PLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEE HELP 10A

[someone]

After looking at every clue, i have tried so many different ciphers and keywords and my brain stopped working. Pllllllllleeeeeaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeeee give me some sort of clue. Also for part B all of the hints in the case files are things i already discovered with my own python code. I think a lot of people can share my pain that we can spot so many patterns but have no idea what to do with the information.

[ILL]

I know I have to be very vague, and I share your pain, so I’ll see if I can help you interpret the clue. The clue is a FordKey which is very similar to the name of the cipher used.

[Edited by Harry]

See if that helps, but really you should try researching into the different variations of the cipher used in the previous Janus Files

[Moderators feel free to censor stuff if I have given away too much]

 

[someone]

Actually ignore me i solved it and to be honest it is all thanks to F6EXB_the_frenchy. If any of you are struggling, check out their comment on the 10A post by Meera.

[Cypher1_HGS]

I don’t know whether this will go through, but the tips section says that this isn’t a cipher we have used this year BUT it is similar to one that we have done. You most likely have the right cipher in mind, but it is a variation of that cipher. This variation isn’t particularly difficult to get information about, and from there it should be easy to solve. I should also say that the key is quite long for this cipher as compared to most ciphers of this type this year.

As for 10B, it’s almost definitely a three needle, but encoding it/figuring out how it should work is the hard bit that we are stuck on as well.

[Zeta]

Harry, please remove any information that you feel gives away too much:

If you (and other participants seeing this) haven’t solved 10A yet, have you tried using frequency analysis? If so, what type of cipher do you already know matches the data? There is a bit of a twist on that cipher, and you should use the case file to help you find that twist. Once you find it, try using some cribs! They really helped our team in solving it.

[Lorentz123]

Don’t panic. Think about the previous ciphers in Part A – what is their main weakness? How can they be improved to negate this weakness? Which variants incorporate this? The clue in the case files helps to narrow down the options.
Hopefully this isn’t too much – there’s a useful property in this family of ciphers where the key and plaintext are reciprocal, meaning that they yield the same ciphertext if they are swapped round. This property can be exploited using a few carefully-chosen cribs.
Happy hunting!

[Meera]

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all the help so far.

However, my team and I are still stuck on Part A! We know what cipher is used but we don’t know what the key is!!

Any help on how to get the keyword would be really appreciated! Thx! 🙏

[upsidedown]

“This is something rather different than you have seen before, though it is not unrelated.” from the hint is worth thinking about. Think about what previous ciphers we’ve seen, and case file 10.1. You’ll know once you’ve figured out what cipher it is.

For B, keep thinking about the patterns and what cipher could have produced them!

[DrPrasad_13]

Maybe think about separating the ciphertext bit by bit and then having different keys

[Meera]

What do you mean? Are there multiple keys for this cipher?

There is, as suggested by Case File 10.1, only one key for 10A. And it is only used once, which, is very odd when you think about it! Harry

[Olive-Tree3]

Wait how does the same name hospital in France help? There are no hospitals in France with the same name…

[someone]

Meera think about this: the keyword is an adjective for describing something very, very bad. Harry i don’t know if you want to censor this but the keyword is relatively long.

[Olive-Tree3]

@someone

Is the keyword then not related to case file 10.1 at all? Because something very, very bad does not quite click with a ford car key…

The image is not a clue to the key, but to the type of cipher. As others have said, you might need to think more like an American or a French speaker to see the connection though! Good luck, Harry

[Meera]

Thanks for the hint someone, I think I am nearly getting there! However, do you mind just answering these questions just for clarifications?

Is it a word we usually use day to day or something a little unusual? And does it have anything to do with “the best laid plans”?

Thanks so much for all your help so far!

[Olive-Tree3]

Also does anyone know what 10.5 means? it is so confusing

[Author]

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