Upload missing data here, part 2

[themaddoctor]

Please upload any missing things here.

I started a new thread/issue because the other one was getting full and taking a long time to load in a browser, due to all of the images.

[TheMadPatient]

Hi, I hope Cryptoismus will remember and post what he has got here,
Its always nice to have more added and those screen grabs are much needed info.

[themaddoctor]

Yes!
But still waiting.

[TheMadPatient]

2019-20 Countdown to Catastrophe (NCC 18) 9B from the-letter-wriggler
Hi. I made a statement on the forum a long time ago so...
If anyone asks you here on git hub if you have solved this years 9B would you please refuse to answer until the contest is over as Harry does not want anyone to know, and that includes me.

[themaddoctor]

Whatever I have to say about 9B will pass through Harry on the official forum. No worries.

[themaddoctor]

BTW, you've been doing this for many years. Do you think this is the hardest one yet?

[TheMadPatient]

Haaa no, with the question put like that you are making me think that you haven't solved it yet!!!
I would rather you tell me as I consider you the more experienced, so do you think it is?
I have failed to solve some past challenges before the deadline only to solve them in later days and this may end in the same way.

[themaddoctor]

Perhaps I crafted the question to mislead you about my status....
I think that this challenge is, in an important way, different from all others. And that may be why so many on the forum are saying that it is very hard.

[TheMadPatient]

I am having to take a two day break now so all the best and may you enjoy the holiday too.

[themaddoctor]

Thank you. Enjoy yours as well.

[TheMadPatient]

Hi there,
I wonder what it is with Harry, he may have a reason but it was not polite of him to have left the forum in limbo, especially from 1 week before your challenge ended.
While the plaintext answer was revealed the leaderboards never were. I didn't solve it myself but I would have liked to have known how many did, and I suspect you would have as well.

I've been taking a peek at the want list and going through the files to see if I have got anything more for the archives and...

Here are the 2010 PNGs of ciphertexts 6A, 7B (due to earlier mistakes by me), I definitely don't have 5A,5B plaintexts, missed downloading them.

With HG2010 8B still to be solved, I now give you the following:

Two more 2013 ciphers in the text file.
Some 2013 forum ciphers file.

2013 (NCC12) A Tale of Two Ghettos.txt
2013 Forum Ciphers by Contestants.txt

[TheMadPatient]

Suggestions.txt

[themaddoctor]

Thanks!

I'll look at the new stuff later this evening.

My solution to the bonus is posted in this archive. Look at it if you want. I have a two-part version that steps you up to the 10B level; would you like a copy?

Yes about Harry. Maybe send him a note at cipher@.... I would send one, but I feel like I already bother him too much. Also, he promised another bonus cipher (his promise is in the forum). I would really like to see it.

[themaddoctor]

And... How do you know that the title of 2013 was A Tale of Two Ghettos ? It's not on the poster.

[TheMadPatient]

I will email you tomorrow.

[TheMadPatient]

Some graphics if you want them
MineCode-graphic-3 Changed LOGO
GCHQ Challenges Header
GCHQ Challenge 2

[themaddoctor]

Thanks.

[TheMadPatient]

============================================ 2013 THE PLAINTEXTS TO THE CIPHERS
Challenge 9A

Harry,

I think you might be interested in this telegram, sent as morse code. Our agents at the telegraph company have been looking out for unusual traffic and noticed that the message has strong encryption, so they forwarded it to me for investigation. Unfortunately all my resources are tied up hunting for Nazi rocket scientists, but I noticed that the telegram was intended for a recipient in Venice and I wonder if it might be connected with Sara and her family.

Hope it is of value,

Phil.

============================================
Challenge 9B

Grandfather,

The Nazi hunters seem to have lost my trail about eight months ago, shortly after I left Italy. I travelled over the mountains to Switzerland and stayed there with my cousins for five months, before crossing the Alps again into Austria. Travelling by night I journeyed through the Balkans into Greece. It had been my childhood dream to see the home of the great artists and thinkers of antiquity, but my journey was a nightmare of discomfort and fear, eased only by the kindness of the partisans who sheltered me and, eventually, found me transport across the Mediterranean.

In North Africa I found Allied soldiers willing to give me passage to England, and once there I began to make plans to retrieve the painting from the Ghetto in Venice and return her to Leonardo’s home in France. She is safe at last, hidden in Clos Luce; I am certain that no one will think to look for her there. As you taught me, the board is hidden in plain sight - I laminated the back and sides of the poplar board with thin oak strips and shaped it as one of the panels in the walls. If something should happen to me you will find her easily - there are two knots staring out from the panel where Lisa del Giocondo’s eyes would be.
I will travel onwards now to America where no-one knows who I am. Many Jewish girls are settling there and I will be one among thousands, perhaps millions, making a new life in a new world. I pray that you will be able to join me there one day.

With all my love,

Sara

================================================================================

[SaiMonYo]

https://github.com/themaddoctor/BritishNationalCipherChallenge/blob/master/2016/7A/solution.txt
The key should be USEHILL I believe not HILLUSE or I might be completely wrong! :)

[themaddoctor]

@SaiMonYo You are correct. Thank you.

[TheMadPatient]

As you have changded your email address last known to me - posting message here.

Hey madness some one is asking you a question in the forum.
https://www.cipherchallenge.org/forums/topic/typo-in-madness-a-book-on-classical-cryptography/#post-87999

3rd March 2023 at 9:49 am #87999
HeirToTheSpare
Participant
Hey @madness (hopefully you still see this although the cipher challenge isn’t currently active)

Going through your book now – currently on Unit 9 (Tetragram Frequency), but I’m a bit stumped, and I wondered if you could explain what you meant here in a bit more detail?

I half-understood this equation [F= ?_tetragrams f log f_English], but I don’t understand this sentence at all:
“Note that to calculate this, we do not have to find the frequencies of every tetragram in the piece of text; instead, we merely perform the sum over the text with a one in place of f and later divide by the number of terms in the sum. ”

I thought that the equation meant you ARE in fact going through every single occuring tetragram (e.g. XXXX) in a piece of text, and adding together the number of times XXXX occurs by the logarithm of the corresponding XXXX counts taken from my corpus

Could you provide a further breakdown of what to do?
Thank you!
HtsS
(PS. Your book is a godsend)

Best TLW

[themaddoctor]

Thanks for that. Yes, I have a new email. It is (the latin word for insanity) (at) (the particle that makes a hydrogen atom) (dot) me.

[TheMadPatient]

I've tried 6 combinations for your email but no go! If you still have my email address then mail me, I don't want to
put any addresses here. Thanks, TLW.

[themaddoctor]

insanitas proton me