On 27/03/2025 19:25, Richard Heathfield wrote:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

28489 46260 53815 79183 67000 86384 87725 71624 15594 14403
09147 18110 41059 73715 23675 11716 31344 61936 58405 71789
67996 04102 81613 41793 49867 77121 88375 80775 60638 90347
24676 39058 85504 92003 48722 10115 46990 44086 24854 24159
20664 01522 57274 15899 85065 70377 35752 53492 58559 88988
35370 43081 68166 86373 65926 75374 33291 85632 67446 59349
63704 65749 72091 66837 50171 43248 57595 16454 91499 39226
96517 88044 56393 01838 17430 52594 84964 23196 23914 22203
38920 55335 19311 43922 28110 85530 38860 62709 80794 00892
79201 97026 95796 57573 01408 45600 05825 23271 53168 89392
79895 92055 56120 97719 88677 37834 52558 70854 7

The spaces are for readability only - the ciphertext consists
entirely of digits. If you paste the above into a new file, s/
//g (remove all spaces)

...and glue all the lines together into one bloody great long one...

and add an ASCII 0x0a newline (which vim
will do automatically for you), the resulting file will give you
an md5sum of:

  f5dfacff56e1494715ead7028fc288b5

May the best cryptanalyst win!

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

28489 46260 53815 79183 67000 86384 87725 71624 15594 14403
09147 18110 41059 73715 23675 11716 31344 61936 58405 71789
67996 04102 81613 41793 49867 77121 88375 80775 60638 90347
24676 39058 85504 92003 48722 10115 46990 44086 24854 24159
20664 01522 57274 15899 85065 70377 35752 53492 58559 88988
35370 43081 68166 86373 65926 75374 33291 85632 67446 59349
63704 65749 72091 66837 50171 43248 57595 16454 91499 39226
96517 88044 56393 01838 17430 52594 84964 23196 23914 22203
38920 55335 19311 43922 28110 85530 38860 62709 80794 00892
79201 97026 95796 57573 01408 45600 05825 23271 53168 89392
79895 92055 56120 97719 88677 37834 52558 70854 7

The spaces are for readability only - the ciphertext consists
entirely of digits. If you paste the above into a new file, s/
//g (remove all spaces) and add an ASCII 0x0a newline (which vim
will do automatically for you), the resulting file will give you
an md5sum of:

f5dfacff56e1494715ead7028fc288b5

The newline is not part of the ciphertext, of course.

(The plaintext is in plain English (straight ASCII) and has an
md5sum of 2f682c420d4f5cd443719f33050eac67.)

There are 541 ciphertext characters. Since they're all digits,
you'd expect 54 of each. What you get is:

Code 53 ( 5) 64 ( 11.81%)
Code 55 ( 7) 58 ( 10.70%)
Code 56 ( 8) 56 ( 10.33%)
Code 57 ( 9) 56 ( 10.33%)
Code 49 ( 1) 53 ( 9.78%)
Code 51 ( 3) 53 ( 9.78%)
Code 52 ( 4) 53 ( 9.78%)
Code 48 ( 0) 52 ( 9.59%)
Code 54 ( 6) 49 ( 9.04%)
Code 50 ( 2) 47 ( 8.67%)


For anyone not in my killfile I will try to answer any questions
(either here or in email) if I can do so without completely
giving the game away.


--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

Here's a challenge for you.

[...]

(The plaintext is in plain English (straight ASCII) and has an md5sum of >2f682c420d4f5cd443719f33050eac67.)

Success! :-)

The md5sum of the solution without the first byte is a777bb3b77b25613a52720634b0dfcc3.

Marcel (Lines: 18)
--
╭────╮ ╭──────────╮ ╭───╮ ╭─╮ ..37..╭─╮ ╭───╮ ╭───╮ ╭────╮ ╭──
╮ ╰─╮ │ ╰────╮ ╭──╯ │ ╰─╯ ╰───╮ ╭──╯ ╰──╯ ╰─╯ ╰──╮ │ ╭─╯ │
╰─╮ │ │ ╭───╯ ╰─╮ ╰─╮ ╭──────╯ ╰───╮ ..55..╰─╯ ╰─╮ │
╰──╯ ╰───╯ ╰────╯ ╰─────────────╯ ..62..╰─╯

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 27/03/2025 22:57, Marcel Logen wrote:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

Here's a challenge for you.

[...]

(The plaintext is in plain English (straight ASCII) and has an md5sum of
2f682c420d4f5cd443719f33050eac67.)

Success! :-)

The md5sum of the solution without the first byte is a777bb3b77b25613a52720634b0dfcc3.

Just under 3.5 hours! I'm speechless, because you just redlined
my gobsmackometer. If anyone else needs a hint I'll just sit back
and let you get on with it, shall I?

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Es schrieb einmal Richard Heathfield:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

28489 46260 53815 79183 67000 86384 87725 71624 15594 14403

[...]


"...and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" and this /feeling/. ;-)

Alfred
{and I'm afraid I won't even get the T-Shirt}
--
🀒🀟🀥🀡🀡🀄🀒 25237.7
🀑🀡🀟🀀
🀑🀤🀀 🀑🀑🀤
🀥🀡🀄

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 28/03/2025 17:28, Alfred.Peters wrote:

Es schrieb einmal Richard Heathfield:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

28489 46260 53815 79183 67000 86384 87725 71624 15594 14403

[...]

"...and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" and this /feeling/. ;-)

...and (FWIW) my respect.

Alfred
{and I'm afraid I won't even get the T-Shirt}

_____ _____
/ `--' \
/___| C |____\
| R |
| Y |
| P |
| T |
| O |
| 2025 |
|________|


--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Es schrieb einmal Richard Heathfield:

On 28/03/2025 17:28, Alfred.Peters wrote:

Es schrieb einmal Richard Heathfield:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

28489 46260 53815 79183 67000 86384 87725 71624 15594 14403

[...]


"...and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" and this /feeling/. ;-)

...and (FWIW) my respect.

Alfred
{and I'm afraid I won't even get the T-Shirt}

  _____    _____
 /     `--'      \
/___| C      |____\
    |  R     |
    |   Y    |
    |    P   |
    |     T  |
    |      O |
    |  2025  |
    |________|

Ah, thank you very much. It fits perfectly.

Alfred
--
🀐🀏🀐🀗🀗🀠 25237.8
🀅🀝🀣🀨🀏🀓
🀝🀠 🀓🀅
🀨🀣 🀤🀤

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66
y pa J&nC(3T<4 X<}3b A2UMC O R#yYJ 5h C(0S G& dH_ uYD$ fP 'xV@1bMb IF:
*fK !lX- 1S B^e L#3P :6kPd |wZ ob?-qXn

SCOS2 42 66
y 5iB-e E@0X *6ZD!0Ln :'2bgS= ycK8 dN# 8V: $iM(4 e\4bP(nZ
@8nH +tJ -3fE71 I/tOG $oM_ 0Y'S:5G

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

Just under 3.5 hours!

That was more of a coincidence. Alfred, others and I
had played IIRC with this kind of encryption in de.test
(and/or eternal-september.test) a few months ago. :-)

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

scos 42 66

z9gG 1 tG#6R:(: &!8m H]xYI &cQ/ 7b # "0oN$y^ ;7d0 n 0L.x U S[1 jK#n b@7Y2

SCOS2 42 66
v3f G8iRj 5S'&b ,#n b>9 gN9n Q{"k.+v" h.6

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 29/03/2025 09:30, Marcel Logen wrote:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

Just under 3.5 hours!

That was more of a coincidence. Alfred, others and I
had played IIRC with this kind of encryption in de.test
(and/or eternal-september.test) a few months ago. :-)

Ah, I didn't know that. Like AVL trees, TCP congestion control,
and int(*)(void *)[] in TUI menus, I invented it independently
but am no longer particular surprised to learn that I was not the
first so to do.

I can make it harder, obviously. :-)

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 29/03/2025 09:17, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66
y pa J&nC(3T<4 X<}3b A2UMC O R#yYJ 5h C(0S G& dH_ uYD$ fP 'xV@1bMb IF:
*fK !lX- 1S B^e L#3P :6kPd |wZ ob?-qXn

SCOS2 42 66
y 5iB-e E@0X *6ZD!0Ln :'2bgS= ycK8 dN# 8V: $iM(4 e\4bP(nZ
@8nH +tJ -3fE71 I/tOG $oM_ 0Y'S:5G

This is not the first time I've seen quoted evidence of Chris
wrestling with one of my challenges. I am not unsympathetic, and
forever is a long time, so I have just removed invalid_chris_thomasson_invalid@invalid.com from my killfile.

