Kryptos

Kryptos at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia

Kryptos is a sculpture by the American artist Jim Sanborn that is located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia. Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the encrypted messages it bears. Of the four messages, three have been solved, while the fourth remains as one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. The sculpture continues to be of interest to cryptanalysts, both amateur and professional, who are attempting to decipher the final section. The sculptor has given two clues to this section.

Description

The main sculpture is located in the northwest corner of the New Headquarters Building courtyard, outside of the Agency cafeteria. The sculpture comprises four large copper plates with other elements made of red and green granite, white quartz, and petrified wood.

The name Kryptos comes from the Greek word for "hidden", and the theme of the sculpture is "intelligence gathering." The most prominent feature is a large vertical s-shaped copper screen resembling a scroll, or piece of paper emerging from a computer printer, half of which consists of encrypted text. The characters are all found within the 26 letters of the standard Latin alphabet, along with question marks, and are cut out of the copper. The main sculpture contains four separate enigmatic messages, three of which have been deciphered.^[1]

In addition to the main part of the sculpture, Jim Sanborn also placed other pieces at the CIA grounds, such as several large granite slabs with sandwiched copper sheets outside the entrance to the New Headquarters Building. Many morse code messages are found on these copper sheets, and one of the slabs has an engraving of a compass rose pointing to a lodestone. Other elements of Sanborn's installation include a landscaped area, a duck pond, a reflecting pool, and other pieces of stone.

The cost of the sculpture was $250,000.^[2]

Encrypted messages

The ciphertext on the left-hand side of the main sculpture contains 869 characters in total—865 letters and 4 question marks. In April 2006, however, Sanborn released information stating that a letter was omitted from this side of Kryptos "for aesthetic reasons, to keep the sculpture visually balanced".^[3] There are also three misspelled words in the plaintext of the deciphered first three parts, which Sanborn has said was intentional, and a few letters near the beginning of the bottom half of the left side are the only characters on the scroll in superscript. The right-hand side of the sculpture comprises a keyed Vigenère encryption tableau, consisting of 867 letters. One of the lines of this tableau is one character too long, which Sanborn has indicated was accidental.^[4]

EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ
YQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD
VFPJUDEEHZWETZYVGWHKKQETGFQJNCE
GGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLG
TIMVMZJANQLVKQEDAGDVFRPJUNGEUNA
QZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRR
YIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTI
HHDDDUVH?DWKBFUFPWNTDFIYCUQZERE
EVLDKFEZMOQQJLTTUGSYQPFEUNLAVIDX
FLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF
FHQNTGPUAECNUVPDJMQCLQUMUNEDFQ
ELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGRE
DNQFMPNZGLFLPMRJQYALMGNUVPDXVKP
DQUMEBEDMHDAFMJGZNUPLGEWJLLAETG

 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD
AKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYP
BRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPT
CYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
DPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOS
ETOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSA
FOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSAB
GSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABC
HABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCD
IBCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDE
JCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEF
KDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFG
LEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGH
MFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHI

ENDYAHROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA
CHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE
TPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAE
WMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOE
TFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCR
EIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLB
TEEFOASFIOTUETUAEOTOARMAEERTNRTI
BSEDDNIAAHTTMSTEWPIEROAGRIEWFEB
AECTDDHILCEIHSITEGOEAOSDDRYDLORIT
RKLMLEHAGTDHARDPNEOHMGFMFEUHE
ECDMRIPFEIMEHNLSSTTRTVDOHW?OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR

NGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
OHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
PIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLM
QJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMN
RLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQ
SMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQU
TNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUV
UQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVW
VUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWX
WVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ
XWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZK
YXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKR
ZZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRY
 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD

Sanborn worked with a retiring CIA employee named Ed Scheidt, Chairman of the CIA Cryptographic Center, to come up with the cryptographic systems used on the sculpture. Sanborn has revealed that the sculpture contains a riddle within a riddle, which will be solvable only after the four encrypted passages have been deciphered. He has given conflicting information about the sculpture's answer, saying at one time that he gave the complete solution to the then-CIA director William H. Webster during the dedication ceremony; but later, he also said that he had not given Webster the entire solution. He did, however, confirm that within the part of the plaintext of the second message which reads "Who knows the exact location? Only WW.", "WW" was intended to refer to William Webster. Sanborn also confirmed that should he die before the entire sculpture becomes deciphered, there will be someone able to confirm the solution.^[5]

