List of ciphertexts

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Some famous ciphertexts (or cryptograms), in chronological order by date, are:

Contents

Year of originCiphertextDecipherment status
2nd millennium BC Phaistos Disc Unsolved
179-180 Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 90 Unsolved
1400s (15th century) Voynich Manuscript Unsolved
1500s (16th century) (?) Rohonc Codex Unsolved
1586 Babington Plot ciphersSolved
17th century Great Cipher Solved
1730 Olivier Levasseur's treasure cryptogramSolved in 2024
1760–1780 Copiale cipher Solved in 2011
1843"The Gold-Bug" cryptogram by Edgar Allan Poe Solved (solution given within the short story)
1882 Debosnys cipher Unsolved
1885 Beale ciphers Partially solved (1 out of the 3 ciphertexts solved between 1845–1885)
1897 Dorabella Cipher Unsolved
1903"The Adventure of the Dancing Men" code by Arthur Conan Doyle Solved (solution given within the short story)
1917 Zimmermann Telegram Solved within days of transmission
1918 Chaocipher Solved
1918–1945 Enigma machine messagesSolved (broken by Polish and Allied cryptographers between 1932 and 1945)
1939 D'Agapeyeff cipher Unsolved
1939–1945 Purple cipher machine messagesSolved (broken by Allied cryptographers in 1940)
1941 Lorenz SZ42 machine cipher messagesSolved (broken by Allied cryptographers in 1942)
1944 Pigeon NURP 40 TW 194 Unsolved
1948 Tamam Shud case Unsolved
1950(?) James Hampton Unsolved
1969 Zodiac Killer ciphersPartially solved (2 out of the 4 ciphertexts solved between 1969–2020)
1977 The Magic Words are Squeamish Ossifrage Solved in 1993–1994
1983 Decipher Solved [1]
1986 Decipher II Partially solved (all 4 ciphertexts solved between 1985 and 1986, but the solution to the 4th ciphertext has since been lost) [2]
1987 Decipher III Unsolved [2]
1990 Kryptos Partially solved (3 out of the 4 ciphertexts solved between 1992–1999)
1991Scorpion ciphers [3] Unsolved
1999 Ricky McCormick's encrypted notes Unsolved
2006 Smithy code, embedded within the 2006 judgment on The Da Vinci Code caseSolved within month of publication
2012–2016 Cicada 3301 puzzlesPartially solved (2 out of 3 puzzles solved)
2015 11B-X-1371 Solved

See also

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References

  1. Karen Puzzles (2021-03-07). The $100,000 Puzzle That Took Two Years to Solve . Retrieved 2024-07-04 via YouTube.
  2. 1 2 Karen Puzzles (2021-05-09). The $100,000 Puzzles That Were NEVER SOLVED . Retrieved 2024-07-04 via YouTube.
  3. "Scorpion Ciphers". Cipher Mysteries. Retrieved 2024-07-04.