I hope I won't have to reinstate it.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> wrote:

On 29/03/2025 09:17, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66
y pa J&nC(3T<4 X<}3b A2UMC O R#yYJ 5h C(0S G& dH_ uYD$ fP 'xV@1bMb IF:
*fK !lX- 1S B^e L#3P :6kPd |wZ ob?-qXn

SCOS2 42 66
y 5iB-e E@0X *6ZD!0Ln :'2bgS= ycK8 dN# 8V: $iM(4 e\4bP(nZ
@8nH +tJ -3fE71 I/tOG $oM_ 0Y'S:5G

This is not the first time I've seen quoted evidence of Chris
wrestling with one of my challenges. I am not unsympathetic, and
forever is a long time, so I have just removed invalid_chris_thomasson_invalid@invalid.com from my killfile.

I hope I won't have to reinstate it.

Given that he still has a great penchant to "insert" his hmac crypt web
page into every thread (whether relevant to the thread or not), you
just may eventually reinstate the entry.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Mini Mailer in sci.crypt:

Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

I might have made a copy-and-paste error or something... Humm...

If you mean SCOS, it is also not Unix shell friendly. :-(

If you use here documents in bash, try to *quote* the
end-of-file marker as shown here:

| user15@o15:/tmp$ ./scos2 e 12 16 <<"EOF"
| > Hallo Welt. Das ist ein Test mit SCOS2.
| > EOF
| T2'EX Vt*|5 @c! *BS Tn8 4;Ul u6/ ==Jd'l

This is important escpecially when decrypting, as e. g.
a $ sign might expand a variable.

See "man bash", too.

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 7:39 AM, Rich wrote:

Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> wrote:

On 29/03/2025 09:17, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66
y pa J&nC(3T<4 X<}3b A2UMC O R#yYJ 5h C(0S G& dH_ uYD$ fP 'xV@1bMb IF: >>>>> *fK !lX- 1S B^e L#3P :6kPd |wZ ob?-qXn

SCOS2 42 66
y 5iB-e E@0X *6ZD!0Ln :'2bgS= ycK8 dN# 8V: $iM(4 e\4bP(nZ
@8nH +tJ -3fE71 I/tOG $oM_ 0Y'S:5G

This is not the first time I've seen quoted evidence of Chris
wrestling with one of my challenges. I am not unsympathetic, and
forever is a long time, so I have just removed
invalid_chris_thomasson_invalid@invalid.com from my killfile.

I hope I won't have to reinstate it.

Given that he still has a great penchant to "insert" his hmac crypt web
page into every thread (whether relevant to the thread or not), you
just may eventually reinstate the entry.

SCOS2 69 96

[ FU dcilv frx m0x51 (84] ^?->F]B?R5 :QRMeWdYp I m015 "s8( -) ]#, ./ ~'G
\M KTV YPPfV U iiwzuq 16$2 9( 7 ;%}: =DG.FLS VT OPh jijeeum! 86 %y[a
!![' #Av ! MBHK DZae hYUq plklq 3x %59{ ')*- /,'Aa #D|V bWfZU Vb gukj5L
t&( %)[' }}']>L ; \QKN GTZke jfph j0qp4P q8$] (%;?]<Fa ~CFI^(- , YUse wu
5062 9" 1 ["$:@> #B~/M,K PTe= Pln tior pq8 tv0" $-'# .]@C >DMAQGXbTbX WeaornzvwP

scos2 69 96

Wg acjnfnj tn8 8z$217[g ]@< @<F.KPHPL gZii bjaf ir1ww$ 6^{+ ^?->F

\G<<N DZNaeWea qhukjp "zz&5 $] ); @}# DBFB\8

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 29/03/2025 23:46, Mini Mailer wrote:

Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 29/03/2025 22:43, Mini Mailer wrote:

SCOS is not well thought out. It should use the base64
alphabet

It does. It just doesn't confine itself to that alphabet.

and allow binary encoding as well.

Your comment is not well thought out. You should have stopped to think
about what SCOS is /for/. Complaining about lack of support for binary
encoding is like complaining that your car can't drive on rivers.

Well, a beautiful base64 output, with 64 chars per line, is a nice feature and does not look so ugly, like your versions output and binary support is
a welcome addition.

No, in a text medium like Usenet it would be an /un/welcome addition.

Why, you may ask? Because it can replace a standard
base64 encoder and allows to use key values from 0-63, so that third parties do not know it is a SCOS message or a Standard base64 encoded message. :-)

You are confusing 'can' with 'should'. SCOS isn't what you want
it to be. What you want is trivial to implement, and there is
nothing to stop you from implementing it yourself, but what you
are asking for is not what SCOS is for.

There is no reason to replace base64(1), which is already doing a
fine job of handling base64 conversions.

You can already use key values from 0-63 if you wish, but you are
not limited to those values.

There is no need to conceal SCOS messages from third parties, and
to think otherwise suggests that you think SCOS is about
communicating in secret... but the OS in SCOS stands for
')))))Open((((( Secret'. It's one-to-many communication, not a
tête-à-tête on a party line.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 29/03/2025 22:43, Mini Mailer wrote:

SCOS is not well thought out. It should use the base64
alphabet

It does. It just doesn't confine itself to that alphabet.

and allow binary encoding as well.

Your comment is not well thought out. You should have stopped to
think about what SCOS is /for/. Complaining about lack of support
for binary encoding is like complaining that your car can't drive
on rivers.

SCOS was designed to be a very light layer of encryption over
sci.crypt chit-chat, and almost as easy to crack as ROT-13. It
wasn't designed to encode binaries because Usenet is a text
medium, and because people don't generally chit-chat in binaries.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 12:29 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 7:39 AM, Rich wrote:

Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> wrote:

On 29/03/2025 09:17, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66
y pa J&nC(3T<4 X<}3b A2UMC O R#yYJ 5h C(0S G& dH_ uYD$ fP 'xV@1bMb IF: >>>>>>> *fK !lX- 1S B^e L#3P :6kPd |wZ ob?-qXn

SCOS2 42 66
y 5iB-e E@0X *6ZD!0Ln :'2bgS= ycK8 dN# 8V: $iM(4 e\4bP(nZ
@8nH +tJ -3fE71 I/tOG $oM_ 0Y'S:5G

This is not the first time I've seen quoted evidence of Chris
wrestling with one of my challenges. I am not unsympathetic, and
forever is a long time, so I have just removed
invalid_chris_thomasson_invalid@invalid.com from my killfile.

I hope I won't have to reinstate it.

Given that he still has a great penchant to "insert" his hmac crypt web >>>> page into every thread (whether relevant to the thread or not), you
just may eventually reinstate the entry.

SCOS2 69 96

[ FU dcilv frx m0x51 (84] ^?->F]B?R5 :QRMeWdYp I m015 "s8( -) ]#, ./ ~'G >>> \M KTV YPPfV U iiwzuq 16$2 9( 7 ;%}: =DG.FLS VT OPh jijeeum! 86 %y[a
!![' #Av ! MBHK DZae hYUq plklq 3x %59{ ')*- /,'Aa #D|V bWfZU Vb gukj5L
t&( %)[' }}']>L ; \QKN GTZke jfph j0qp4P q8$] (%;?]<Fa ~CFI^(- , YUse wu >>> 5062 9" 1 ["$:@> #B~/M,K PTe= Pln tior pq8 tv0" $-'# .]@C >DMAQGXbTbX
WeaornzvwP

scos2 69 96

Wg acjnfnj tn8 8z$217[g ]@< @<F.KPHPL gZii bjaf ir1ww$ 6^{+ ^?->F

\G<<N DZNaeWea qhukjp "zz&5 $] ); @}# DBFB\8

SCOS2 69 96
AJIS{ :aoehjD Mvs3"X m 7= ;@>\Iw % GKSKHM dcdY ptugwst u2y)49'(/, @<
LENN CGHZjdkYa mhy1mvw 0$) {^^ 5s7^M ! ;F QRKSO- >Vlb iv 4x66 ^2$$8 !^&/C,D>EG <DVbMPb kbb qxu2q7 'o&[ _+~:}:~ <:M MDQGFLd[ eiq iqyn38084
[)## -~_} #>FAAQ KSbZ SmYoyBMGJc Vul183^% :]B.,F eVYrk u" 6= }+#
GHONN]9(88} ^>},A/A, MDQGFL hVVlb iw o1 0ux ^$*$9eJ y, A:~J ?JNVMMc
SeWoysznp 1w%*1!" :+.] ^1*{V QRKSO L RZZceukw5 zw_R o)] ~//{q 8HIM
PGKSSTbX irt ou3p ww$2V VGN

I might have made a copy-and-paste error or something... Humm...

