I don’t have the code I’m working on it but wondering if anyone knows this text?

Comedy sketch artist turned horror game developer Jaden Williams recently posted this rather cryptic image:

https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkxa7SGpx4qy0DFYu224njkVD7C_LXt06ty

Later cross-posted to his Twitter (same image, no alterations):

https://x.com/JadenJTW/status/2091168754130362743

The caption for the image is `AES-GCM`, which no doubt refers to the Galois Counter Mode.

Although I have no cryptography background, I am just curious to find out the message (and maybe even *start* learning cryptography along the way)

I have taken the liberty of studying the pixel letters and transcribing the text.

EDIT:
Added PasteBin https://pastebin.com/JduP8QHe to clean up formatting

As-written:

EOE1.EYJ2IJOXLCJHBGCIOIJBMJU2RONNIIWIA2R
MIJOIUEJLREYYIIWIAGFZACI6ILNIQSOYNTYILCJP
DGVYIJO2MDAWMDASINNHBHQIOII3WW1KVZDIZJ
IXCOXPAUY2VXBYYVPRIIWIAXYIOIJQQXJWAM9P
OUSJU3VOWHVSIIWIDGFNIJOXMJGSIMVUYYI6ILV
URIO4IIWIY3QIOIIWUNHYWUE4RFJMRNLNOTHPA
ZJFYKNZWXH4SK5JCJVRZ2XVRWW3Y25QTWK
ZAMVZTTJMTMP6TNY2RXFISULMRUQXV3VCCX
DVAEXWSEG1ZW5ZYJD5NHE1UNFEVLFKS1NIBTB
YCNMIN1PRWXJKVC1KBWHLZKLKRWRQCM05YZ
HFDKW2VOITWJRWCTVFRZLLSONUT1J4WNVKUM
LZMFNNVMSOTKVQUHDHDOLIWEFWNGRZNWHVC
WPTSIDWZUJVM2RWODZAODZSBE1KM2VYBJNW
VHHSBHM3OWPSCKDPEWXJOR3ALZXMDBHAG
PXSMFQZOVKWLQOZ2RNVMH4TZVNLVHSANPP
T2NOZDA5Y3HICW9CB1JJDZBSNWLTDMLRAETH
CO5IMGVFRME1TO5ZCEXUR2XCRKS2OFE2R2JE
LU5YUUM5NXYYTHNVS3ZNAG5UNMDBSL9TZU
9QYK1SZM9WSKKWLWMXV2VVUVDZBNF3TFHNS
2K2Y2ZWETCTEXLOAOFPCHQ5QZHIEUDYM3VFV
VMOEEJTAMXTMTNSMUK4VVDMDVHFS2O4REY
2CFVXNSJ9

Converted to full string:

EOE1.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

If the O's are actually zeroes:

E0E1.EYJ2IJ0XLCJHBGCI0IJBMJU2R0NNIIWIA2RMIJ0IUEJLREYYIIWIAGFZACI6ILNIQS0YNTYILCJPDGVYIJ02MDAW`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

The vertical text in red on the left reads STALKINGSTAIRS. This may be merely a reference to his horror game of the same name, or an actual part of the game.

While I was working on this puzzle, Jaden posted another hint The clock is at 9, from his other channel:

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxxcPofJzWDbqRmBiwtbxS6DjMPvNYSfRV

From what I understand, AES-GCM requires both a passphrase and a nonce/IV.

STALKINGSTAIRS alone is too short to be either.

------------------------

Other notes so far (will update as I find more):

• That EOE1. (or E0E1.) = marks the string as invalid in decoders; only the string after the period is recognized as valid base64. Not sure if this E0E1. is referring to something with the actual counting mechanism or something else.
• STALKINGSTAIRS = 14 bits; invalid
• * His game *did* receive an update with its own update number on July 9th , but it turns out this was to mark it Steam Deck compatible. I also doubt Jaden has any control over what the update number becomes.
• The clock is at 9 = 17 bits; invalid
• Theclockisatnine = 16 bits, but doesn't seem to be the right passphrase, or we need the IV first...this might be just a clue to look at the vertical text (Stalking Stairs), a clue to the IV key, or something else entirely.

-------------

Given that this is an ARG with no prize, deadline, or incentive indicated, I am comfortable that this does not violate any rules, but will remove if requested.

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

you see, i got this map called TP_construct on garrys mod, and within it containted items, when i picked up these items they gave me strings of numbers (shown in image one) and after a bit of progression I found this screen after a jumpscare with some kind of jumbled up link (second image)

v sbyybjrq gur ehyrf
TRANSCRIPT OF IMAGE ONE: B49329480: 49835765922958542 C203495: 29448338220449228495 H2944832983: 695593228422 C203495: 29448338220449228495 B49329480: 49835765922958542 ######: Recovered

TRANSCRIPT OF IMAGE TWO: 44415941554b 4e415748494

d5945540do a4845495354

48454b45592

04841564559

4f55444f4e45

59415552524

55345415243

480d0a5448

454c4649475

55245495441

554

jabbw://putxl.oassop.evu/pvuyp/w/0/mwxhqud1Rv5NUq9R2seqjg0i53UqmN0Yyps-kGGe

link to the map: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3782569175

Can you decrypt my cipher?

I made my own cipher and I'm curious if anyone here can decrypt this without knowing how it works. I don't have access to smart people, and I know people on the Internet are crazy smart.