Solvers

The first person to announce publicly that he had solved the first three sections was Jim Gillogly, a computer scientist from southern California, who deciphered these sections using a computer, and revealed his solutions in 1999.^[6] After Gillogly's announcement, the CIA revealed that their analyst David Stein also had solved the same sections in 1998 using pencil and paper techniques, although at the time of his solution the information was only disseminated within the intelligence community^[7] and no public announcement was made until July 1999.^[8][9]

The NSA also claimed that some of their employees had solved the same three parts, but would not reveal names or dates until March 2000, when it was learned that an NSA team led by Ken Miller, along with Dennis McDaniels and two other unnamed individuals, had solved parts 1–3 in late 1992.^[10] In 2013, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Elonka Dunin, the NSA released documents which show the NSA became involved in attempts to solve the Kryptos puzzle in 1992, following a challenge by Bill Studeman, then Deputy Director of the CIA. The documents show that by June 1993, a small group of NSA cryptanalysts had succeeded in solving the first three parts of the sculpture.^[11][12] All of these early attempts to solve Kryptos found that part two ended with WESTIDBYROWS, but in 2005, Monet Friedrich, a computer scientist from Vancouver, British Columbia, determined that another possible plaintext was WESTXLAYERTWO.^[13] Later, in 2006, Sanborn announced that he had made an error in part 2, and confirmed that the last part of the plaintext was WESTXLAYERTWO, and not WESTIDBYROWS.^[4]

Solutions

The following are the solutions of parts 1–3 of the sculpture.^[14] Misspellings present in the text are included verbatim. Kryptos sections one ("K1") and two ("K2")'s ciphers are polyalphabetic substitution ciphers using a Vigenère tableau similar to the tableau on the right-hand side of the sculpture. Part three ("K3") is a transposition cipher, and part four ("K4") remains unsolved.

Solution of passage 1

Keywords: Kryptos, Palimpsest

BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION

Solution of passage 2

Keywords: Kryptos, Abscissa

IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE ? THEY USED THE EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS ? THEY SHOULD ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO

On April 19, 2006, Sanborn contacted an online community dedicated to the Kryptos puzzle to inform them that the accepted solution to part 2 was incorrect. He said that he made an error in the sculpture by omitting an "X" used to separate sentences, for aesthetic reasons, and that the deciphered text that ended "...FOUR SECONDS WEST ID BY ROWS" should actually be "...FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO".^[15]

Note: The coordinates mentioned in the plaintext: 38°57′6.5″N 77°8′44″W / 38.951806°N 77.14556°W / 38.951806; -77.14556 are for a point that is approximately 150 feet southeast of the sculpture.^[1]

Solution of passage 3

SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM THE CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER BUT PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING Q ?

This is a paraphrased quotation from Howard Carter's account of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun on November 26, 1922, as described in his 1923 book The Tomb of Tutankhamun. The question with which it ends is that posed by Lord Carnarvon, to which Carter (in the book) famously replied "wonderful things". In the November 26, 1922 field notes, however, his reply was, "Yes, it is wonderful.".^[16]

Solution of passage 4

Part 4 has not been publicly solved as of yet.

Clues given

When commenting in 2006 about his error in section 2, Sanborn said that the answers to the first three sections contain clues to the fourth section.^[17] In November 2010, Sanborn released a clue, publicly stating that "NYPVTT", the 64th-69th letters in part four, become "BERLIN" after decryption.^[18][19] Sanborn gave The New York Times another clue in November 2014: the letters "MZFPK", the 70th-74th letters in part four, become "CLOCK" after decryption.^[20] This may be a direct reference to the Berlin Clock. Sanborn further stated that in order to solve section 4, "You'd better delve into that particular clock," but added, "There are several really interesting clocks in Berlin."^[21]

Related sculptures

Kryptos was the first cryptographic sculpture made by Sanborn. After producing Kryptos he went on to make several other sculptures with codes and other types of writing, including one entitled Antipodes, which is at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., an "Untitled Kryptos Piece" that was sold to a private collector, and Cyrillic Projector which contains encrypted Russian Cyrillic text that included an extract from a classified KGB document. The cipher on one side of Antipodes repeats the text from Kryptos. Much of the cipher on Antipodes' other side is duplicated on Cyrillic Projector. The Russian portion of the cipher found on Cyrillic Projector and Antipodes was solved in 2003 after Elonka Dunin "led the charge",^[22] with the ciphertext independently deciphered by Frank Corr and Mike Bales, and plaintext translation from Russian provided by Dunin.^[23]