SCOS2 69 96

MIe VRjmeqy v07" 93-8- )) |/B DEO MK CGHZjdk U PCRY" yt!%y78 '):{

_ ^1*{U |DETLPf] Nee pgs06 u2y^!" "(.A]'A R ?JC e Na fglUil1 zqq
rs&*5 )$ '-*< }\EHNLSKTV-

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Mini Mailer in sci.crypt:

Nomen Nescio wrote:

Большое спасибо! Теперь я также могу использовать SCOS со своими друзьями. :)

You're welcome!

I almost have the impression that we are being taken for a bit
of a ride here.

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 30/03/2025 15:32, Marcel Logen wrote:

Mini Mailer in sci.crypt:

Nomen Nescio wrote:

Большое спасибо! Теперь я также могу использовать SCOS со своими друзьями. :)

You're welcome!

I almost have the impression that we are being taken for a bit
of a ride here.

Marcel

It's entirely possible. MM is already close to a plonk; trolls
will always betray themselves because they simply can't resist
behaving the way they do.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 9:30 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 5:14 PM, Mini Mailer wrote:

h|PPj3x9 nEQLbsJ7g
iAQQk4y! oFRMfnrV_s
uMccw*!= 0Rdmo48h;4
6Yoo8~=? $Np577i:5

[...]

For some reason on my version of SCOS2 I get:

h|PPj3x9 nEQLbsJ7g
#include <stdio.h>
iAQQk4y! oFRMfnrV_s

[...]

So, something odd is occurring. Not quite sure yet.

This /implies/ your SCOS2 decoder is not quite yet fully SCOS2
compliant.

I tried it from the one Richard posted as a reference impl back in the
old thread. Was there another one from Ben in there? It seems to not
like new lines...

I did say "implies" above. It could also mean your usenet client is
messing up the characters for you. Right now the rest of us have no
way to tell which.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 9:30 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 5:14 PM, Mini Mailer wrote:

h|PPj3x9 nEQLbsJ7g
iAQQk4y! oFRMfnrV_s
uMccw*!= 0Rdmo48h;4
6Yoo8~=? $Np577i:5

[...]

For some reason on my version of SCOS2 I get:

h|PPj3x9 nEQLbsJ7g
#include <stdio.h>
iAQQk4y! oFRMfnrV_s

[...]

So, something odd is occurring. Not quite sure yet.

This /implies/ your SCOS2 decoder is not quite yet fully SCOS2
compliant.

Hey now. When I paste the ciphertext it works like a charm:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>

[...]

Perfect. When I paste it directly into the command shell it messes
things up.

Well, shit happens! :^)

No, you have now /discovered/ that "the command shell" interprets some characters itself, and not passing them through to the command.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 9:26 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

I might have made a copy-and-paste error or something... Humm...

SCOS2 69 96

MIe VRjmeqy v07" 93-8- )) |/B DEO MK CGHZjdk U PCRY" yt!%y78 '):{

_ ^1*{U |DETLPf] Nee pgs06 u2y^!" "(.A]'A R ?JC e Na fglUil1 zqq
rs&*5 )$ '-*< }\EHNLSKTV-

SCOS2 69 96

[ LWe zK bXt kgy1t5% !&=] }).{. // OHQ STd bZ RVWoysz j eRgn] %8[~%={
D/G<? '*;<j OSTiaeuA ctt 4v7&+ 9(%'[] ]:JPADP g IYR t cp uv0jx0*
^5567@;- /# D.;M \NTWcahZik.^A b095y 4&)!d 5@p @D E.?HKa XMPaj nl mhy1
64 00 g 3)=?S*:[eC;LPD VMQYUj qftk tn8 0082_ $- '--;q 6HCF58" \PLbbm OifnD

Grrr!

SCOS2 69 96

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS] M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 5:14 PM, Mini Mailer wrote:

h|PPj3x9 nEQLbsJ7g
iAQQk4y! oFRMfnrV_s
uMccw*!= 0Rdmo48h;4
6Yoo8~=? $Np577i:5

[...]

For some reason on my version of SCOS2 I get:

h|PPj3x9 nEQLbsJ7g
#include <stdio.h>
iAQQk4y! oFRMfnrV_s

[...]

So, something odd is occurring. Not quite sure yet.

This /implies/ your SCOS2 decoder is not quite yet fully SCOS2
compliant.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Marcel Logen in sci.crypt:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

I can make it harder, obviously. :-)

Not for me at the moment. I probably won't have much
time next month.

I have now looked into
<http://al.howardknight.net/?ID=174315728400>
again, based on your tumbleweed method.

Unfortunately I had no success, neither with rotation of
2x2 bits nor with 5x5 bits, nor with 8x8 bits. However,
it is possible that my programme is faulty.

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Marcel Logen <333200007110-0201@ybtra.de> wrote:

Rich in sci.crypt:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

Well, shit happens! :^)

No, you have now /discovered/ that "the command shell" interprets some >>characters itself, and not passing them through to the command.

Perhaps he uses the "here documents" feature of the shell.

That is possible, but even so, there's two versions of here docs, one
that interpretes shell metacharacters and one that does not. Using the 'interpreting' variant would produce the same results.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2025 9:10 AM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 9:26 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

I might have made a copy-and-paste error or something... Humm...

SCOS2 69 96

MIe VRjmeqy v07" 93-8- )) |/B DEO MK CGHZjdk U PCRY" yt!%y78 '):{

_ ^1*{U |DETLPf] Nee pgs06 u2y^!" "(.A]'A R ?JC e Na fglUil1 zqq
rs&*5 )$ '-*< }\EHNLSKTV-

SCOS2 69 96

[ LWe zK bXt kgy1t5% !&=] }).{. // OHQ STd bZ RVWoysz j eRgn] %8[~%={
D/G<? '*;<j OSTiaeuA ctt 4v7&+ 9(%'[] ]:JPADP g IYR t cp uv0jx0*
^5567@;- /# D.;M \NTWcahZik.^A b095y 4&)!d 5@p @D E.?HKa XMPaj nl mhy1
64 00 g 3)=?S*:[eC;LPD VMQYUj qftk tn8 0082_ $- '--;q 6HCF58" \PLbbm OifnD >>>
Grrr!

SCOS2 69 96

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS] M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K
EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

Indeed. I still get a "T hat's", not sure why that space is in there
between T and h.

That is because the original I posted was:

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS] M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

But in your quoted version above, it has been changed to:

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS] M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K
EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

An extra space after the opening >. If I go back to look at my
original article, it shows (and decodes) correctly for me in tin.

Base64 version of the original scos2 posting above, hopefully this one
will not be broken by 'something' (most likely your client software):

Pk1JZShqIFUgWmxyeW4gJ3EkXiAiJnsge0ArLnsgXUh+L01vIENHSFdPU10gIE18T1Ygdmo0N3cl ICI1XSkpXS0sCkE6RUVOQ0cgV1NJV2hWbGJkIC1PUmRSPlAgIGcgLSIme3sgfC9CIH4+ST5LVUdX TU8gaFlZIFpheHluIHUyCio5KSkgKV0oKC8gPz5DRyBrbiBQR0cgWFBQWmMgWGxpcW0gcjU3IHgm Ji0iIiMgKyc8XUJDSDxQfFZOV1l7Ci5payd3IHZqNDggIjIyIHRndjIgJi9DLERGIFxHUE4gVVRV UGhZY2tnIHduajUgeCEgMSQ5KCUgJyMgK1xcRC4uSwpFTVZKWmFmVm5AbXJqcnIlICIyMiVZCg==

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Marcel Logen <333200007110-0201@ybtra.de> wrote:

Rich in sci.crypt:

Marcel Logen <333200007110-0201@ybtra.de> wrote:

Rich in sci.crypt:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

No, you have now /discovered/ that "the command shell" interprets some >>>>characters itself, and not passing them through to the command.

Perhaps he uses the "here documents" feature of the shell.

That is possible, but even so, there's two versions of here docs, one
that interpretes shell metacharacters and one that does not. Using the >>'interpreting' variant would produce the same results.

^ not (?)

The word 'same' there was referring to the output Chris received,
although looking it over now, that was also an ambigious back
reference.

| user15@o15:/tmp$ ./scos2-ok e 55 77 <<"EOF"
| > Hello World, this is a test. And I will see what happens.
| > EOF
| !(8sf <|#5h[ R@&9 jd > \86r( 7@4 T rNA[ *mW Y?"^ mPO\$5u+
|

| user15@o15:/tmp$ ./scos2-ok d 55 77 <<qqqq
| > !(8sf <|#5h[ R@&9 jd > \86r( 7@4 T rNA[ *mW Y?"^ mPO\$5u+
| > qqqq
| Hello World, this is a test. And I will see what hapOXc_
|

| user15@o15:/tmp$ ./scos2-ok d 55 77 <<"qqqq"
| > !(8sf <|#5h[ R@&9 jd > \86r( 7@4 T rNA[ *mW Y?"^ mPO\$5u+
| > qqqq
| Hello World, this is a test. And I will see what happens.

man bash, chapter "Here Documents":

| If any part of word is quoted, the delimiter is the
| result of quote removal on word, and the lines in the
| here-document are not expanded. If word is
| unquoted, all lines of the here-document are
| subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution,
| and arithmetic expansion, the character sequence
| \<newline> is ignored, and \ must be used to quote
| the characters \, $, and `.