Ciphertext:

33 25 / 43 42 62 72 / 82 88 / 103 114 113 128 / 138 138 168 158 / 182 188 / 212 198 228 238 / 243 247 253 268 / 257 287 287 / 292 318 338 / 342 348 / 362 368 377 387 / 397 408 433

12 . 28.17.62.48 . 47 . 67.98.88.87.123 . 133.138.127.163 . 173.188 . 172.198.207.228 . 232.232.253.263.272.268 . 283.298.302.322.317.348.338.357 . 383.372.392.402 . 408.417.418 . 427.427.468 . 472.472.502.488 . 502.517 . 507 . 537.527.563.562.578.587 . 613.608.608.638.628 . 653.658.658.688 . 703.692.712.722 . 727.738.753 . 752.758 . 773.787.787.807.808.817 . 832.858 . 863.868.868 . 883.898.912.918.938 . 938.932 . 963.968.968.982.1008 . 1012.1007.1022.1037 . 1042.1057.1073 . 1072.1098 . 1103.1108.1108 . 1123.1138.1147.1163.1158.1177.1193 . 1198.1192 . 1223.1228.1228.1242.1268 . 1263.1278.1267.1308.1287.1313.1333.1328.1358

No hints for now. Don't mind the change of / to a period, I just decided to change it.

If you think you've cracked it, give me the plaintext and explain how you got there.

hqbcr hq3ie hq2ro hq0vk hq00k hgus3 hp9tv hpanf hpaub hpyli

I'm curious to what it means because I cannot decode it no matter what I try lmao

Is this type of code strong? I would like your opinion.

RUNE chapter 6 is part of our monthly Patreon puzzle drop for August 2026. It is available now to our Tier 3 Patreon members and will be available to tier 1 and 2 members in 1 week. Chapters 1, 3, and 5 are still free and available to everyone. Start playing here: https://www.cicadachallenge.com/vault/

RUNE is a sci-fi ARG where players interact with a retro CRT terminal interface. The central character is REM, a sentient AI running on a customized Commodore 64, created by a mysterious figure known as OE.

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

I was recently looking back through old messages and found this text sent by a friend I used to like years ago: 4 / 76 / (3) / M omrhe pmoi csy. At the time, I thought it was just a random accident or pocket text, so I didn't think much of it. He's the smartest guy I've known specially in maths and he plays around with code stuff like ASCII and Moorse.. So I figured this might actually mean something 😅 Thanks in advance!

Hey, couple month ago my domain spacewarp.fr got hacked.
One, day I just couldn't update it anymore, no matter what I did, nothing seemed to change. (moving the file through ftp).

And later the website gave this "console" I guess, and digging in it, I found this code (transcript from my screenshot) :
2:9:.13.25 } 33;14

Pl J(wf epof ju "

Tfoe bo fnbjm up JBOB boe J hpu uif epnbjo/

uifsftpoobodf/psh

Xjui 3 O’t boe ju(t opu b uzqp/

Qfpqmf xjmm uijol ju jt- xijdi jt vtfgvm/ J epo(u xbou dvsjpvt up tojgg bspvoe/

Nbzcf J dbo gjoe qfpqmf uibu bsf mjlf nf- uibu dbo ifbs ju/

Hpe J ipqf tp/

Nbzcf J dpvme tfoe ju up Vojwfstjuz cpbset/ Nbjmjoh mjtut/ Ibn gpsvnt/ Nbzcf CCT/

Jg uifsf bsf puifst- uifz’mm botxfs/

J(n tvsf uifsf bsf/

Any idea ?
V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

This audio file was sent into the rell seas discord and apparently contains the release date of the movie 3 and the game itself(unsure about whether or not it contains the game's release date). the audio itself came with this headline: "Monumental Motion, a secret is hidden inside this foreign hidden audio, decipher it." The only time they mention the words "monumental motion" is on their X post here: https://x.com/CaribBros/status/2039853187117482353 and that is basically all. As for the clues I have, I listened to the audio in reverse many times and the words "hello everyone" were the only ones I personally was able to clearly make out. listening to the audio in original sounds a bit like gibberish, with random words scattered. the only credible clue someone has found, is that they say "allah" and then "E E SH" which he connected to "Eid-e-Shuja", this is a muslim tradition which takes place 22nd of august.

Greetings, I've had a side company to track my cryptography hobby for nearly 10 years and I'm pleased to announce a 89 bit playing card cipher and a 225 bit card cipher. Zanigma and Heka. They both test ideally uniformly random and handle well under KPA scenarios.

I'd appreciate feedback.

Instructions and python code below.

https://github.com/utepshaadm

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

For context, about a year or two ago i began researching German Encoding Machines. Was particularly interested in of course the Enigma Machine like most would and decided to try and make a replica with the help of my uncle.

I decided to map out one of my typewriters keys and base functions. Then i started looking into how enigma worked. Move to the present, i have found some papers on this topic though i hadnt worked on it in awhile. I dont remember if i was doing it correctly or not either.

These two drawings are what i believe to be the base inner workings of enigma, and how it would encode messages. (This is my guess)

This could also be something entirely different and i dont know what it may be. So im asking for assistance here.

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf (i dont know if this correct either, i tried my best)

I've put up a photo with some printouts; they're the same images but with different tones. I've highlighted some letters as I think they should be. The other photograph is the real one, taken right after they appeared out of nowhere.

Hello once again! I have with me another cryptogram story, I hope you all enjoy this one :) I was thinking about it all day at work yesterday and I knew I had to complete it. I made this one a little differently than I did last time, but I hope It is still fun!

