# Cipher riddle - Who am I?

Decode this chaotic mix of letters and symbols:

XLEMFHIWOVNYRUDQCJPASGBTKZ !AEZF ,FQPVPRHH TMDD RG QVU OUHIVJH FDJMVR R WVKZ RS SEGLBIZHJMFTRXAVKNQPDWYCUO

Here is the computing version:

XLEMFHIWOVNYRUDQCJPASGBTKZ !AEZF ,FQPVPRHH TMDD RG QVU OUHIVJH FDJMVR R WVKZ RS SEGLBIZHJMFTRXAVKNQPDWYCUO


Now you got the cipher: Who am I?

### EDIT:

Clues are more clear in this version.

Decode this chaotic mix of letters and symbols:

XLEMFHIWOVNYRUDQCJPASGBTKZ !AEZF ,FQPVPRHH TMDD RG QVU OUHIVJH FDJMVR R WVKZ RS SEGLBIZHJMFTRXAVKNQPDWYCUO

• Have you seen Code Puzzles: What Not to Do? The example there seems very similar to the puzzle you give here. – Deusovi Nov 15 '17 at 19:13
• I will take into account, thanks! However, there are more clues in my question than in the one of the example, it is just that people might realize about it. – D. Mellow Nov 15 '17 at 19:28

The Beatles

The message is:

WE HAVE A YELLOW VEHICLE AND WE NEED SOMEBODY, HELP!

Solution:

As Tas and M Oehm noted there are two full permutations of the alphabet starting and ending the text. Using a chaocipher with the first transposition "XLEMFHIWOVNYRUDQCJPASGBTKZ" as the left disk alphabet and the second one "SEGLBIZHJMFTRXAVKNQPDWYCUO" as the right disk alphabet, the middle text becomes "!PLEH ,YDOBEMOS DEEN EW DNA ELCIHEV WOLLEY A EVAH EW". When this text is reversed we get the answer above. The Beatles wrote songs with chorus lyrics "We all live in a yellow submarine" and "Help, I need somebody".

• That is perfect, you got the cipher! Now, what is the answer to the riddle?? – D. Mellow Nov 17 '17 at 3:40
• Well done! The Chaocipher was new to me. Oh, and I believe that the yellow vehicle is one for travelling underwater ... – M Oehm Nov 17 '17 at 6:36
• Thanks for the hint @MOehm . The chaocipher was new to me too. Honestly I just searched for "chaos cipher" based on the clues and found it that way. – Barker Nov 17 '17 at 6:44
• Learn something new every day. :) – M Oehm Nov 17 '17 at 6:46

The cipher appears to be a

Vigenère cipher

because

The first 26 letters of the phrase are all the letters in the alphabet, so this is likely the alphabet used for the cipher:
XLEMFHIWOVNYRUDQCJPASGBTKZ

Although the question mentions letters and symbols, there are really only two symbols and since

The ones before the first symbol are the alphabet, it's likely the ones between the ! and , potentially represent something as well.

Other observations:

The most common letters in the text appear to be R and V, and there is a double H and double D. Because R stands alone and appears in words of two, it's likely it's A or I

• These are good observations, but note that both the first and last word are permutations of the alphabet. Also, the two punctuation marks come after a space, so it's probable that the centre part, i.e. the real message is reversed. – M Oehm Nov 16 '17 at 6:34
• @MOehm is completely ok, now you know there are two alphabets, one on the right and another on the left, figure out the type of cipher. There is still one more clue to guess the cipher type. – D. Mellow Nov 16 '17 at 7:08