"word" is here "EOF" or "qqqq".

We (you and I) do not know:

1) if chris was even using here docs -- he *might* very well be trying to
pass SCOS input via a CLI parameter;

2) in the case he was using here docs, we don't know which one he used
-- if he used the unquoted version, then it is likely at least one meta character was consumed by the unquoted here doc
espansions/substitutions, and if that happens, all characters after
that point become garbled.

The \ quotes the $ sign before the 5 in the qqqq
version.

Yes, one can escape the metacharacters in the unquoted here doc
version. But, under the assumption Chris was using here docs, did Chris perform the escaping, and perform the escaping correctly?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2025 12:32 PM, Rich wrote:

Marcel Logen <333200007110-0201@ybtra.de> wrote:

Rich in sci.crypt:

Marcel Logen <333200007110-0201@ybtra.de> wrote:

Rich in sci.crypt:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

No, you have now /discovered/ that "the command shell" interprets some >>>>>> characters itself, and not passing them through to the command.

Perhaps he uses the "here documents" feature of the shell.

That is possible, but even so, there's two versions of here docs, one
that interpretes shell metacharacters and one that does not. Using the >>>> 'interpreting' variant would produce the same results.

^ not (?)

The word 'same' there was referring to the output Chris received,
although looking it over now, that was also an ambigious back
reference.

| user15@o15:/tmp$ ./scos2-ok e 55 77 <<"EOF"
| > Hello World, this is a test. And I will see what happens.
| > EOF
| !(8sf <|#5h[ R@&9 jd > \86r( 7@4 T rNA[ *mW Y?"^ mPO\$5u+
|

| user15@o15:/tmp$ ./scos2-ok d 55 77 <<qqqq
| > !(8sf <|#5h[ R@&9 jd > \86r( 7@4 T rNA[ *mW Y?"^ mPO\$5u+
| > qqqq
| Hello World, this is a test. And I will see what hapOXc_
|

| user15@o15:/tmp$ ./scos2-ok d 55 77 <<"qqqq"
| > !(8sf <|#5h[ R@&9 jd > \86r( 7@4 T rNA[ *mW Y?"^ mPO\$5u+
| > qqqq
| Hello World, this is a test. And I will see what happens.

man bash, chapter "Here Documents":

| If any part of word is quoted, the delimiter is the
| result of quote removal on word, and the lines in the
| here-document are not expanded. If word is
| unquoted, all lines of the here-document are
| subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution,
| and arithmetic expansion, the character sequence
| \<newline> is ignored, and \ must be used to quote
| the characters \, $, and `.

"word" is here "EOF" or "qqqq".

We (you and I) do not know:

1) if chris was even using here docs -- he *might* very well be trying to
pass SCOS input via a CLI parameter;

2) in the case he was using here docs, we don't know which one he used
-- if he used the unquoted version, then it is likely at least one meta
character was consumed by the unquoted here doc
espansions/substitutions, and if that happens, all characters after
that point become garbled.

The \ quotes the $ sign before the 5 in the qqqq
version.

Yes, one can escape the metacharacters in the unquoted here doc
version. But, under the assumption Chris was using here docs, did Chris
perform the escaping, and perform the escaping correctly?

I am using the damn command line from windows:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.3476]

Then 'here docs' don't apply (they are Unix shell items) and there is
likely a different set of "special character interpretation" going on
in that case.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2025 12:38 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2025 9:10 AM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 9:26 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

I might have made a copy-and-paste error or something... Humm...

SCOS2 69 96

MIe VRjmeqy v07" 93-8- )) |/B DEO MK CGHZjdk U PCRY" yt!%y78 '):{ >>>>>> _ ^1*{U |DETLPf] Nee pgs06 u2y^!" "(.A]'A R ?JC e Na fglUil1 zqq

rs&*5 )$ '-*< }\EHNLSKTV-

SCOS2 69 96

[ LWe zK bXt kgy1t5% !&=] }).{. // OHQ STd bZ RVWoysz j eRgn] %8[~%={ >>>>> D/G<? '*;<j OSTiaeuA ctt 4v7&+ 9(%'[] ]:JPADP g IYR t cp uv0jx0*
^5567@;- /# D.;M \NTWcahZik.^A b095y 4&)!d 5@p @D E.?HKa XMPaj nl mhy1 >>>>> 64 00 g 3)=?S*:[eC;LPD VMQYUj qftk tn8 0082_ $- '--;q 6HCF58" \PLbbm OifnD

Grrr!

SCOS2 69 96

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS] M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K
EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

Indeed. I still get a "T hat's", not sure why that space is in there
between T and h.

That is because the original I posted was:

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS] M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K
EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

But in your quoted version above, it has been changed to:

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS] M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K
EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

An extra space after the opening >. If I go back to look at my
original article, it shows (and decodes) correctly for me in tin.

Base64 version of the original scos2 posting above, hopefully this one
will not be broken by 'something' (most likely your client software):

Pk1JZShqIFUgWmxyeW4gJ3EkXiAiJnsge0ArLnsgXUh+L01vIENHSFdPU10gIE18T1Ygdmo0N3cl >> ICI1XSkpXS0sCkE6RUVOQ0cgV1NJV2hWbGJkIC1PUmRSPlAgIGcgLSIme3sgfC9CIH4+ST5LVUdX >> TU8gaFlZIFpheHluIHUyCio5KSkgKV0oKC8gPz5DRyBrbiBQR0cgWFBQWmMgWGxpcW0gcjU3IHgm >> Ji0iIiMgKyc8XUJDSDxQfFZOV1l7Ci5payd3IHZqNDggIjIyIHRndjIgJi9DLERGIFxHUE4gVVRV >> UGhZY2tnIHduajUgeCEgMSQ5KCUgJyMgK1xcRC4uSwpFTVZKWmFmVm5AbXJqcnIlICIyMiVZCg==

Okay. I got:

SCOS2 13 34
g~O&sp 5 Ar~Zt ZR)K m+T y>R!' W{?d~u n=N7@YW ~Fz, 1-f%/o
(B1}O1]h*<p-Tn= c3}c),r$E ]z/j2"V ( v(Ly' k8H Y"Og]ar<Sz Ie9 Ag?Zt
;d=Ft} O1{N8 |g)M +O Vr= d0;f% \r_Rs ~g% ?q+Qm(X w.i1Hn{D0&by<eT!o+42
:K!E m8\ Um:d +d)Co+ Er;T 5.a0Ie%Lm /OpB Y* <n&No .X
wEj_Af]Kx,P!Bl6O>{Sp~S_ Hd8J|

Looks okay to me. Thanks.

Closer, but still not quite. There's some missing spaces, but at least
nothing is garbled.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Stefan Claas <fgrsna.pynnf@vagrearg.eh> wrote:

I do not have any client problems at all, because as a Usenet reader I
use flnews, which is stricly RFC conform.

Ok, so your client works properly.

The problem occurs when trying to decode small SCOS messages in bash
via echo.

Now I have to ask, why would you use echo in bash to decode?

If your scos decoder reads from standard input (which it must if you
use echo to feed it a SCOS message), then just run it in a terminal, it
will wait for input from standard input (which is now the terminal, and
no 'character changes' will occur, that is unless you've reconfigured
your terminal quite a lot from its standard settings).

Then paste in the SCOS message into the waiting standard input in the
terminal, and hit ctrl+d (end of file) to signal the end of file.

Your scos decoder will then receive your pasted data, unaltered, do the
decode, and print its output.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Stefan Claas <fgrsna.pynnf@vagrearg.eh> wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/30/2025 12:48 PM, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/30/2025 12:38 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2025 9:10 AM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/29/2025 9:26 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

I might have made a copy-and-paste error or something... Humm...

SCOS2 69 96

MIe VRjmeqy v07" 93-8- )) |/B DEO MK CGHZjdk U PCRY" yt!%y78 '):{

_ ^1*{U |DETLPf]  Nee pgs06 u2y^!" "(.A]'A R ?JC e Na fglUil1 zqq
rs&*5 )$ '-*< }\EHNLSKTV-

SCOS2 69 96

[ LWe zK bXt kgy1t5% !&=] }).{. // OHQ STd bZ RVWoysz j eRgn] %8[~%={
D/G<? '*;<j OSTiaeuA  ctt 4v7&+ 9(%'[] ]:JPADP g IYR t cp uv0jx0* >> > > > > > ^5567@;- /# D.;M \NTWcahZik.^A b095y 4&)!d 5@p @D E.?HKa XMPaj nl mhy1
64 00 g 3)=?S*:[eC;LPD VMQYUj qftk tn8 0082_ $- '--;q 6HCF58" \PLbbm
OifnD

Grrr!