Some additional sculptures by Sanborn include Native American texts: Rippowam^[24] was installed at the University of Connecticut, in Stamford in 1999, while Lux was installed in 2001 at an old US Post Office building in Fort Myers, Florida.^[25] Indian Run Park is located next to the US Federal Courthouse in Beltsville, Maryland and contains a bronze cylinder perforated with the text of the Iroquois Book of the Great Law. This document includes the contribution of the indigenous peoples to the United States legal system.^[26] The text is written in Onondaga and was transcribed from the ancient oral tradition of five Iroquois nations.^[27]

A Comma, A was installed at the Plaza in front of the new library at the University of Houston, in Houston, TX in 2004, and Radiance was installed at the Department of Energy, Coast, and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge in 2008.^[25]

Pop culture references

The dust jacket of the US version of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code contains two references to Kryptos - one on the back cover (coordinates printed light red on dark red, vertically next to the blurbs) is a reference to the coordinates mentioned in the plaintext of part 2 (see above), except the degrees digit is off by one. When Brown and his publisher were asked about this, they both gave the same reply: "The discrepancy is intentional". The coordinates were part of the first clue of the second Da Vinci Code WebQuest, the first answer being Kryptos. The other reference is hidden in the brown "tear" artwork—upside-down words which say "Only WW knows", which is another reference to the second message on Kryptos.^[2][28]

Kryptos features in Dan Brown's 2009 novel The Lost Symbol.^[1]

A small version of Kryptos appears in the season 5 episode of Alias, "S.O.S.". In it, Marshall Flinkman, in a small moment of comic relief, says he has cracked the code just by looking at it during a tour visit to the CIA office. The solution he describes sounds like the solution to the first two parts.

A picture of Kryptos appears in the season 2 episode of The King of Queens, "Meet By-Product". A framed pictured of Kryptos hangs on the wall by the door.

The progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me has a reference to Kryptos in their song "Obfuscation" from their 2009 album, The Great Misdirect.

A very similar-looking sculpture to Kryptos is seen during a scene in the season 2 episode of Homeland, "New Car Smell". In it, Carrie Mathison and Nicholas Brody run into each other in front of the CIA office and various shots place the sculpture between them as they converse.

Notes

References

Books

• Jonathan Binstock and Jim Sanborn (2003). Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction. ISBN 0-88675-072-5.  (contains 1–2 pages about Kryptos)
• Dunin, Elonka (2006). The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms. Constable & Robinson. p. 500. ISBN 0-7867-1726-2. 
• Dunin, Elonka (2009). "Kryptos: The Unsolved Enigma". In Daniel Burstein & Arne de Keijzer (editors). Secrets of the Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel. Harper Collins. pp. 319–326. ISBN 978-0-06-196495-4. 
• Dunin, Elonka (2009). "Art, Encryption, and the Preservation of Secrets: An interview with Jim Sanborn". In Daniel Burstein & Arne de Keijzer (editors). Secrets of the Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel. Harper Collins. pp. 294–300. ISBN 978-0-06-196495-4. 
• Taylor, Greg (2009). "Decoding Kryptos". In John Weber (ed.). Illustrated Guide to the Lost Symbol. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-2366-6. 

Articles

• Kryptos 1,735 Alphabetical letters
• CIA website on Kryptos
• "Gillogly Cracks CIA Art", & "The Kryptos Code Unmasked", 1999, New York Times and Cypherpunks archive
• "Unlocking the secret of Kryptos", March 17, 2000, Sun Journal
• "Solving the Enigma of Kryptos", January 26, 2005, Wired, by Kim Zetter
• "Interest grows in solving cryptic CIA puzzle after link to Da Vinci Code", June 11, 2005, The Guardian
• "Cracking the Code", June 19, 2005, CNN
• "Mission Impossible: The Code Even the CIA Can't Crack", April 20, 2009 Wired, by Steven Levy

See also

• A,A
• Copiale cipher
• History of cryptography
• Voynich manuscript

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kryptos.

• Zetter, Kim (July 10, 2013). "Documents Reveal How the NSA Cracked the Kryptos Sculpture Years Before the CIA". wired.com. Retrieved 28 July 2013. 
• Kryptos photos by Jim Gillogly
• Kryptos website maintained by Elonka Dunin (includes Kryptos FAQ, transcript, pictures and further links)
• Patrick Foster's Kryptos page
• Segment on Kryptos from PBS' Nova ScienceNow
• Monet's Kryptos Observations
• The Kryptos Project by Jew-Lee Lann

Aerial photos of Kryptos location

• USGS aerial image of McLean, Virginia
• Google Maps
• The location referred to in the part 2 cleartext (Google Maps) - approximately 150 feet southeast of the Kryptos sculpture.

Coordinates: 38°57′08″N 77°08′45″W / 38.952255°N 77.145773°W / 38.952255; -77.145773