Panel #2

Kryptos

The Kryptos sculpture consists of four copper plates:

• the two panels on the right contain a keyed Vigenere tableau with the keyed cipher alphabet KRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ
• the two panels on the left contain four encrypted messages K1, K2, K3, and K4, of which K4 remains publicly unsolved.
  

K2 Solution

K2 consists of lines 3-14 of the top-left panel (although this only becomes clear once they are decoded):

VFPJUDEEHZWETZYVGWHKKQETGFQJNCEGGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLGTIMVMZJANQLVKQEDAGDVFRPJUNGEUNAQZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRRYIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTIHHDDDUVH?DWKBFUFPWNTDFIYCUQZEREEVLDKFEZMOQQJLTTUGSYQPFEUNLAVIDXFLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKFFHQNTGPUAECNUVPDJMQCLQUMUNEDFQELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGREDNQFMPNZGLFLPMRJQYALMGNUVPDXVKPDQUMEBEDMHDAFMJGZNUPLGEWJLLAETG

The keyed Vigenere tableau already suggests the use of a Vigenere cipher, which turned out to be right. With the right keyword ABSCISSA, K2 deciphers to:

ITWASTOTALLYINVISIBLEHOWSTHATPOSSIBLE?THEYUSEDTHEEARTHSMAGNETICFIELDXTHEINFORMATIONWASGATHEREDANDTRANSMITTEDUNDERGRUUNDTOANUNKNOWNLOCATIONXDOESLANGLEYKNOWABOUTTHIS?THEYSHOULDITSBURIEDOUTTHERESOMEWHEREXWHOKNOWSTHEEXACTLOCATION?ONLYWWTHISWASHISLASTMESSAGEXTHIRTYEIGHTDEGREESFIFTYSEVENMINUTESSIXPOINTFIVESECONDSNORTHSEVENTYSEVENDEGREESEIGHTMINUTESFORTYFOURSECONDSWESTIDBYROWS

As discussed here [5], it was found that there was a ciphertext character missing near the end of the message. The corrected ciphertext is:

VFPJUDEEHZWETZYVGWHKKQETGFQJNCEGGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLGTIMVMZJANQLVKQEDAGDVFRPJUNGEUNAQZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRRYIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTIHHDDDUVH?DWKBFUFPWNTDFIYCUQZEREEVLDKFEZMOQQJLTTUGSYQPFEUNLAVIDXFLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKFFHQNTGPUAECNUVPDJMQCLQUMUNEDFQELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGREDNQFMPNZGLFLPMRJQYALMGNUVPDXVKPDQUMEBEDMHDAFMJGZNUPLGESWJLLAETG

and the corrected plaintext is:

ITWASTOTALLYINVISIBLEHOWSTHATPOSSIBLE?THEYUSEDTHEEARTHSMAGNETICFIELDXTHEINFORMATIONWASGATHEREDANDTRANSMITTEDUNDERGRUUNDTOANUNKNOWNLOCATIONXDOESLANGLEYKNOWABOUTTHIS?THEYSHOULDITSBURIEDOUTTHERESOMEWHEREXWHOKNOWSTHEEXACTLOCATION?ONLYWWTHISWASHISLASTMESSAGEXTHIRTYEIGHTDEGREESFIFTYSEVENMINUTESSIXPOINTFIVESECONDSNORTHSEVENTYSEVENDEGREESEIGHTMINUTESFORTYFOURSECONDSWESTXLAYERTWO
With added spacing and newlines this becomes:

IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE? THEY USED THE EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD X
THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X
DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS? THEY SHOULD ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X
WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION? ONLY WW THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X
THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR SECONDS WEST X
LAYER TWO

K2 Solution Methods

It is possible to solve K2 without any external material, aside from the text on the sculpture. One way to do this is using Index of Coincidence to determine the key length of the Vigenere Cipher, and to then use either some stochastic or brute force search, combined with a criterion to measure the quality of the decoded ciphertext. This approach is detailed in [4].

It is also said to be possible to solve K2 using just pen and paper (source?). You could for example try to align the frequency distributions of the N subsequences like here, corresponding to the N letters of the key. Due to the limited length of the message, this did not seem feasible.

(Are there any other ways to solve K2 by pen and paper?)

K2 Message Analysis

TODO

K2 Resources

[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos
[2] www.elonka.com/kryptos/
[3] austininc.com/SciRealm/KryptosSim.html
[4] related levels.boards.net post
[5] www.elonka.com/kryptos/CorrectedK2Announcement.html