SCOS2 69 96

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS]  M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-, >> > > > > A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P  g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2

*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K >> > > > > EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

Indeed. I still get a "T hat's", not sure why that space is in there >> > > > between T and h.

That is because the original I posted was:

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS]  M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P  g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
*9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
.ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K
EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

But in your quoted version above, it has been changed to:

MIe(j U Zlryn 'q$^ "&{ {@+.{ ]H~/Mo CGHWOS]  M|OV vj47w% "5]))]-,

  A:EENCG WSIWhVlbd -ORdR>P  g -"&{{ |/B ~>I>KUGWMO hYY Zaxyn u2
  *9)) )]((/ ?>CG kn PGG XPPZc Xliqm r57 x&&-""# +'<]BCH<P|VNWY{
  .ik'w vj48 "22 tgv2 &/C,DF \GPN UTUPhYckg wnj5 x! 1$9(% '# +\\D..K
  EMVJZafVn@mrjrr% "22%Y

An extra space after the opening >.  If I go back to look at my
original article, it shows (and decodes) correctly for me in tin.

Base64 version of the original scos2 posting above, hopefully this one >> > > will not be broken by 'something' (most likely your client software):

Pk1JZShqIFUgWmxyeW4gJ3EkXiAiJnsge0ArLnsgXUh+L01vIENHSFdPU10gIE18T1Ygdmo0N3cl
ICI1XSkpXS0sCkE6RUVOQ0cgV1NJV2hWbGJkIC1PUmRSPlAgIGcgLSIme3sgfC9CIH4+ST5LVUdX
TU8gaFlZIFpheHluIHUyCio5KSkgKV0oKC8gPz5DRyBrbiBQR0cgWFBQWmMgWGxpcW0gcjU3IHgm
Ji0iIiMgKyc8XUJDSDxQfFZOV1l7Ci5payd3IHZqNDggIjIyIHRndjIgJi9DLERGIFxHUE4gVVRV
UGhZY2tnIHduajUgeCEgMSQ5KCUgJyMgK1xcRC4uSwpFTVZKWmFmVm5AbXJqcnIlICIyMiVZCg==

Okay. I got:

SCOS2 13 34
g~O&sp 5 Ar~Zt ZR)K m+T y>R!' W{?d~u n=N7@YW  ~Fz, 1-f%/o (B1}O1]h*<p-
Tn= c3}c),r$E ]z/j2"V  ( v(Ly' k8H Y"Og]ar<Sz Ie9 Ag?Zt ;d=Ft} O1{N8 |
g)M +O Vr= d0;f% \r_Rs ~g% ?q+Qm(X w.i1Hn{D0&by<eT!o+42 :K!E m8\ Um:d
+d)Co+ Er;T 5.a0Ie%Lm /OpB Y* <n&No .X wEj_Af]Kx,P!Bl6O>{Sp~S_ Hd8J|

Looks okay to me. Thanks.

When you get some free time to burn, can you email me the plaintext
as-is so I can see any possible errors?

Do you know why we have 'yas' (Yet Another SCOS) now? Because I also had problems when decoding with SCOS. :-D :-D :-D

SCOS does presume that the transport layer (usenet) *and* the client
software does not modify the message in any way. The transport is
working fine, as I can retreive my own postings later and they decode
just fine.

What we are likely finding is what you reported, some client software
is "interpreting" certian character sequences and changing them to
something else, violating the presumption of "does not modify the
message in any way".

Chris' client software very well may be doing some similar "changes" to
what you earlier discovered.

Chris, instead of copy/paste, see if your client has a "save this
message to a file" option, if yes, try saving one of the scos messsages
to a file, then edit the file (notepad?) to remove all but the scos
portion, then decode from that file. I suspect you'll find that things
work right that way, whereas when you copy/paste from the reading view,
things don't work right.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Es schrieb einmal Chris M. Thomasson:

On 3/29/2025 9:26 PM, Rich wrote:

SCOS2 69 96

MIe VRjmeqy v07" 93-8- )) |/B DEO MK CGHZjdk U PCRY" yt!%y78 '):{

_ ^1*{U |DETLPf] Nee pgs06 u2y^!" "(.A]'A R ?JC e Na fglUil1 zqq
rs&*5 )$ '-*< }\EHNLSKTV-

Indeed. I still get a "T hat's", not sure why that space is in there
between T and h.

Thunderbird interprets the '>' at the beginning of a line as a quoting character and therefore inserts a space when quoting and copying the text.

Alfred
--
🀗🀩🀊🀊🀀 25243.9
🀋🀩
🀉🀀🀍🀍🀟🀩🀀
🀉🀗🀀🀟🀩🀋

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2025 1:15 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

Closer, but still not quite. There's some missing spaces, but at least
nothing is garbled.

Agreed. Humm... I feel Richard getting pissed because this thread has
moved into SCOS... Ummm... I should create a new thread.

From what I recall, he wasn't upset by organic thread drift (that
happens all the time).

What he got fed up with was threads about Y suddenly having you jump in
out of the blue with "Hi, what about my hmac cipher, it's blah blah
blah".

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/03/2025 03:49, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2025 1:15 PM, Rich wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

Closer, but still not quite. There's some missing spaces, but at least
nothing is garbled.

Agreed. Humm... I feel Richard getting pissed because this thread has
moved into SCOS... Ummm... I should create a new thread.

From what I recall, he wasn't upset by organic thread drift (that
happens all the time).

You do, I wasn't (and amn't), and it does. Besides, Marcel has
already solved the puzzle.

What he got fed up with was threads about Y suddenly having you jump in
out of the blue with [...]

Quite so. After all, starting a new thread isn't exactly hard,
and doing so allows us to filter out subjects we don't care to
read about. I doubt very much that I'm the only one who considers
threadjacking to be discourteous.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/03/2025 14:16, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66

x9a|V.8 s0c C$jA #nI|9h P^kS 1 "i.4w V{t R>7iS; md |yfN~ ]{^XC* 9uI{!9
;(g N@3Y ~- tG( 0fD%rPg rb [9YL (oS= 6W H8pK's a: &f :paD #6mD^0b])n2
zzN@3 eE{ vW/t W/ j aL ^mc.6kC @y b'z qK+tL <9V. "hT-J :~%n8 umg' (l C^2

(iK( tTAM N\&o T-!WF9t H:G E:ykG~D ^V\

SCOS2 42 66
q 9g:$eR; tT<('

@(nZ] vl< <!g =0X\{v" G_p >_ a O@uX' "rI"nZq

Marcel :-)

I guess the question is: are there 541 characters in the plaintext?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/03/2025 14:16, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66

x9a|V.8 s0c C$jA #nI|9h P^kS 1 "i.4w V{t R>7iS; md |yfN~ ]{^XC* 9uI{!9
;(g N@3Y ~- tG( 0fD%rPg rb [9YL (oS= 6W H8pK's a: &f :paD #6mD^0b])n2
zzN@3 eE{ vW/t W/ j aL ^mc.6kC @y b'z qK+tL <9V. "hT-J :~%n8 umg' (l C^2

(iK( tTAM N\&o T-!WF9t H:G E:ykG~D ^V\

SCOS2 42 66
q 9g:$eR; tT<('

@(nZ] vl< <!g =0X\{v" G_p >_ a O@uX' "rI"nZq

Marcel :-)

It is of course the 100th such number, a fact of arguable
importance but nonetheless a fact.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/03/2025 14:47, Richard Harnden wrote:

On 31/03/2025 14:16, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66

x9a|V.8 s0c C$jA #nI|9h P^kS 1 "i.4w V{t R>7iS; md |yfN~
]{^XC* 9uI{!9
;(g N@3Y ~- tG( 0fD%rPg rb [9YL (oS= 6W H8pK's a: &f :paD
#6mD^0b])n2
zzN@3 eE{ vW/t W/ j aL ^mc.6kC @y b'z qK+tL <9V. "hT-J :~%n8
umg' (l C^2

(iK( tTAM N\&o T-!WF9t H:G E:ykG~D ^V\

SCOS2 42 66
q 9g:$eR; tT<('

@(nZ] vl< <!g =0X\{v" G_p >_ a O@uX' "rI"nZq

Marcel :-)

I guess the question is: are there 541 characters in the plaintext?