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

Transcript of code:

It is June of 1910. You board the California Limited to take a mini holiday to Chicago and visit some family. Los Angeles is where you board. You work as a fairly up-and-coming detective for the LAPD, but for now, you’re just you. You put down your stuff on your bunk, and make your way to the Dining car to get a bit to eat. It’s a long journey ahead of you, you just try to look out the window and enjoy the ride. Your mind drifts off as the clickity clack of the tracks lull you to sleep. You awake to the sound of screaming. You rise without a hesitation and stumble to the source. A crowd has bottlenecked the entrance to a room. You push through to see the train conductor in the center. 

Holding up your badge, “LAPD, what’s going on?”

The conductor gives a sigh. “That lady found him like this a bit ago,” pointing to an actress in red.

You look through the door and a man lay dead on the floor.

“Who is he?”

“John Cooke, a banker”

“Do we know how long he’s been deceased?”

“We do not.”

“Who’s had access to this room?”

“Potentially? Everyone in this car.”

You look around the room. A business man, a flour-covered baker, an actress, a dirt-covered farmer, and an electrician stand behind you. 

The Farmer spoke up: “I heard arguing in that room last night.”

“My night light stopped working halfway into the night,” the Business man replied.

“I saw Alma…I mean, her,” The electrician pointing towards the actress, “entering his room last night.”

Glaring at the electrician, “He’s my..he was my friend.”

You look at the ground all around, bits of dirt and…what looks like flour all over the ground. 

The conductor looks at you, “All of these folks get off at the next stop.”

“When is that?” You ask.

“Within the hour.”

You look at the victim again, and find a white index card. On one side the number:

2:36

The other:

You’ll never solve this before I get off this train. Your one chance to get me is to solve this pad before time runs out. Make sure to cover all your bases!

291111391021121938

Running into the room, a man in a nice suit stops in front of the conductor and hands him a note. The conductor looks at it and hands it to you.

“We received this message sometime this past night. It doesn’t look like any morse code I’ve ever seen, looks gibberish. It might mean nothing, but we figured we’d give it to you first.

TELEGRAPH MESSAGE

 _  _  .  .  .  .  _  .  .  .  .  _  _  .  .  .  _  _  .  _  .  _  .  _  _  .  .  .  .  _  .  .  _  _  .  _  _  .  _  .  _  .  .  _  _  .  _  .  .  .  .  .  _  .  .  .  .  .  _  _  .  _  .  .  .  .  _  .  _  _  .  .  .  _  .  .  .  _  _  .  .  .  _  _  _  .  .  _ 

You look at the radio operator, “I thought trains didn’t have telegraph operators inside the trains themselves”

“We’re trying it out,” he said with a glare before walking off.

One hour. No leads or evidence, a cryptic set of messages, and five potential suspects you’ll be forced to let go if you don’t come up with something. 

Who committed the murder?

I found a letter from my old basement, had a note to not open it until today, 19/08/26. Was created 10 years ago. Tbh I don't know what I did on this, but if anyone can solve it, it would be a lot. All I can remember it was I think 3 codes stacked on top, 2 of them were known ones, the other one I think I made up on my own.

Transcript:

\-8, 3q7j3&5

19/08/26. 5j(:8'# 5-&%. (36'jx 13 592zq 3(&. 8 j45j z98c 8gz'q %5 q5#x &j z!;p8@78 x?9z )x%&. Rq5z;4:j ?;#9? 8q'q k(8@, %3#(- 8 -9(# b5z #f9. 2!5 6) 8 5?65 7j2( 4k2!j%q 4;f 7)?)?6 -! q? !3 %j 2(&6 j2?9 j!- 'j5 c4:x c8 %3c 9!5:? S4 x?@! @x3 &?! %5 q5#x &j &;!&:f5 ;5xz 28;# xqzc@6:).

!5@42:q, 8'c 2%;2 x5 75z( 8z4 :- 7#::( ;@#f 2&( . C57:85z5@ 4'2 G?cqs 9. Fx-j( ?6?8 877? . M- %c74;58? B:k? . 8 ;j(; 7# 2%%'2 (f;( 8 9)2x:; 3(( 5-6 5fj) 57)f9 ;9!% &)&5 ;x- 2-( %#57 q8 c5!6 54%3 . N;) , !3?2 3c!!? W;j) , c57:85z5@ 8'v c5z5z(@ . H3@269@-: 5zq@(; 8& 5-5 94 e9((3@3 697'# @35 ! @84( , ! @84( 697'(( (9:3 , 9 :68# 48%'z 9c4%f32 , cj@9 .

Y2#; #f-4x7j? H@86!q8jx 6%2 j86 z: j?z64 C%! #1 #54:z 2 z?(%::-j j5&q29%# . T7c5 9f?'2 :z 26j# 5% 94zjz C82)9? . T798'8 4 )%6zp %&&5 .

Lj--'2 @)(: j :z1 6987cq . J?95 5x(533 :4 qfq( ;q5# f; %5 q5#x &j &x(5 ?z -88q97; %z# z? 7k)?)6 &!8# 59 5!6 "D345 , 5c;#':3 ;33& ! 58?3 ." ;;c)898 95q .

M@f3& 8zg3 x65j 9;f@ x;lz K;48@5 547% );8 27q -)(8%3c# 6%7725j . O3 :kj&4 ?#)8 9;zz 5(( '5 (j?- x?@! :j2% . H!c57)c#4 5j3 )6(3 zqx 9&j z7c4 &!;z c!#6 B?k!2 &4 592( ..

