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Decode it and prove it :) Share if you think someone else can solve it.

Here is a little bit of a challenge for lovers of code and encryption, the hints should be evident, but I think that I would love to chat with who ever cracks this little beastie, cause it's not going to be an easy one. When decoded, what to do next should be clear. (i love this! we are slowly stepping into a new era of Encryption here people. :) i am doing my best to keep up with the work people are posting i hope people are enjoying the challenge!) Finial hintLast hint along with lovely bit of code using custom encryption method

CSV version:

0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,1,
0,1,0,1,1,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,0,1,0,1,
0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,0,1,0,0,1,1,0,1,
0,0,1,0,1,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,
1,1,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,
1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,1,
1,1,1,1,1,0,1,0,0,0,1,1,0,1,0,0,
1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,1,
0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,1,
0,0,1,0,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
0,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,
0,1,1,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,
0,0,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,
0,0,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,
0,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,
0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,

Also, Please Post updates on your work to share with the others, you might hold the keys to someone else making the solution. plus this helps prevent duplicating large amounts of work.(unless you want to that is) might try using spoiler tags to keep it Future friendly for those who might want to try and solve it later.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm not certain the CSV version is sufficient, there appear to be multiple versions of both zeros and ones with different bits of the boxes along the bottom shaded $\endgroup$
    – Sconibulus
    Dec 27, 2016 at 19:26
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    $\begingroup$ 'who ever cracks this little beastie' - well I'm beastly, good enough? :P $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Dec 27, 2016 at 19:34
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    $\begingroup$ The image itself is a clue :) $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    Dec 27, 2016 at 20:09
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    $\begingroup$ I just came here to say that, for being a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file, that has a remarkable lack of commas, or any punctuation for that matter. $\endgroup$
    – vero
    Dec 28, 2016 at 12:46
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    $\begingroup$ would also like to note this is my first submission here and after reading around for a while, i see the truly devil dog tough puzzles can take months to solve while i'm not holding out to much hope i think it would be interesting if mine lasted that long.though i do not think it will. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    Jan 8, 2017 at 11:59

3 Answers 3

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Couldn't reach the end, but I believe I could partially understand the logic:

The first two columns and last two rows are keys to decode remaining rows/columns since they have no backgrounds (Chris hinted the hint by saying that we should not get bogged down into details - about the differences between 1's or 0's - since they would mislead)

I applied bitwise Xor, first using first two columns to other columns and then to other rows using last two rows. The next step is to convert the binaries to decimals or hex and then to interpret the numbers.

I first thought that, the binaries represent digits to ASCII codes, so I separated the remaining 14 rows/columns in two and converted to two sets of decimals and converted to ASCII's (Excluding extended codes, there are 128 or 2^7 ASCII codes). However, I could get no reasonable output. So the Xor'ed binaries should be reinterpreted.

> matxor
      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10] [,11] [,12] [,13] [,14]
 [1,]    1    0    0    1    0    0    0    0    0     1     1     1     1     1
 [2,]    0    0    1    0    0    0    0    0    1     0     1     1     1     1
 [3,]    0    0    0    0    0    0    1    0    1     1     1     1     1     0
 [4,]    1    1    0    0    1    0    0    0    1     0     0     0     0     1
 [5,]    1    1    1    1    1    0    0    1    0     1     1     0     1     0
 [6,]    1    0    0    1    1    0    0    0    0     1     1     0     1     1
 [7,]    0    0    0    0    1    1    1    1    0     0     0     1     1     1
 [8,]    0    0    0    1    0    1    0    1    1     1     0     1     0     1
 [9,]    0    0    1    0    1    1    1    1    0     0     1     1     0     0
[10,]    0    0    1    1    1    1    1    1    0     0     1     0     0     0
[11,]    1    1    0    1    1    1    0    0    0     0     0     0     0     0
[12,]    1    1    0    1    0    1    1    0    1     0     1     1     0     0
[13,]    0    1    0    0    1    0    1    0    1     0     1     0     1     0
[14,]    0    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    0     0     0     1     0     1
[15,]    1    1    0    0    0    1    0    1    0     0     1     0     1     0
[16,]    1    1    0    1    1    1    1    1    0     1     0     0     0     0
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I did some spatial analysis of the data, here's what I got... There are definitively some interesting structures underlying the encryption that he is using.

I resorted to convolution as it is the most robust way to analyze 2d matrices like this, especially to check for patterns. If someone can please do make a greyscale map of these convolutions.

The top left corner and some of the bottom right are way higher numerically than the other regions, thus giving this wierd shape.

Convolution of Kernel 2 and 4, and Stride of 1 and 2

EDIT: Here's another convolution using a bigger stride, there's sure a lot of 16, 8, 7 and 6s. Convolution of Kernel 4, Stride 4

Here's the Array dumps if people want them:

