kryptos

A place for my Kryptos junk.

azdecrypt

Procedure to solve K3:

• Open AZDecrypt
• File -> Open File
• Go into folder Ciphers/Transposition and pick Kryptos 3.txt
• Replace the ? character at the end of the ciphertext with a dummy letter such as X.
• In solver window, select "Simple Transposition"
• Click "Solve" button, and a popup with options should appear.
• Click "Add all operations"
• In main AZDecrypt window, click "Solve" button again.
• Solver runs and solution should appear shortly.

cipher type identification

Results of running various cipher type identifiers on K1-K4:

• Spreadsheet

Identifiers:

• Bion's ACA stats
• Bion's Neural Net
• Boxentriq
• CryptoCrack
• Enigmator
• dCode.fr
• NCID

papers

• Richard Bean - Cryptodiagnosis of "Kryptos K4"
• Craig Bauer - James Sanborn’s Kryptos and the matrix encryption conjecture

more info

• Kryptos on Wikipedia
• Quagmire info and ACA articles
• Sanborn's page
  • Kryptos info
  • Kryptos fees
• NSA's declassified Kryptos info (Wayback)
• Elonka Dunin's Kryptos page
• Kryptos Fan blog
  • Jim Gillogly Q&A
• Kryptos posts on Numberworld:
  • Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
• Original decoding charts (NYT)
• Kryptools.com: Info, tools, and extensive timeline of hints/clues
  • Sanborn's decoding sheets
• Videos:
  • K1 solution tutorial
  • Jim Sanborn - Big Tech presentation
  • Kryptos segment from Nova ScienceNow
  • Nova ScienceNow videos (better quality)
  • Great Big Story video on Kryptos (interviews with Elonka Dunin and Jim Sanborn)
  • Early Sanborn interview on CNN
    • Fifteen years after this interview, Jim Sanborn recalled that he had "loose lips" and was "very glib." He claims that he practically gave the whole solution away.
  • 2015-10-25 Kryptos Workshop
    • Transcript
• Wired interview with Ed Scheidt
• Usenet: Gillogly announces his solves (1999)
• Usenet: Gillogly explains "Shotgun hillclimbing", the technique he used
• Usenet: Gillogly gives some info on his solver algorithm
• 1999-07-19 Washington Post article on Kryptos
• 2005-06-21 CNN Sanborn interview
• 2020-02-23 How Was K1 of the CIA Sculpture of Kryptos Solved?
• 2020-07-31 Richard Bean's summary of conflicting statements from Sanborn / Scheidt
• 2022-11-04 "German Guesser", whose solution "started to look right" according to Sanborn - Details about finding high IoC using XOR layers