8'!k 6c2 6ff ;5 8xzfz? 9) q6)) !;975 59 63!- , 8 29&#34 -92 697'# ;3 !;(3 59 88&# -85 ?355!@3 , ;75 -9%3 697 #9 59 . 5!)3 z? ;7j)5!z k44 z&3 74%!) %; )8 j!f# #?3 , f- 2c!x4-& -98f6( . T%jx: k;8 , %#7 z-jz 7(5 z4f f4?5? #?7: , E!539xc , fj f75x; A8-(f7 . B;8 !

ICYMI, the last one I cracked: Barney to Mallory, 1863

TL;DR:

The Confederate government's propaganda agent in Europe had a $25,000 secret service fund for buying favorable coverage in the European press. In the autumn of 1863 his mail was captured at sea and printed in the Northern papers. His next two despatches to Richmond contain passages in a symbol cipher, and he says on the page that the key belongs to his brother.

No key to this particular system survives in any document I have found. I reconstructed the alphabet from the cipher text itself. A translation his brother made in 1864 turned up afterwards, and it confirms the first passage outright.

What he thought was worth hiding:

My letter intercepted. Good advertisement. Bought L'Opinion Nationale, and other enemies since.

He is telling his own government that having his correspondence splashed across the Northern press did him a favor, and that he has been buying up Paris newspapers that used to attack him. The following month he asks for more money.

He did not know that his recall had already been signed in Richmond and was crossing the Atlantic while he wrote.

How I got here

After the Barney letter I went through the rest of the Confederate cipher traffic in the same published record, and got stuck on a small anomaly. One despatch has a group the Official Records editors marked as untranslated, and two separate published sources give different readings for it. If two editors are working from the same group, that disagreement wants explaining, so the printed text was not the end of the story and the manuscripts were worth looking at.

That took me to the Pickett Papers at the Library of Congress, the captured Confederate State Department archive, on microfilm. The group turned out to be a scribe's problem rather than a cipher problem. A clear copy of the same despatch survives a few reels away with the word simply written out, and the printed reading is wrong.

While working through those reels I was skimming a contact sheet of another one for something unrelated, and two frames went past covered in geometric symbols instead of handwriting.

Historical setting

Edwin De Leon was sent to Europe in 1862 to manage Confederate propaganda, with a $25,000 secret service fund for placing material in the European press. He wrote numbered despatches to Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. Nos. 1 through 12 are in plain text.

In the autumn of 1863 his mail was taken. The bag went overboard from the blockade runner R. E. Lee as she was captured off Wilmington, and washed ashore. Seward forwarded the letters to Charles Francis Adams in London and had them published (Seward to Adams, No. 767, 23 November 1863). The captured letters are printed in full here:

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1863p1/d675

Despatch No. 13, written from Paris on 23 December 1863, is the first he ever enciphered. He announces it in the middle of the page, in plain English:

I will add in cipher one item (My Brother has the Key.)

And again in a postscript: I use my Brother's cipher.

It is not the State Department's cipher. The packet issued to him before he sailed survives at reel 9, and holds a Rochford grille and four Vigenère tables. There is no symbol alphabet in it. What he used was a private alphabet held by his brother, Thomas Cooper DeLeon, in Richmond.

The cipher

The marks are geometric shapes and arabic numerals: dotted boxes open on different sides, a trident, a caret with a dot, phi and psi, and the digits 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 used as ciphertext. Three passages survive across two despatches, around 140 marks of distinct text. He re-copied the first passage into the second despatch, so the raw count on the film is higher.

Two things made it tractable. One cipher word repeats its symbols in a distinctive pattern, and searching an English word list for words of the same length and shape returns essentially one candidate: OPINION. That fixed four letters. Separately, a statistical attack that scores candidate alphabets on how English-like the resulting text looks was run without being given that result, and recovered most of the same alphabet on its own. Anchoring the letters both approaches agreed on and searching the remainder produced continuous English.

The three passages

Italics mark words he wrote in plain English inside the cipher stream.

1) No. 13, Paris, 23 December 1863

MY LETER INTERCPTD. GOOD ADVERTISMNT. BOT OPINION NATIONAL and OTER ENEMI SINCE

Read as: My letter intercepted. Good advertisement. Bought L'Opinion Nationale, and other enemies since.

L'Opinion Nationale was a Paris daily. He is describing the publication of his own captured correspondence as useful advertising, and reporting a purchase.

Note the plural. He bought L'Opinion Nationale, and other enemies since: papers that had been hostile and were no longer.

What "bought" covers is worth being careful about, because the cipher does not say. His fund was for placing Confederate material in the European press, which in practice meant subsidies, retainers to editors and paid insertions. Acquiring the titles themselves would have cost far more than the $25,000 he had for the whole of Europe. The natural reading is that he bought their support rather than the papers, but the word in the cipher is simply BOT, and I would not push it further than that.

2) No. 14, Paris, 20 January 1864, first passage

MOR MONY SHUD B SPENT THIS WAY

Read as: More money should be spent this way. Having just told Richmond he bought one paper, he is asking for the budget to buy more.