Convolution, Kernel size: 2, Stride: 1, Padding: 0
[ [ 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 1, 3, 2, 0, 2, 2, 2, 2 ],
  [ 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2, 2, 2 ],
  [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 ],
  [ 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0 ],
  [ 4, 4, 4, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 0, 2, 4, 4, 3, 1, 1, 1 ],
  [ 4, 4, 4, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 0, 2, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 ],
  [ 4, 4, 4, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0, 2, 4, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 ],
  [ 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2 ],
  [ 1, 2, 1, 0, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 2 ],
  [ 1, 3, 2, 0, 1, 3, 4, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2 ],
  [ 2, 4, 2, 0, 0, 1, 3, 3, 1, 0, 1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 2 ],
  [ 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 1 ],
  [ 0, 2, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 0 ],
  [ 0, 2, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1 ],
  [ 0, 2, 4, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, 2 ],
  [ 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 ] ]
Convolution, Kernel size: 2, Stride: 2, Padding: 0
[ [ 2, 3, 4, 4, 1, 2, 2, 2 ],
  [ 0, 2, 4, 4, 2, 1, 2, 2 ],
  [ 4, 4, 1, 3, 0, 4, 3, 1 ],
  [ 4, 4, 1, 2, 0, 4, 1, 1 ],
  [ 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4 ],
  [ 2, 2, 0, 3, 1, 1, 4, 4 ],
  [ 0, 4, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 2 ],
  [ 0, 4, 1, 1, 4, 4, 2, 3 ] ]
Convolution, Kernel size: 4, Stride: 1, Padding: 0
[ [ 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 12, 11, 10, 6, 7, 7, 5, 8, 7, 4, 3 ],
  [ 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 11, 10, 10, 7, 9, 8, 6, 7, 5, 3, 2 ],
  [ 10, 10, 11, 11, 12, 10, 9, 9, 7, 10, 10, 8, 8, 5, 3, 2 ],
  [ 13, 12, 11, 10, 10, 8, 7, 8, 8, 10, 11, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 ],
  [ 16, 13, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 8, 6, 4, 2, 2 ],
  [ 13, 11, 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 9, 9, 7, 4, 3 ],
  [ 10, 9, 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 10, 10, 8, 5, 3 ],
  [ 8, 7, 6, 5, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 11, 12, 12, 13, 10, 7, 4 ],
  [ 6, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 8, 8, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 12, 8, 4 ],
  [ 7, 7, 7, 6, 8, 10, 10, 9, 9, 11, 13, 15, 15, 11, 7, 3 ],
  [ 8, 9, 8, 6, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10, 11, 13, 15, 14, 10, 6, 2 ],
  [ 8, 9, 10, 7, 7, 10, 11, 13, 13, 12, 12, 12, 11, 8, 5, 2 ],
  [ 8, 9, 11, 8, 6, 9, 11, 14, 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 8, 5, 2 ],
  [ 6, 7, 8, 5, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 6, 4, 2 ],
  [ 4, 4, 5, 3, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2 ],
  [ 2, 2, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1 ] ]
Convolution, Kernel size: 4, Stride: 2, Padding: 1
[ [ 3, 9, 12, 9, 7, 5, 4, 6, 3 ],
  [ 5, 10, 13, 11, 10, 9, 6, 5, 2 ],
  [ 10, 12, 10, 8, 8, 10, 8, 4, 1 ],
  [ 10, 11, 7, 5, 7, 10, 9, 7, 3 ],
  [ 7, 7, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 10, 4 ],
  [ 6, 7, 6, 10, 9, 11, 15, 11, 3 ],
  [ 5, 9, 7, 10, 13, 12, 12, 8, 2 ],
  [ 3, 7, 5, 6, 11, 11, 9, 6, 2 ],
  [ 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 3, 1 ] ]
Convolution, Kernel size: 4, Stride: 4, Padding: 0
[ [ 7, 16, 6, 8 ],
  [ 16, 7, 8, 6 ],
  [ 6, 7, 7, 16 ],
  [ 8, 6, 16, 11 ] ]

Oh and the code can be found here if anyone's interested, though it's messy and not commented... http://pastebin.com/Fnq21QLv

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ o.0 wow, nice work, not gonna lie it's good work. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    Dec 29, 2016 at 20:35
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, since there are no hints yet I figured I could try the mathematical analysis way... Though convolution can only tell us the statistical distribution of the data... Unfortunally, it can't do the decoding for us. $\endgroup$
    – Bloc97
    Dec 29, 2016 at 20:41
  • $\begingroup$ There are definitively some interesting structures $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    Dec 30, 2016 at 5:28
  • $\begingroup$ Is this some kind of 'jigsaw' puzzle - are we supposed to divide this into sections and move them around to create an image or a binary stream that converts into plain text? Or does the physical structure of the image remain unchanged?? $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Dec 30, 2016 at 5:41
  • $\begingroup$ ;) good luck. i have helped as much as i can, i have resolved that i can not help in the decoding efforts from here on out. best of luck to you all! i will Encourage when i can, i look forward to someone solving this. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    Dec 30, 2016 at 5:56
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This is not an attempt at an answer. I was just wondering if anyone sees anything in this image. I went ahead and filled in the 0's with yellow and the 1's with black. Honestly I don't see anything but I thought I'd throw this out there!

filled in grid

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  • $\begingroup$ might help thous who prefer a more visual representation. but obscures the "hint" i left in the first picture. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    Dec 28, 2016 at 5:07
  • $\begingroup$ Yes that's true. Didn't want to play spoiler :) $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Dec 28, 2016 at 5:15
  • $\begingroup$ Unless the puzzle is solved or hint revealed. before then i will release the location of the "hint" in the picture on new years eve. here on puzzling.stackexchange.com $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    Dec 28, 2016 at 5:18
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    $\begingroup$ May I simply ask this: there are 196 squares that possess a certain visual quality, and 60 squares that do not. Is this relevant?? $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Dec 28, 2016 at 5:21
  • $\begingroup$ well, its been quite a while, anybody got some thoughts? $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Vardeman
    May 5, 2018 at 14:34

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