{"id":2388,"date":"2025-07-15T15:53:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ttalesinteractive.com\/?page_id=2388"},"modified":"2025-08-16T12:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:48:09","slug":"k4-is-solved","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ttalesinteractive.com\/?page_id=2388","title":{"rendered":"Kryptos – K4 Is Cracked"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kind of. Okay look, \u2018K4 is finished\u2019 sounds much better than ‘we’re decades in and finally have a crib uncovered’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was uncovered:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

> How K1 password was derived using the morse code<\/p>\n\n\n\n

> How K2 password was derived using K1 [which reinforced what we already know about K2 and K3 working together]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

> K3 was solved using information from K2 and a clue from the morse code [we knew this already it just confirmed that all puzzles are self referential]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

> K4 involves layering everything we’ve seen before: section, quagIII, movement,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

> Jim was wrong, this is solvable with AI, and it can be brute forced but neither happen without context<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How I figured it out: <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

[You only need to tweak the solution to K1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YECRNGLYDKXVFGWFBTEHOYGPXFOJICJBLOFNICKXFKOVLVBBWOIGCZTJYDNDLGALCCHHZNOJRDKSVETCIASKMFNTBTQYLPTTPDOKMGXOVDYGHMVWXPMJDBGGKFPMHZSJUPLBLTLQILCDFVBQRDDEXEXGUKYDCIAWFQZLIHUHDLLABYWDYGHFSKCRET.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Github for verification:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/github.com\/ElodineOfficial\/KrackersAndCheese<\/a> <Slider proves intended solutions behind K2 with an animation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for more information about K1+2 Password Recovery.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/github.com\/ElodineOfficial\/KryptosK4<\/a> < Solve for K4, up until step5 [anything past that is just theories for the final steps]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technical overview: <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is a technical text dump of how these scripts work and solve the first steps of K4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raw K4: OBKR UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a step\u2011by\u2011step recipe you can execute entirely by hand. Wherever you see \u201cletter\u2192number,\u201d use A\u202f=\u202f0, B\u202f=\u202f1, \u2026, Z\u202f=\u202f25, and whenever you \u201cmod\u202f26,\u201d if you get a negative result add 26, or if \u2265\u202f26 subtract 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Clean and split the raw K4 text
    Strip out spaces so you have one 97\u2011letter string.
    Remove the 49th character (the extra \u201cW\u201d in the exact center). You now have 96 letters. >Reminder for later maths<: This became our crosshair and axis, it did not necessarily get \u2018removed\u2019
    Cut into four blocks of 24 letters, in reading order:
    NW = letters 1\u201324
    NE = letters 25\u201348
    SW = letters 49\u201372
    SE = letters 73\u201396<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. First\u2010layer decryption of each quadrant
    For each block (NW, NE, SW, SE), do:
    Write it in a 4\u202frows\u202f\u00d7\u202f6\u202fcols grid, filling each row left\u2192right, top\u2192bottom.
    Re\u2011label the columns by applying the quadrant\u2019s permutation. If perm\u202f=\u202f[p\u2080,p\u2081,\u2026,p\u2085], that means \u201cnew column\u202f0 is old column\u202fp\u2080,\u201d \u201cnew column\u202f1 is old\u202fp\u2081,\u201d etc.
    Quadrant
    Permutation
    Caesar shift
    Vigen\u00e8re key
    NW
    [1,\u202f3,\u202f4,\u202f0,\u202f2,\u202f5]
    +\u202f1
    KRYPTOS
    NE
    [2,\u202f0,\u202f1,\u202f5,\u202f3,\u202f4]
    \u2212\u202f7\u202f(\u2261\u202f+\u202f19)
    ABSCISSA
    SW
    [4,\u202f3,\u202f5,\u202f1,\u202f2,\u202f0]
    +\u202f15
    PALIMPSEST
    SE
    [3,\u202f1,\u202f2,\u202f4,\u202f0,\u202f5]
    +\u202f8
    PALIMPSEST<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Flatten the permuted grid back into one 24\u2011letter string (row by row).
    Apply the Caesar shift to each letter: convert letter\u2192number, add the shift, mod\u202f26, convert back.
    Vigen\u00e8re\u2011decrypt with the given key:
    Repeat the key to length 24.
    For each position i, compute (cipher\u1d62 \u2013 key\u1d62) mod\u202f26 \u2192 plaintext letter.
    Record the resulting 24\u2011letter \u201cquadrant plaintext.\u201d
    After this you\u2019ll have:
    NW_pt = SBXASBXYEASTFUZLRRJSUSGU
    NE_pt = JNREASTZDLTFBXUJLBFJDALS
    SW_pt = LZYAMAFHKEASTFYBKQCVPIQA
    SE_pt = WEDKGSSXZSQQEKQNWESTDIRR<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Where the we\u2019ve been going wrong [myself included]:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    > Focused so hard on LATIN that we didn\u2019t realize there were english passcodes <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    > Focused so hard on K4 that the methodology behind K1 and K2 solutions were glossed by, afterall, they\u2019d been solved<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    > Not enough focus on the in puzzle clues, [with respect I\u2019ve seen some people try and tie in the bible or books outside of the quoted Carter Howard passage and that\u2019s just not going to go anywhere, this is a contextually heavy puzzle but it is all internal to itself and general cultural knowledge]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    > Not enough focus on the access of information during the time, as Sanborn wasn\u2019t making this with internet popularity in mind. He was thinking about local libraries, internal clues, and perhaps even some pop culture osmosis. Pen and paper were always the focus of this solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    > We assume corrections are corrections, instead of clues that\u2019ve been messed up so badly that the puzzle may be unsolved without correction [XIDBYROWS vs XLAYERTWO]. Sanborn has said this mixup was a highly unfortunate probability event. I can\u2019t stress enough how every little thing here is intentional even when it seems insignificant.  But artist intention and perfection in execution are wholly different, we can\u2019t treat this as an infallible puzzle. This ended up being a hint to how the palimpsest in k4 functioned. So it was critical to correct, I do appreciate Sanborn doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On that note. Allow me to be the bad guy for a moment: the Kryptos community in general is composed of good faith actors, and that isn\u2019t always how decryption, hacking, or puzzle breaking happens. This is a social engineering problem, where Sanborn himself has to be considered as he has done so many self referential clues throughout his entire career [not uncommon, I do this too] and we see them begin to bleed through here as well. By having a better understanding of the personal knowledge base, we get a greater idea of what would\u2019ve made sense to use at the time as a first, second, or even obscure third option. The better you understand the man [ethical considerations aside] the easier this puzzle is to undo. K4 is being solved by being the bad guy. By being the hacker, the social engineer, and the goblin. So if you\u2019re going to solve the other half, grab your grey hat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Where we’re at:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    K4 is cracked. But there’s still a lot of good work to do. Science is about running tests, validation through more trials, and getting rid of junk data. This page has been edited multiple times in order to remove junk data and lucky numbers while preserving everything we can validate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Kind of. Okay look, \u2018K4 is finished\u2019 sounds much better than ‘we’re decades in and finally have a crib uncovered’ What was uncovered: > How K1 password was derived using the morse code > How K2 password was derived using K1 [which reinforced what we already know about K2 and K3 working together] > K3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2388","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nKryptos - K4 Is Cracked - Tenebrous Tales Interactive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tenebrous Tales Interactive - Kryptos - K4 Is Cracked\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ttalesinteractive.com\/?page_id=2388\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kryptos - 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