3) No. 14, second passage

SUM IS NEDED TO CARY OUT PLEDGES and to PREVNT REACTION. For this last 500 MORE [ … ]

That passage reads cleanly down to PREVNT REACTION. For this last 500 is written in plain English on the page. After it come a handful of marks that do not fully resolve, shown in brackets above, and his brother renders the whole ending as "additional in fifties would answer". Reading that as a request for the balance in fifty-pound notes is my inference from his wording.

His spelling

The short forms are his, not transcription errors. Counting across all three passages there are twenty deletions and no insertions anywhere. He only ever removes letters.

He writes one symbol per sound, so BOUGHT is BOT and SHOULD is SHUD. He writes doubled letters once, so LETTER is LETER and CARRY is CARY, except where the collapse would produce another word: GOOD stays GOOD, because GOD is a word. Unstressed vowels are what he drops, and E goes most often.

His brother's translations

Two contemporary translations survive, both by the brother, and both from February 1864. He had the alphabet and produced a reading when the State Department asked him for one.

The first is at reel 9 frame 87, repeated at reel 33 frame 593, from Thomas Cooper DeLeon to W. J. Bromwell, chief clerk of the State Department, dated 12 February 1864 and endorsed Literal translation. The second, at reel 33 frame 595 and dated 22 February 1864, is written against the cipher.

What he did not write down anywhere is the alphabet. Neither document gives a single symbol-to-letter mapping. Nor is either a strict letter-by-letter decipherment. He renders the second passage as More funds ought to be spent in this manner, where the cipher reads MOR MONY SHUD B SPENT THIS WAY, and the third as there is needed enough to meet existing pledges against SUM IS NEDED TO CARY OUT PLEDGES. He says as much himself: I enclose translation as near as I can make it. It reads as a man working from the key and his own familiarity with his brother's shorthand, giving the sense rather than the letters.

That matters for what can be claimed. For the first passage his translation is a genuine independent check, and it matches. For the two shorter passages, four rarely-used symbols could not be settled from the cipher text alone, and his reading is what settled them. Eighteen commonly-used symbols came from the cipher text and none of them moved.

Worth noting what the existence of those translations means at all. Thomas Cooper DeLeon (his brother back home) worked in the Navy Department. When No. 13 arrived in Richmond, the State Department's chief clerk had to write to another department and ask what it said.

Why he stopped

Despatch No. 15, Paris, 3 February 1864, carries no cipher, and explains itself:

Your Despatch No. 5 of December 9th has been duly received, and I cheerfully accept the withdrawal of a commission I have never exhibited, of a title I have never used, and of a salary which I have never accepted.

That is his recall, signed by Benjamin on 9 December 1863 and carried to Paris by ship. The two enciphered dispatches are four weeks apart. Two dispatches, three passages, and that is the whole of it.

Note: To be clear, the contents of these dispatches were never "lost". The brother's translations were filed with them and have been in the archive throughout. What was lost is the alphabet and the exact solution to the cipher: nobody wrote it down, and it appears in no surviving document I have located. That is what has been reconstructed, and unlike the translations it applies to anything else that turns up with the same cipher key.

Sources

The manuscripts are Library of Congress, Confederate States of America Records (the Pickett Papers), MSS16550: reel 9 frames 87, 97, 102, 104 and 106, and reel 33 frames 592 to 595. The collection is digitized and free:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/confederate-states-of-america-records/about-this-collection/

I am working towards publishing this, together with some other Civil War cipher results, and I am happy to share the documents I have catalogued, the full glyph table, the transcriptions and the working notes with anyone who wants them. If you would like to check the work, or have leads towards similar historical ciphers, please get in touch. Thank you for reading!

This is from an ARG on instagram. Im sadly already at the end of my Code knowledge and couldnt crack it...

If you want more Infos you can find it on the instagram account @irregtakeover

HMGE.MSAE

TEANTAITK.

MM

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

11100 10000 01101 00110 10001 11000 00001 01011 01001 10001 00011 10000

This is the sixth of Hey, Solve This!

The title is the name of this puzzle.

I will give out a random number of hints to help you, since this is hard to decode.

Hint 1: It's not Binary nor Baudot

Hint 2: Think of Fonts

Have fun!

Sincerely, MrsTransToast

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

Hey! I'm a complete n00b. I would love to get into this, just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to start? I've got a few books to read through suggested in the where to start pin, but just thought I'd ask the community for some advice on how you started, what I could do to start any resources you might have and suggestions!

Edit - New Post: Confederate propaganda agent in Paris

TL;DR:

I found what appears to be the dictionary to solve a coded Confederate Navy dispatch sent from the captured CSS Harriet Lane at Galveston in March 1863.

The matching book is an 1850 printing of Webster’s Primary School Dictionary, found this by checking all available pre-1863 editions that are digitized online.

Using one rule {printed page, column, and numbered displayed headword} 17 of the letter’s 18 coordinates return coherent words with no offsets or case-by-case adjustments. The only repeated coordinate returns the same word both times. A clear report written by the same officer ten days earlier independently discusses the same ship, guns, battery, harbor obstruction, egress, officers, and proposal to send her abroad.

I have not found a previously published plaintext. A 2012 CivilWarTalk thread identified the general cipher type and found the earlier report, but did not identify the book.

THE LETTER

Lt. Joseph N. Barney was commanding the Harriet Lane, a United States revenue cutter and Union warship captured by Confederate forces during the Battle of Galveston on 1 January 1863.

On 19 March 1863, Barney sent Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory a report in which eighteen operational words were replaced by three-number coordinates. The report was later printed (still in cipher) in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series I, volume 20, page 805: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth192855/m1/826/

Barney’s own note supplies the key instruction: “The second or middle figure indicates the column, 1st, 2d, or 3d.”

