains the file, it may do what’s needed.
The other way to do it is, in the terminal window, type cd directoryname. “Directoryname” is the full name of the directory (or folder) that contains the file (for instance, if you saved it on the desktop, and your username is “steve” it would be /users/steve/library/desktop. If you feel up to it, you can poke around in the various folders by typing ls, which will list the contents of whatever folder you’re in. Also, pwd will list the full name of whatever folder you’re in.
You can use the results of ls to navigate directories. I think (but I’m not sure) that directories will show up as a different color in OS X, so when you see a directory, you can cd into it.
I hope this makes some sort of sense!
Frank J –
If you would consider changing your encryption/decryption routines, you can do this quite easily in JavaScript.
Please see my JavaScript encrypt/decrypt page.
And it’s narrow enough to fit in your margin. View Source, copy all, and it’s yours.
Steve
Paulski: If you would, can you type ls -al | grep decrypt in the directory that contains decrypt.java and paste the results here? (the “|” character is shown on some keyboards as two vertical lines directly above one another. On my keyboard it’s Shift + \ )
The file is just plain text, so, yeah, simpletext. And yes, “javac” is correct. Javac compiles the program, java runs it.
What’s all this whining about? I’m older than Frank’s father & I could figure it out. Although, with relativity being what it is, I may be older than Frank’s grandfather before it’s done. My hair’s kinda fuzzy too. It took me four hours & a 12 pack of Guinness draft to get it done, so what?!!? I needed an excuse to drink all that beer. And another thing- what happened to #1 & #2!!!!!! And also, why do those little torpedoes keep frothing in my beer? OK, after 12 G’s, I’ll tell- it says “GO spank your monkey”. Now shaddup- I’ve got beer to drink…
Frank J. is severly overestimating my attention spa…Ooo look! A bird!
cerberus:
I tried just typing the line “javac decrypt.java” into the Terminal window and it responds “error: cannot read: decrypt.java
“1 error”
Also, when I try to paste the text from the downloaded file into the Terminal window, it sort of freezes the application. (The mouse cursor spins around indefinitely in its thinking mode.)
The file “decrypt.java” downloads as a SimpleText document. Is that wrong?
One other thing: did you mean to type “java decrypt.java” when you typed “javac decrypt.java”, or did you type correctly?
frank, I’ve got a grand idea! since you are basing your first 2 rules of the club on the first 2 rules of the movie fight club, you should give us our “homework” assignments, as send them to us in sealed envelopes! much less complicated for those of us who are 16!
Paulski: Hold tight. I’m gonna see if I can make this thing a bit easier to use.
cerberus:
I typed “ls -al | grep decrypt” into the directory containing the file decrypt.java (it’s a folder on my desktop). Here’s what spit back at me: “-rw-r–r– 1 paulsav staff 2102 Apr 17 22:20 decrypt.java”.
Also, I since you helped me navigate into the correct folder, I typed in “javac decrypt.java” but it gave me a long error message with 4 different errors (coming from the java text, I think).
And sorry again about the double post. I don’t know why it keeps doing that.
Frank – 3 words – Pretty Good Privacy.
Is this a funny political satire site – or a geeky 133t h4x0r site?
Cerberus:
When I tried to compile decrypt.java I got two errors. It expected a closing ‘)’ on lines 19 and 30. After fixing this, it asked for a trailing ‘;’ and with that in place it would compile, but when run I get
‘Exception in thread “main”‘ blah blah ‘For input string: “GO”‘ and had some more indecipherable (for me) errors.
I also get an empty file called decoded.txt in that same directory.
Wow. This is worse than having to pay for drinks for Teddy Kennedy.
I desperately hope all you disgustingly smart people can come up with an easy way for us dumb people to decode stuff.
Tim: you got it right. That error is becuase Frank put the word “GO” into the rest of the text. Replace the GO with 00 (two zeros) and it should work okay.
Note to self: put error checking in the next version. 🙂
Paulski: Looks like I had a version with a couple of typos in it, as Tim appears to have noticed. If you try it now, it should run okay (make sure you replace that “GO” in the middle of it with 00, though).
The text it produces is illegible in places. This appears to be becuase our illustrious Frank J. finds XORing 512 bytes as tedious as all of you do, and apparently he made a few errors. 🙂
I’m gonna see if I can write up a version of this that doesn’t involve the command line, and is more friendly to you Mac people.
To the rescue! 🙂
Go to http://www.griffon-ltd.com/wodan.html
Paste the appropriate one-time pad in the first box.
Paste the secret message in the second box.
Click on DECODE.
The secret message will appear. (Or you can continue using Katana for you windows folks).
Sorry that took me so long, but I had to teach myself Javascript (which appears to be a bastardized version of C and HTML with some other stuff tossed in for flavor). I borrowed heavily from SteveC’s Java page…
And I missed an earlier question – Wakazachi is (probably missspelled) the short-sword version of the Katana…the Samurai carried both swords.
Orion
And I’m a drooler – in this case, Wakazachi is the reverse version for Frank J’s use to create the coded messages, sans typos…:-)
Orion
Quick note too – Wodan was developed and tested in Opera 7.23…I have NO idea if it’ll work in other browsers…I didn’t do anything even remotely weird in the Javascript, but as I said – I just taught myself, so I have no idea…
Orion
Guys, I have found the name of the man connected both to the attack of the US convoy which made the American hostages and the Shiite/Fallujah thread. His name is Sheik al-Karbalie, he is Shiite and rallies anti US insurgents from the Um-al-Kura mosque in Baghdad.
I’ll comment later on my blog with the pictures. But here again, I need your help to alert the FBI.
If this man is arrested, we might be able to find where the hostages are.
Orion: Doesn’t seem to work for me in Mozilla Firefox 0.8 or Internet Explorer 6.0
Frank, you should install the alert function on IMAO so that when something important happens, I can wake up you all.
BTW, have you ever seen this scene on a film. It’s about hostages exchange. The FBI exchange a prisoner against a VIP and when the exchange is done, the FBI agent says “you are under arrest”… something like that…
I hope we can find a way to free the American hostages. Pray for them and the American troops. They need your support.
Orion:
Nothing happens when I click the “Decrypt” button. I use Explorer 5.1 for Macs.
Orion:
Nothing happens when I click the “Decrypt” button. I use Explorer 5.1 for Macs.
Orion:
Nothing happens when I click the “Decrypt” button. I use Explorer 5.1 for Macs.
Okay, this is the last time I’m apologizing for those double posts. If my computer wants to be a jerk, I’m not going say anything more about it. Let it be heard that this apology counts towards all future double posts.
#@@#!! computers! 🙂
Hrms…I’ll look into the IE glitch…This is what happens when you teach yourself a language in 2 hours. LOL
I’m betting it’s something simple.
Orion
PATCHED!
Sorry ’bout that. IE doesn’t like the ‘type=text/javascript’ modifier in the script tag, and I had an extra quote mark hanging out at the end.
Apparently, Opera let’s you be a sloppy, naughty programmer and IE is a bit more stringent – which is quite different than I’m used to (Usually you can get away with anything in IE)
I’ve now tested it in Opera 7.23 and IE 6…
Orion
Works in Netscape 4.7 as well…That should solve the Mozilla/Firebird grouping too.
BANZAI!!
Orion
Orion.
You rule.