Cryptography 501 – Lesson 1
The Cryptography Lesson cache series
is a series of caches that is based upon varying difficulties of
cryptographic knowledge and cracking ability. The 501 lessons are
meant to be taken together.
This cache bears remarkable
similarities to two caches that were put out by Ibycus. Thanks to
Ibycus for letting me recycle the idea, especially since I had a
great deal of pride for having solved the originals.
The basis of these two caches is the
Solitaire Cipher, as presented by Bruce Schneier in a fictional
work titled Cryptonomicon (and was originally called
Pontifex.) It was designed around the idea of being an
(almost) unbreakable cipher based on a deck of cards, with the
general thought being that a secret agent caught with a deck of
cards would seem innocent enough. (More information is at
http://www.schneier.com/solitaire.html)
Solitaire was broken by Paul Crowley
in 1999 – this means that it is possible to decrypt the message
without having to use every possible key combination. Regardless,
for the casual observer, Solitaire is pretty much unbreakable.
There are many different ways to
implement Solitaire on a computer. The program that I used for this
one is available at
http://www.erobillard.com/Content/solitaire/
although you may not need it for this
cache.
One
of the main weaknesses behind any
encryption algorithm, though, is
human weaknesses. Someone may use a very simple password, such as
“password.” Another possibility is that someone used a date, like
the words that make up the date that this cache was hidden (as an
example.) Still another possibility is that two different
ciphertexts may exist that use the same keystream.
This cache is found at the encoded
coordinates below:
RIMTC
KMGCT YYMWW UBADR UCAZJ SAILA YTFKA LRHKQ ACVEA CBSJF BXHNM KRYUA
UHOHI BYCMI PKZLR XARTY VXGXV FNDRC OG
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.