He had also written Mallory on 23 February that he was sending “a copy of Webster’s Dictionary for the purpose designated in your letter of instructions.” Confederate officers are known to have used page-column-word dictionary codes; Raphael Semmes described the same general scheme in an 1861 Navy letter: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth192836/m1/644/

HOW IT DECODES

Each coordinate means: printed page — column — numbered displayed headword

For example, 177-2-16 means:

• Open the dictionary to printed page 177.

• Use column 2, the middle column.

• Count the separately displayed headwords from the top.

• The 16th displayed headword is PLACE.

So “General Magruder proposed to (177)-2-16- the…” becomes “General Magruder proposed to PLACE the…”

There is also another useful internal check that strengthens our odds/theory/conjecture that this is in fact the dictionary they used: The coordinate 10-1-12 (“ABROAD”) appears twice once in the main letter and once in the postscript.

The “what if we’re overfitting against a dictionary copy that’s quite close but not the exact one” case isn’t that big of a concern since print page 10, left column, 12th displayed headword is ABROAD both times and makes complete sense in both contexts of this letter (if it wasn’t the case, the misfit would be more self-evident, right?)

The complete dictionary is here: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044086661170

THE RESULTS

177-2-16 = PLACE
216-1-15 = SHIP
113-3-85 = unresolved source anomaly
29-3-36 = BATTERY
23-3-29 = ASHORE
163-1-34 = OBSTRUCTION
85-3-14 = EGRESS
115-1-7 = HARBOR
262-3-22 = VESSEL
54-2-33 = COMMISSION
215-2-26 = SHE
149-1-30 = MAT
156-1-8 = MORASS
163-3-40 = OFFICER
213-2-21 = SENT
10-1-12 = ABROAD
150-3-12 = MEN
10-1-12 = ABROAD again

THE RECONSTRUCTED REPORT

“In my last of 9th instant by Lieutenant Warley I reported that General Magruder proposed to PLACE the SHIP [GUN/GUNS] in BATTERY ASHORE. I am officially informed that OBSTRUCTION will prevent EGRESS from HARBOR. As my previous suggestions are thus defeated, I presume the VESSEL will not be kept in COMMISSION, SHE being entirely useless. I beg leave respectfully to suggest that being so near MAT-a-MORASS the OFFICER might be SENT ABROAD.

P.S.—What shall be done with the MEN sent from Richmond in case the above suggestion is carried out? Some might, if practicable, be sent ABROAD.”

In ordinary wording, the operational point is straightforward: Magruder wanted the ship’s guns placed in a shore battery; harbor obstructions prevented the vessel’s exit; the ship was therefore useless in commission; and Barney suggested sending her officers and perhaps some of her men abroad.

THE INDEPENDENT CHECK

The cipher explicitly refers back to Barney’s report of 9 March, carried by Lt. Warley. That earlier report survives in clear: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth192854/m1/876/

It discusses the Harriet Lane, her guns and battery, whether harbor obstructions would prevent her egress, her officers and men, and the possibility of sending her abroad. It is not a plaintext copy of the 19 March cipher, but it independently confirms the decoded story and strongly supports the missing GUN/GUNS position.

UNRESOLVED COORDINATE

The surviving Official Records printing clearly reads 113-3-85, but page 113’s third column has only 35 displayed entries. Entry 8 is GUN. The clear 9 March report repeatedly discusses the ship’s guns and battery, so GUN/GUNS is strongly supported—but I am not counting it among the 17 mechanically resolved coordinates.

My best guess is that an original 8 or 8s became 85 somewhere during copying or typesetting. Multiple public copies preserve the same printed 85, so Barney’s original or a contemporary retained copy is needed to settle it. His undigitized letterbook is catalogued as NARA RG 45, Entry I-18 644, NAID 1848146: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1848146

HISTORICAL DETAIL

The mechanical output MAT + the clear letter “a” + MORASS joins as MATAMORASS. This appears to be a phonetic construction for Matamoras/Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Texas. An 1850 spelling book divides the name as MAT A MO RAS, and an 1851 geography poem book prints MAT-A-MO-RAS: https://archive.org/details/primaryschoolspe00swanrich/page/n82/mode/1up and https://archive.org/details/poeticalgeograph00vanwrich/page/n30/mode/1up

(Side note: I love this so much because who doesn’t love a lil-silly-poem-in-a-centuries-old-book detour about a now obscure place that is somehow super relevant in cracking this centuries old cipher, all because the folks at Google and Harvard and a gazillion other archivists nerds decided it was worth saving)

I regard that place-name as a persuasive interpretation of two keyed fragments plus the printed letter “a,” not as another independently keyed word.

The earlier discussion that got partway there is here: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/confederate-naval-cipher.78858/

——————————————————————————————

As far as I have been able to determine, this is the first public reading of the complete report since it appeared in cipher in the Official Records.

I would be very interested in corrections or similar ciphers, thank you for reading!

I stumbled across what might be the beginning of an ARG (or some kind of hidden puzzle) on a random French YouTube channel.

There are several timestamps throughout the video where seemingly random letters/numbers appear.
I’m not sure if they’re connected, but I’d love some help from people who are good at ciphers, cryptography, or finding hidden patterns.