5, yes.
4, no.
1, no.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/03/2025 22:15, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/31/2025 7:27 AM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 31/03/2025 14:47, Richard Harnden wrote:

On 31/03/2025 14:16, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66

x9a|V.8 s0c C$jA #nI|9h P^kS 1 "i.4w V{t R>7iS; md |yfN~
]{^XC* 9uI{!9
;(g N@3Y ~- tG( 0fD%rPg rb [9YL (oS= 6W H8pK's a: &f :paD
#6mD^0b])n2
zzN@3 eE{ vW/t W/ j aL ^mc.6kC @y b'z qK+tL <9V. "hT-J :~%n8
umg' (l C^2

(iK( tTAM N\&o T-!WF9t H:G E:ykG~D ^V\

SCOS2 42 66
q 9g:$eR; tT<('

@(nZ] vl< <!g =0X\{v" G_p >_ a O@uX' "rI"nZq

Marcel :-)

I guess the question is: are there 541 characters in the
plaintext?

  5, yes.
4, no.
1, no.

LOL! :^D

I tried decoding them (the digits) as pairs for ASCII codes and
got a result that kind of reminded me of SCOS. So, well, shit
happens! :^o

If it saves you time, I can assure you that the cipher is based
on a completely different principle to SCOS.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/03/2025 22:17, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/31/2025 7:06 AM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 31/03/2025 14:16, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66

x9a|V.8 s0c C$jA #nI|9h P^kS 1 "i.4w V{t R>7iS; md |yfN~
]{^XC* 9uI{!9
;(g N@3Y ~- tG( 0fD%rPg rb [9YL (oS= 6W H8pK's a: &f :paD
#6mD^0b])n2
zzN@3 eE{ vW/t W/ j aL ^mc.6kC @y b'z qK+tL <9V. "hT-J :~%n8
umg' (l C^2

(iK( tTAM N\&o T-!WF9t H:G E:ykG~D ^V\

SCOS2 42 66
q 9g:$eR; tT<('

@(nZ] vl< <!g =0X\{v" G_p >_ a O@uX' "rI"nZq

Marcel :-)

It is of course the 100th such number, a fact of arguable
importance but nonetheless a fact.

;^)

247 ; 2 + 4 + 7 ; ahh a prime? lol.

247 is not a prime.

$ factor 247
247: 13 19


You need a new perspective.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/03/2025 23:43, Marcel Logen wrote:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 31/03/2025 22:17, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

247 ; 2 + 4 + 7 ; ahh a prime? lol.

247 is not a prime.

2 + 4 + 7 = 13 :-)

Ah, I take it all back. :-)

So that gives us a whole new class of primes:

12, 14, 16, 20, 21, 25, 30, 32, 34...

(Let's hope it catches on, because it'll certainly make cracking
RSA a damn sight easier.)

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/04/2025 00:00, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/31/2025 3:10 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 31/03/2025 22:17, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/31/2025 7:06 AM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 31/03/2025 14:16, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

SCOS2 42 66

x9a|V.8 s0c C$jA #nI|9h P^kS 1 "i.4w V{t R>7iS; md |yfN~
]{^XC* 9uI{!9
;(g N@3Y ~- tG( 0fD%rPg rb [9YL (oS= 6W H8pK's a: &f :paD
#6mD^0b])n2
zzN@3 eE{ vW/t W/ j aL ^mc.6kC @y b'z qK+tL <9V. "hT-J
:~%n8 umg' (l C^2

(iK( tTAM N\&o T-!WF9t H:G E:ykG~D ^V\

SCOS2 42 66
q 9g:$eR; tT<('

@(nZ] vl< <!g =0X\{v" G_p >_ a O@uX' "rI"nZq

Marcel :-)

It is of course the 100th such number, a fact of arguable
importance but nonetheless a fact.

;^)

247 ; 2 + 4 + 7 ; ahh a prime? lol.

247 is not a prime.

$ factor 247
247: 13 19


You need a new perspective.

I know that 247 is not prime, but the sum of it's digits are
equal to 13?

So what?

Prime?

So?

Damn.... going off into the damn weeds.

So turn around. From whence you plucked 247 I know not, but the
number doesn't occur in either the ciphertext or the plaintext,
and I can see no sensible way to derive it from either of them.

Wherever you got it, when you started calculating digital roots
you started throwing information away hand over fist, and you
really don't have all that much information to spare.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/04/2025 07:58, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/31/2025 10:57 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 31/03/2025 23:43, Marcel Logen wrote:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 31/03/2025 22:17, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

247 ; 2 + 4 + 7 ; ahh a prime? lol.

247 is not a prime.

2 + 4 + 7 = 13 :-)

Ah, I take it all back. :-)

So that gives us a whole new class of primes:

12, 14, 16, 20, 21, 25, 30, 32, 34...

(Let's hope it catches on, because it'll certainly make
cracking RSA a damn sight easier.)

Ahhh:

https://oeis.org/search?q=12%2C+14%2C+16%2C+20%2C+21%2C+25%2C+30%2C+32%2C+34&language=english&go=Search

Truly is it said that there is nothing new under the sun.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Rich in sci.crypt:

Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

Well, shit happens! :^)

No, you have now /discovered/ that "the command shell" interprets some >characters itself, and not passing them through to the command.

Perhaps he uses the "here documents" feature of the shell.

<news:AABn6HFSWdkAAA2b.A3.flnews@o15.ybtra.de>
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2025 23:16:50 +0100

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 31/03/2025 22:17, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

247 ; 2 + 4 + 7 ; ahh a prime? lol.

247 is not a prime.

2 + 4 + 7 = 13 :-)

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

On 3/31/2025 3:10 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

You need a new perspective.

I know that 247 is not prime, but the sum of it's digits are equal to
13? Prime? Damn.... going off into the damn weeds.

2490

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/04/2025 06:25, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

I am not sure how to parse your digits.

parse: To split (a file or other input) into pieces of data that
can be easily manipulated or stored.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
const char *n = "28489462605381579183670008638487725716241559414403091471811041059737152367511716313446193658405717896799604102816134179349867771218837580775606389034724676390588550492003487221011546990440862485424159206640152257274158998506570377357525349258559889883537
043081681668637365926753743329185632674465934963704657497209166837501714324857595164549149939226965178804456393018381743052594849642319623914222033892055335193114392228110855303886062709807940089279201970269579657573014084560005825232715316889392798959205
55612097719886773783452558708547";
printf("The number is %s\n", n);
return 0;
}

Job done.

The digits are digits. The number is a number. What is it that
you think you need to parse?

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/04/2025 07:54, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

<snip>

The lost key makes me think of brute forcing SCOS.

You remind me of a general --- always ready to fight the last war.

From the OP: "I lost my key, so it's not locked."

Clearly, if it's not locked there isn't a key (because it's
lost), so what precisely are you going to brute force?

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/04/2025 07:53, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

Not sure how the digits relate to one another.

The relationship between the digits is much simpler than you
think. It's a relationship you've been using since you were 5
years old.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/04/2025 09:51, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/4/2025 12:35 AM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 04/04/2025 07:54, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

<snip>

The lost key makes me think of brute forcing SCOS.

You remind me of a general --- always ready to fight the last war.

 From the OP: "I lost my key, so it's not locked."

Clearly, if it's not locked there isn't a key (because it's
lost), so what precisely are you going to brute force?

Don't tell me the ciphertext _is_ the plaintext? ;^o

As I said in my OP:

ciphertext: f5dfacff56e1494715ead7028fc288b5
plaintext : 2f682c420d4f5cd443719f33050eac67

Clearly they are not the same, or their md5sums would be the same.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/04/2025 10:31, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/27/2025 12:25 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

There are 541 ciphertext characters. Since they're all digits,
you'd expect 54 of each.

Ugg... Dizzy tired now, by why would I expect 54 of each digit?

I invite you to divide 541 by 10 and in future try to think
/before/ clicking 'Send'.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/04/2025 02:26, Marcel Logen wrote:

49184 87069 85461 51598 38286 31222 99049 92521 48220 18433
88014 62537 57226 67942 02279 11222 83272 33087 91158 48501
09615 42543 84952 73270 39572 98038 34607 47046 36754 18980
96003 19919 57379 69646 97733 28314 47189 13149 85410 66892
14352 72354 54878 99203 83529 76828 48888 34297 32004 74696
95175 20008 68832 50418 50199 66118 03832 02685 85915 66530
87229 67358 22807 87911 13097 81292 15038 18694 70789 10253
98636 03149 8

38811 65216 66401 68566 71607 88766 30093 20785 13788 66768
34447 73039 90360 62057 27285 47487 94527 80762 55035 83190
62361 72251 63431 74009 20720 95698 18396 23975 26105 35020
86262 69590 58064 60998 37823 34527 61878 91188 02037 95359
16516 86461 08663 10647 47444 82979 06823 64795 94633 85813
97663 46633 55016 97033 37214 45945 48347 44460 01517 84410
27946 76751 03613 76284 95455 73308 07979 19463 57578 05839
78974 00866 92809 73742 31334 15522 78083 70496 69630 77917
96147 65173 60615 25763 93142 15560 87454 48935 23154 23078
59535 32265 86471 21742 04124 99796 38557 33722 66181 62745
99171 01256 83561 32426 54507 01742 36358 55945 07856 43021
57466 34142 50692 36091 50113 22430 05049 65138 40736 58432
70086 75331 21876 97763 94652 18072 17239 65737 32241 85269
98248 31274 18215 64188 90419 93291 42698 01740 27297 56256
77852 80825 57791 17993 85905 79994 85784 60762 36830 58990
53109 21508 67876 04651 44198 09199 66939 09980 53449 11974
77016 06674 253

(Quite a practical little cipher as it turns out.)

