The Puzzle:
We have been tracking a gang of thieves, code named Winona.
Intercepted messages strongly suggest that a cache of valuable
items has been hidden in deep cover in the forests of Los Angeles
County.
As described below, the Winona 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 Winona code book. Your job is to crack the code and
find the treasure.
Here is the first cipher text:
59966 79680 65792 49098 87321 65383 32435 30271 56560 09185
Here is the second cipher text:
11475 48137 94512 65131 32696 23075 72715 72289 11495 52547
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 large ammo box.
There is no need to leave the trail until you reach the 4 trunked
oak tree. Cache is located approximately 25 feet, bearing 330
degrees from the oak tree. Initial contents include: a Marc Jacobs
Thermal shirt, black beaded purse, pair of Calvin Klein socks
(gray), a hair band and hair clip.
Background:
The Winona 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 Winona 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 Winona 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.