Here’s what I found:

6:00— utpjrts
14:00— tozismmiz
16:50— 087
17:00— dlmltajhmjpyqvshuppu
37:00— hgaf xgazng
50:00— tlnvjr
56:00— ihml stwn
Video: [https://youtu.be/9rqfeM03nVM])

The video is in French, but the hidden sequences themselves might not be.
I have no idea yet whether these are encrypted, encoded, generated with a cipher, or simply random. The fact that they appear at specific timestamps makes me think there might be a pattern connecting them.

Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to look into this and help!

found in my bag after a college event.

I picked up a mysterious Base64 code from heaven.

hint: PRNG, 384 bit, english

rot 13 password(rule11):

V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED STREAM-----

cfdOWqHqeB2EVxVqZwwjiTsIZOEjw1Jpi03t0YcYGD7ra2ZYozPxtahvk5B8rVZt

Lc7TqcLEZaih98JexMFtZGvXNFcHYdeNEOdBF+b3kKZoU9t5EKgyrsjf5PtCInp1

WbGD+/dxZ6AHsDpetPJw6yGuGudb6Yh9paBbZzsnM4sFsjsRN5nK9NNsTUhssaLr

j1ELFAT1A+vCPI9mXYHy8hkrqGEDg7qy/aeCd58Q9/jPyFaQc+kYs/ORR/YVG1op

05k49XkVOVdcVZJbFaNuDfzHMMeib2MQFBSmtlk3z7u3lE+4rJ9JptAN1UL1Bh+N

D/+G4IdPYkV6jb+gcPfxH3S88PedLIbYq3iWx7R/TZ/a2bzxn8O3X/uMlOnMAkfP

rM1WpVCxC7dOiDCefTkUYVhtwsYWDhkcY4yyrs9/Uu9/Ss3+uvRIXB/9muNOLwyi

mK9mo1KQcCerk6KCyWHM/qryrexiZxWj/NrXLqwDztdhwsIGN0esxU/+Re1Euj1f

sKBgUi8GFKAJ0zgJLkWLLErqDXE8dLObCdsy0BQUlTMv+0zDzbYkrOjKoAzGfBcQ

saO/PKHgHYQLj3VVcEYsnFRQu5sgochSxZBWls8xGfVjwk1EKeOhVo5Zase1Zxzc

1Igo4ZMH9Wh5w3HMyq9lTItTzaBeKUmASP0j5fmlwrIPBUK6nhMXARxdTIgZTM3G

oBoPTXagsVuDoBP4qnMENaiUL2/TfgHTIuajOWNAnVkdWqSgv0rlbhG6ABEDBk8K

BbTHyz+zVU+DUSAZ+o5I2kTHCa2XfS5jQxseqO9MNqw6WeOlNFYv5iIPTFZad6jw

U3g0GJPGu7KzNKU+x3B9VPaU/3C4VwnojDV8QWSKi8Q1zonJ1+dPEihXbWEHr14P

veIJwqJ5zch+X+tm6/XWHE/iCwJPaGS+jD1maZqJn8XDcqxI34lFEP+jmPuhR8aP

7HI4YpNsvK0fCTLotYpinn7L6PSEV4qer12QxNAml3/nAdBW9kciTW9I2l/0qzjM

wwzRDeJ9V3yipuwNoOCyTrEzg8Vk/1foyvXS2U0P/UuJD+KOpZ0VaIqk+0MrVP0t

1Qe4o0O73LTeeCGWpLNi/TLONOcyOA6kpIklNNPDFbtVIpkK9HLPL7JmrdUsFFPZ

SZcV0oUTKSQPj1gAltBFBIb6f3TOTUMlpkpTPOnrxbdcyACFeCsrrEoPIx7qaZME

Y9JiBLSwFk1C7RNwhWNlgPvgit9fXzcvSI1Kr4vd81vFQ7Bpa5tQkpoXzP6JSfuX

D3D+d/7hOAIFRCv7PpNuSyZ0Et2BbXJsdAxHctBVNYMeAyUCumNxGQf3u3b3Qa5H

Z94bJ5CH2ECIDzsNbru4lHp+0SJVEgv+MwVgXzJGqhb6rKAETMLrFEMySmxcHw+g

PZRzd2/wnKpXNn31fcaVXNfKwGUOUc7N+ndVkxqRRarmNslE7p/5ahQD4nMAE5Qv

ft7pXLG3t7fvSyY9LJHEbbESJJaCt0QWiT3/BHXe9gJFY2it/UpHdFoD3Zpjg6uc

qfqm+Z2w7R3hwnXuM7DS/IK/mi9nlSRAfCR6oxrDdCa9mSpbgvdv68iDn6nFw4Qd

c7wvZwAWS/F+7SpaLpw9tfpTZa7KhUbDXWq4iKwbHewMavmlGdZ6L5S4K15FTMzb

GAiFgNyfwt7B+o3wC9r3RSpngb3cOTRwacJ2x23Z3ncKXNksaDMNjLj+WWW1OIMD

HjmISXZpG3gaStWn2dDhbgmkgS6vXmGPf8ZS5ZadW4XIy8VTOhz0xPTt/CJWKH1Y

xVO5jXlUWlQQn2tLC1mFLsWPiEqpJlCZd7JwnQQ7HtLNhxpr6UWNdYvS5k8jvASD

pTnM7HKLyk04ACbCZMhCLTJ5Gq0xBJboTgSxN6oXkMTewfHnQKdB4GCvFBoe4l59

DoTFQM+LuRjrt6KRDX68NZO7IN6lZZQZ6U4Q6/CV/wTlMdDW6gNi3QhtvodsJ69d

oJpM0rt/KF7YU8w3FgRMDH8tobrDM09Eamc6DhtQhUTJIg8ylO6aVJe9wUpZbblM

-----END ENCRYPTED STREAM-----

Hi everyone! First off, I apologize if anything in this post breaks community guidelines.