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

[md5sum]

ciphertext: f5dfacff56e1494715ead7028fc288b5
plaintext : 2f682c420d4f5cd443719f33050eac67

49184 87069 85461 51598 38286 31222 99049 92521 48220 18433
88014 62537 57226 67942 02279 11222 83272 33087 91158 48501
09615 42543 84952 73270 39572 98038 34607 47046 36754 18980
96003 19919 57379 69646 97733 28314 47189 13149 85410 66892
14352 72354 54878 99203 83529 76828 48888 34297 32004 74696
95175 20008 68832 50418 50199 66118 03832 02685 85915 66530
87229 67358 22807 87911 13097 81292 15038 18694 70789 10253
98636 03149 8

Marcel qqo5 (879365)
--
╭──╮ ╭───╮ ╭──╮ ╭─────────╮ ╭────╮
│ ╰─────╯ │ ╭─╮ ╭─╯ ╰───╮ ╰───────╮ ╰─╮ ╭──╮ ╰─╮ ╰──╮ ╭────
─╯ │ │ ╰─╯ ╭─────╯ ╭─╮ ╭─╯ │ ╭─╯ │ │ ╰─╯
╰───╯ ╰────────╯ ╰───╯ ╰──╯ ╰────╯ 4d8bc5

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 06/04/2025 02:26, Marcel Logen wrote:

49184 87069 85461 51598 38286 31222 99049 92521 48220 18433

[...]

38811 65216 66401 68566 71607 88766 30093 20785 13788 66768

[...]

53109 21508 67876 04651 44198 09199 66939 09980 53449 11974
77016 06674 253

OK

(Quite a practical little cipher as it turns out.)

ACK

The five-groups remind me of the "number stations" from the
Cold Ware era.

Marcel

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/04/2025 11:41, Marcel Logen wrote:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 06/04/2025 02:26, Marcel Logen wrote:

49184 87069 85461 51598 38286 31222 99049 92521 48220 18433

[...]

38811 65216 66401 68566 71607 88766 30093 20785 13788 66768

[...]

53109 21508 67876 04651 44198 09199 66939 09980 53449 11974
77016 06674 253

OK

(Quite a practical little cipher as it turns out.)

ACK

The five-groups remind me of the "number stations" from the
Cold Ware era.

Yes (although I was actually echoing Enigma transcripts) and for
the same reason, which is that the mind rebels at great wodges of
unformatted data - we need a little layout to stop our eyes
glazing over.


--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 06/04/2025 21:14, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/6/2025 3:41 AM, Marcel Logen wrote:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 06/04/2025 02:26, Marcel Logen wrote:

49184 87069 85461 51598 38286 31222 99049 92521 48220 18433

[...]

38811 65216 66401 68566 71607 88766 30093 20785 13788 66768

[...]

53109 21508 67876 04651 44198 09199 66939 09980 53449 11974
77016 06674 253

OK

(Quite a practical little cipher as it turns out.)

ACK

The five-groups remind me of the "number stations" from the
Cold Ware era.

Shit. I was not paying attention to the five groups.

And why should you?

For some
reason 3+8+8+1+1 = 21, is that mapping to an alphabet?

No doubt it could be made to be if one were determined enough...
but no, I was just trying to make it easier on the eye than a
great wodge of digits, and there is no need to read anything more
into it than that.

I will be posting a (very small) hint tomorrow.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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On 27/03/2025 19:25, Richard Heathfield wrote:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

28489 46260 53815 79183 67000 86384 87725 71624 15594 14403
09147 18110 41059 73715 23675 11716 31344 61936 58405 71789
67996 04102 81613 41793 49867 77121 88375 80775 60638 90347
24676 39058 85504 92003 48722 10115 46990 44086 24854 24159
20664 01522 57274 15899 85065 70377 35752 53492 58559 88988
35370 43081 68166 86373 65926 75374 33291 85632 67446 59349
63704 65749 72091 66837 50171 43248 57595 16454 91499 39226
96517 88044 56393 01838 17430 52594 84964 23196 23914 22203
38920 55335 19311 43922 28110 85530 38860 62709 80794 00892
79201 97026 95796 57573 01408 45600 05825 23271 53168 89392
79895 92055 56120 97719 88677 37834 52558 70854 7

Now that America has got itself up and out of bed, I promised you
all a hint.

Hints are tricky. Too subtle, and they may serve only to confuse.
Too blatant, and they spoil the game. I suppose I'm looking for a
way to provide the minimum nugget of information that will be
genuinely useful.

Having thought long and hard about this, I've settled on
something you might not actually recognise as a hint, but I
assure you that it is possible to throw it into the pot along
with the information you already have and deduce something
extremely useful.

$ scos2 e 225 541 < hint.txt
K )h 8| >&neSx;)x
pYK )xVMAf%0f

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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On 07/04/2025 20:26, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 10:35 AM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

<snip>

Having thought long and hard about this, I've settled on
something you might not actually recognise as a hint, but I
assure you that it is possible to throw it into the pot along
with the information you already have and deduce something
extremely useful.

$ scos2 e 225 541 < hint.txt
K )h 8| >&neSx;)x
pYK )xVMAf%0f

I sent you an email. I have to get back to work, but I hope I am
getting a little bit closer wrt your "hint"... ;^o

I see no evidence of it. Sorry. Where on Earth did you get 500 from?

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 1:16 PM, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/27/2025 12:25 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

[...]

A funny program for the ciphertext:

[...]

Well, how many times can I make a FOOL out of myself!?

YIKES!

Your are also famous on the Bitmessage Network for this.

Regards
Stefan

--
Onion Courier Home Server Mon-Fri 15:00-21:00 UTC Sat-Sun 11:00-21:00 UTC ohpmsq5ypuw5nagt2jidfyq72jvgw3fdvq37txhnm5rfbhwuosftzuyd.onion:8080 inbox

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Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 1:33 PM, Stefan Claas wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 1:16 PM, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 3/27/2025 12:25 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

[...]

A funny program for the ciphertext:

[...]

Well, how many times can I make a FOOL out of myself!?

YIKES!

Your are also famous on the Bitmessage Network for this.

Well, that sucks! ;^o

I am not that good at cryptanalysis! I need to dedicate some days for
this. It took me a while to finally solve the SCOS challenge. Shit
happens.

I don't do cryptanalysis, because when made public people may also think
that one was a software cracker in the past or get job offers from folks working at LEA/TLAs.

Regards
Stefan

--
Onion Courier Home Server Mon-Fri 15:00-21:00 UTC Sat-Sun 11:00-21:00 UTC ohpmsq5ypuw5nagt2jidfyq72jvgw3fdvq37txhnm5rfbhwuosftzuyd.onion:8080 inbox

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On 07/04/2025 18:35, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 27/03/2025 19:25, Richard Heathfield wrote:

Here's a challenge for you.

I lost my key, so it's not locked.

28489 46260 53815 79183 67000 86384 87725 71624 15594 14403
09147 18110 41059 73715 23675 11716 31344 61936 58405 71789
67996 04102 81613 41793 49867 77121 88375 80775 60638 90347
24676 39058 85504 92003 48722 10115 46990 44086 24854 24159
20664 01522 57274 15899 85065 70377 35752 53492 58559 88988
35370 43081 68166 86373 65926 75374 33291 85632 67446 59349
63704 65749 72091 66837 50171 43248 57595 16454 91499 39226
96517 88044 56393 01838 17430 52594 84964 23196 23914 22203
38920 55335 19311 43922 28110 85530 38860 62709 80794 00892
79201 97026 95796 57573 01408 45600 05825 23271 53168 89392
79895 92055 56120 97719 88677 37834 52558 70854 7

Now that America has got itself up and out of bed, I promised you all a
hint.

Hints are tricky. Too subtle, and they may serve only to confuse. Too blatant, and they spoil the game. I suppose I'm looking for a way to
provide the minimum nugget of information that will be genuinely useful.

Having thought long and hard about this, I've settled on something you
might not actually recognise as a hint, but I assure you that it is
possible to throw it into the pot along with the information you already
have and deduce something extremely useful.

