Challenge #165: KRYPTOS!!!

[TerryT]

OK, @cplewis90, this time we are tackling KRYPTOS!!!
(https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/headquarters-tour/kryptos)

There are 4 Sections to KRYPTOS, 3 have been solved.

We will attack Sections 1 and 2.

(The rest are beyond Advanced and are just for fun:)

Extra credit to those who can solve Section 3.

EXTRA EXTRA credit if you can solve Section 4!!!

(The start_file has been corrected for Section 3 as of 2019-05-21 -- Thank you @JohnJPS!) 

[NicoleJohnson]

And this is why I love Mondays.

Spoiler

Part I-IV solved! Will tackle the "I Dare You" section next, since I am certainly not going to let a dare go unanswered.

Part I through III: RegEx and Record IDs were definitely my friends here. 



Part IV: Copied Part I-III and re-ran with second set of data. 

This might be my favorite challenge ever, purely because it's a REAL one. SO COOL @TerryT!

Cheers (and I'll be back once I solve your dare, DO NOT WORRY, it will consume me until solved...),

NJ

EDIT: Finished Section III! :) Rather pleased with myself until I considered that I basically had the answer to begin with... and would have had no idea where to begin had I started without any clues. Also, I have definitely gone down the rabbit hole of Kryptos theory. CANNOT. STOP. ANALYZING.

Spoiler

[TerryT]

@NicoleJohnson,

Thanks!  But I'm giving @cplewis90 all the credit / blame for the sleepless nights that may result from this challenge!

[cgoodman3]

Here's my solution for parts 1 - 4

Spoiler

Spoiler

Two bits I like in this challenge, which I've learnt from other weekly challenges:
1) Using the generate rows to create numbers and then using CharFromInt to then convert to a letter
2) Using Regex to tokenize and parse to rows
3) Using the modulo function to cycle through the wheels and then loop back to the start

[RolandSchubert]

My solution for Parts I-IV ... it's really a challenge, great!

Spoiler

[Hannah_Lissaman]

Here's my solutions for Section 1 and Section 2.

Spoiler

I used iterative and batch macros throughout to make my solution flexible for different inputs, which made Section 2 a breeze! The only change was to add a Data Cleansing tool to remove the pesky punctuation. 

[JohnJPS]

@TerryT, Unless I'm missing something or perhaps cheating, from the starting point given, it's trivial to obtain the results desired for Section III.  (The first two parts were excruciating and I cheerfully just studied other spoilers in order to learn the landscape; but Section III just seems to be sitting there plain as day... are we supposed to start from a different spot than the "Section III" text input provided?)

A-ha... I think the starting point needs to be that given here... then it's hard again.  :-)

Spoiler

[patrick_digan]

Spoiler

[danilang]

Excellent challenge @TerryT 

Here's a spoiler free solution to sections I and II

The 3 outputs of Macro are

W=Vigenère Wheel Answer to Part I

T=Vigenère Table Answer to Part II

D=Decrypted text Answer to Part III

Spoiler

Section III will have to wait until I get a little more free time

On an unrelated note: the original version of my macro fell afoul of the issue raised by @cmcclellan here.  Essentiallly, the generate rows tool had an initialization expression of "A" used Char<="Z" (uppercase Z) as the Condition Expression, while using the CharFrom\ToInt functions to increment the Char.  When I ran this version, the loop stopped not at "Z" but at "z", implying that lowercase "z" was used to test the condition.  Anyone else have this issue?

Dan

[NancyS]

Fun Challenge!

Solved Part I and Part II.