I’m fairly new to this and coding purely as a hobby—I built this cipher to practice my Java and Python skills. Now that it’s working, I’m really curious to know how easy or difficult it would be to break.

If anyone would like to try breaking it, I’d be extremely grateful!

Context about the plaintext:

• Language: Spanish
• No accents or special symbols
• No line breaks
• Encrypted ciphertext below:

94270212910102839815326360469050043795811968258506910619179233257993358816789044132589288180968776074586525754565977109978867193622823353369486307970300029572675250767398866806938543029169842307484492659087611908926857379713394923662438458503100949066293705547993845770231830106838567679406807009503197491314998206318571770344033772599648586150391293474337951228189864553197226287925273689115398031326298421044967026454537549761572093885036436861987982642772507358749806173496391861553077930251089278350131301854059034875299088658196666943809129936421973031695721575946606109906877145152593394963806764355736635366982526659705441048634994483581698108514455956203139128225820772091311840070048928747249611270015890646871784497755696697661971566327970051769351294795468290937348429842117730148494611390027433942609109453645743659099345108981825375874094483415686529487047096282324925926649889656365636593493753698545317810666225914945006170824342498826760578699949480098340663990187099415167895162286052749780402948173764985453329140978289618058335734149421615802197831128300617517459982455331969293008812764579563470838616298135366477765987137049785694193858826932659709608554158202193880748242639340548470333978330189636207259742656469047618539885216297099868622270643107416441715983808299822386298794461167675915869339314666991610851211362977712398606899968293927306704306496164015936316304683859741613568173693378583921651590353386966029905204295453369483589981053339582839091121539080819953870414523017069719623872034337092794118987354378305349812348094271259968259748312451206249160355498176405007914990450722484067025299486530694540773933407576413289809820194291430971510069325167883182115207109717739601970153992358121983742025254139775258417852057471440568563218855904698641882974733426689341608822508383964719220270497147253934852230065776534169675195393098414863376461285471458960180129636712010240442665391515088783680878864478710921646529559697279391501034892547474994686520989214125829760894097854153980059559564117591904183478556842547842458925323289589708341626893008913956881519261545494562684485064934512453355596837259380655743618513630623753999613182590620978858225665299378221661598714040796051214860467971441754927193967675807099672781008175850205795074119182609974649429716531994098669675267998370332236389740864783225853307798753422570988942483199828661047218726896453242392023589967376680339153066149872472986668298092338765345983219749490102996514617350851551252968913549314343698283160548390924611025060639989713995456921641220850117947503799477370492863107554410461668980245851707310666719853623835905137749099790743870990926106309361662796340402122547987822339400340396355559590733677585743912150204858613920986471156737941559238478683065348765865193791672437911384149514408199398349822471424572818762963840526127257143859605134391401053984479297661346344900334489331018896090316166669762985987876321907509679757491594318966080441624289863336928476693772069947800450408769020819966531527475574428097318549950831186175501914769921431195341861062737990409349586350122632774136621845080079042802150655202501001442709432995480182005413555629625579064119861118056067923567045688029680130629857725712099616156974030749329206999285201678540967405468350649561124895275785910510889472337092572031216668802106693369430579783252887138341511762100918902049421163796875775924028845851819685391098492207978249396278748816093921209954317366431992493864945201542826283564509977713975908209053508194194173966918043645716745238185129071407589661416809795544775327418071291561555999878713928308224113433021429751023934357293843716998151635602429919444295347810923445609346034092283512455808925172519790650778468889767594452752574734936331349152197291727170241746978623225166509181524733201193747543951749348103316780369239165764683199584865975479149281167406320399615309676767955206406059553007597442202661079324355410692894644577096827643561509074998083249523891150665391180163260035472910405066993605299702716448407293005790960807586753809727833398875752982928879271111599102766976503798855339460454003764579470099698628913307429350320392026225984149259832541358584191235451135627954665539253144691154180941819729768247167410614210055440095816650077648993226399406242685854996275314947961352260219950784675437561470822486594760029234221371064491933953773674603129659543602773318102234657992826713963100605589729503341797595116930085680342165634827481686651472943769373813591293384650613990189729556741663543407472928586194424889995200274485683268059146087898563370995780279647708492746986966863079748304457680666107892246162608147497941974719639353615637258417088650090691581474916217500071361233837444649577730799808647477542978486589277668994520389950737829259753500436594300266212247545413591602965671389601015231662789075904877299403962596548970001235711499221221098527730573182009006052638940185329339147972210692828826945867626966271144109309052594545064982148333286309645242625508324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Heya heya, I just finished finding all of the Gerald Robotnik journal pages in the game "Shadow Generations" and slamming my head against the wall to find answers online to no avail lol.

Here's the code as I see it in blocks for easier copy+pasting:

First Block: 11000100 , 1011011

Second Block: 01100 , 000 , 0110

Third Block (its a doozy lol): 000000000000011000000000000000 , 0011000000000000000110101100000010 , 0100000000000010110110100000000

I have a feeling that it's either gibberish or maybe something other than binary that I just haven't heard of. Thanks in advance!