$ scos2 e 225 541 < hint.txt
K )h 8| >&neSx;)x
pYK )xVMAf%0f

39 76

n^ 3cR {40 oJ/i d eZ C}=5dR? }8zT|>6F

C K#;x uZG= 9nbQE [$fcM[^wk !tc

Rnh J-!mmA,9u sW K=2zU MC)qcYI Q"x iF]%5 oK:+"wc|+& 6WW,(0w5 5oX F
7 I@)8 &3mJ:$#fOAN23m
FV^tgP\=5oXG@%wf

W $thX eSB&x7MBKz0j
BS*uhP/=7lYG}%yd

!)zv Z,( 7tk ba5vpX C( zePD ?55ZGG ""h eD[&tZL'!6v_

({ j mhO#(5f RBW"x fJ]92eb & =31 thK 9xZZ:((lhRr
ou G P,#"xT \.'7eOC_ !zhP''r 3z@-^ ef\~"I xfW [" 5oWn
pzhH A& &jT,[ 92 veQd

obc -((lWMn] _4sS * 1tlEr

p8 sP> -yjj S@! -2i \: $xXK]b okJ I-0 6oX|" 2nNA*R ma ,/# 8Vc H'yigGm q2
dXE' t jPL:^@kQF&w.

~H+) 7gVB {2aRF.35k SC77s e|?5 h S|<^8YS ;#0 kcB D%7e G ./7q8P|)2@

{C*% 2bQ, 7zXS;&">P|+*oYU '}5g TH )- vXUD ~zbX vD]9 dJ<$9 oO 9j
h uVA,Y 2nZ> ?5hd S@68 YU? wLs b\:%1d OI :!t QL/_yeH';zh+

@#3zfW

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On 07/04/2025 21:51, Richard Harnden wrote:

39 76

n^ 3cR {40 oJ/i d eZ C}=5dR? }8zT|>6F

I wouldn't be so sure.

Yes.

Not that I can see.

Yes, I suppose that's true.

So?

True.

I have no idea; perhaps he will tell you himself?

No, and no; absolutement.

Yes and no.

Not inc lib code? Yes, 47 lines. I could describe the whole
algorithm in four words.

That's all you get.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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On 07/04/2025 22:47, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 2:14 PM, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 1:51 PM, Richard Harnden wrote:

[...]

Good questions!

39 76

nyyi<:&"/ ~ H_3rX P#7 odT.&"wQS< \yoP~^!% TM /)sfGudM OO<- _x
VPE92e L|-1s kH}]K

Humm...

The digital root is 6, which means that the whole is divisible by
3. There aren't too many primes that can make that claim. You are
wwaayy overthinking this.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

On 4/7/2025 2:14 PM, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 1:51 PM, Richard Harnden wrote:

Good questions!

39 76

nyyi<:&"/ ~ H_3rX P#7 odT.&"wQS< \yoP~^!% TM /)sfGudM OO<- _x VPE92e
L|-1s kH}]K

Humm...

No.
E. g. 3 and 19 are factors.
The prime number properties have no meaning here!

2490 is the sum.

Another hint:
225 * 8

But now I have to be careful not to give too much away.
If I haven't already done so ;-)

Marcel t733 (957539)
--
╭───────────╮ ╭──────╮ ╭──────╮
╯ ╭────────╯ │ │ ╭─╮ ╭───╮ ╰───╮ ╰─╮
│ ╭─╯ ╭───╯ │ ╰───────╯ │ ╭──╮ ╭─╯ │ ╭───────────╮
╰────────────╯ ╰─────╯ ╰─╯ ╰──╯ ╰──╯ 1390ba ╰

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On 07/04/2025 23:12, Marcel Logen wrote:

Chris M. Thomasson in sci.crypt:

On 4/7/2025 2:14 PM, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 4/7/2025 1:51 PM, Richard Harnden wrote:

Good questions!

39 76

nyyi<:&"/ ~ H_3rX P#7 odT.&"wQS< \yoP~^!% TM /)sfGudM OO<- _x VPE92e
L|-1s kH}]K

Humm...

No.
E. g. 3 and 19 are factors.
The prime number properties have no meaning here!

2490 is the sum.

Okay, so meaningless.

Another hint:
225 * 8

Which is the number of bits in the plaintext.

But now I have to be careful not to give too much away.
If I haven't already done so ;-)

Marcel t733 (957539)

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On 08/04/2025 08:26, Richard Harnden wrote:

On 07/04/2025 23:12, Marcel Logen wrote:

<snip>

2490 is the sum.

Okay, so meaningless.

Well, it threw me too when it first appeared in this thread, but
it's actually a step on the road to the digital root of the
ciphertext: 2+4+9+0=15

1+5=6, so we know that 3 is a factor. It is, therefore, not
/quite/ meaningless to people who were wondering whether the
ciphertext was prime.

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 08/04/2025 08:26, Richard Harnden wrote:

On 07/04/2025 23:12, Marcel Logen wrote:

2490 is the sum.

Okay, so meaningless.

Well, it threw me too when it first appeared in this thread, but it's

The mention had a reason. It was meant to be a small hint.
But I won't comment on it until after the end of the competition.

actually a step on the road to the digital root of the ciphertext:
2+4+9+0=15

ACK

Marcel ugip (1000025)
--
╭─╮ ╭─╮ ╭──────╮ ╭───────╮
─╮ │ ╰──╮ ╭─────╮ ╭──╯ ╰──╯ ╰───╮ ╭──╮ ╭─╮ ╭───╯ │
╰─╯ ╭─╯ │ │ ╰─────╮ ╰─╮ │ │ │ ╰──╯ ╭─╯ ╭──
╰───╯ ╰────────╯ ╰─╯ ╰────╯ e79f6c ╰───╯

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Marcel Logen in sci.crypt:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 08/04/2025 08:26, Richard Harnden wrote:

On 07/04/2025 23:12, Marcel Logen wrote:

2490 is the sum.

Okay, so meaningless.

Well, it threw me too when it first appeared in this thread, but it's

The mention had a reason. It was meant to be a small hint.
But I won't comment on it until after the end of the competition.

actually a step on the road to the digital root of the ciphertext: >>2+4+9+0=15

OK. I would still like to give you the hint. Consider the cipher-
text as a whole as a (large!) decimal number.

(This is what the sum of the digits refers to: 2490.)

HTH

Marcel

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On 11/04/2025 11:13, Marcel Logen wrote:

Marcel Logen in sci.crypt:

Richard Heathfield in sci.crypt:

On 08/04/2025 08:26, Richard Harnden wrote:

On 07/04/2025 23:12, Marcel Logen wrote:

2490 is the sum.

Okay, so meaningless.

Well, it threw me too when it first appeared in this thread, but it's

The mention had a reason. It was meant to be a small hint.
But I won't comment on it until after the end of the competition.

actually a step on the road to the digital root of the ciphertext:
2+4+9+0=15

OK. I would still like to give you the hint. Consider the cipher-
text as a whole as a (large!) decimal number.

I've been racking my brains trying to think up more hints, but it
can't be done, because this is so easy that even the oblique
hints that have already appeared come a little too close to the
knuckle.

Instead, then, here are a known plaintext (all one line, with one
newline at the end) and its corresponding ciphertext:

To be, or not to be, that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in
the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or
to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them.
To die, to sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say we end the
heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to;
'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd.

265232625214328134945393300648085325349697607593768951771507137422163133904506059078190304323731621880973606359052152535653469474767730274823334961357526340447995293924810910485604214472279389643477018289906486794060564850078919321807881427297769066415510
358779153585044845184827840370124250937220619530314191173568406789437503588309969710768334700310501313485468921110263124705493667590442900838323702685137111147935210094351524645850920339359755279252732669870802848210070826805801198493677347334127818267437
851634499218473912087512492611534429298676635788119762907778078289294572535257039609920505516664090291384151628793234774507752435078626686285368648951389820070784676803458332905140807004023030095107626112854487108907804540400533438106321847982717461426491
4499915633443487784563207488049636188777576077044887894598720210878824220189012524950105959430668183991253068830240596

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 11/04/2025 11:13, Marcel Logen wrote:

OK. I would still like to give you the hint. Consider the cipher-
text as a whole as a (large!) decimal number.

(This is what the sum of the digits refers to: 2490.)

Well, that was over a month ago, and we've not heard from anyone
else. I can't help being curious, though. I /set/ the puzzle, so
I know the answer (see spoiler below, anyone who gave up), but I
have no idea why the sum of the digits is a hint towards the
solution.

Care to share?



--- read no further if you don't want to be told the method ---

.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number
puzzle.....
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number
puzzle....
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number puzzle...
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number puzzle..
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number puzzle.
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number puzzle
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number puzzl
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number puzz
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number puz
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number pu
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number p
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long number
.....To obtain the answer to the enormous great long numbe
.....To obtain the answer