>Jim Sanborn planned to auction off the solution to Kryptos, the puzzle he sculpted for the intelligence agency’s headquarters. Two fans of the work then discovered the solution.
“If they don’t have the method,” she said, “it’s not solved,” she said.
That does raise a philosophical point to the craft of intelligence gathering. Speaking as a professional librarian, I do applaud the use of ATI (access to information) to find the appropriate data -- it's akin to a WW2 unit capturing an Enigma codebook.
(for posterity: my use of quotemarks left something to be desired here - the quote 'that does..codebook' is Mr. Wong's quote, not my own. I got an uncharacteristically large number of upvotes from the comment above. I suspect had less to do with HNers' appreciation of library science, and more to their expressing appreciation of one's display of their professional bonafides, which I regret, in this case, are not my own to profess.) Although I wonder if HN's commenting system removed any addititional quotemarks I may have placed at the time.
As I see it it's a lesson about finding out things in the real world. It's even a little poetic that the people finding the solution are a pair of investigative journalists, digging up information that was technically already out there, rather than a puzzle solving cryptologist "breaking down the front door of the problem" so to say.
Kobek may actually have pulled that off once before, by the way. I'm pretty sure that his Zodiac killer candidate, Paul A. Doerr, will turn out to have been correct.
> “This is a problem everybody has been attacking as a STEM problem,” Mr. Kobek said in an interview, referring to the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics that underlie cryptography. Cryptographic science, he argued, could not solve Kryptos — “but library science could.”
So the central controversy in the story is whether the journalist fans should share the solution with the world or keep quiet for the auction.
Sanborn wants the money for medical reasons so he needs to maintain a high sale price.
The two fans want to share the solution with the world.
Presumably the winner of the auction will be buying a severely depreciating asset: the right to know but not disclose the solution. There are at least four people who have the solution and as soon as one of them shares it, its value goes to zero.
Maybe the “solution” to this meta problem is simple: auction it off to the public with a go fund me. As soon as it reaches $500k, publish the solution. That way everyone wins.
The whole thing got more complicated with the addition of lawyers, not less. I don’t see how the two fans violated any contracts with the artist or auction house since they never signed one. But of course lawyers will charge a ton for you to find out.
Make the auction include the physical piece of art itself. Then you're buying a tangible and transferable asset. I think the CIA has enough money it can endeavor to replace it. What value does a cracked puzzle even have to them?
Honestly, everything about this is really sad. I, like may of you guys, have followed this thing for years, for many others, decades.
Actual decryption effort group didn't get to decrypt (a small but faithful community), the creator needed the money for medical procedures that he really believed was coming in. The solution feels like we all go cheated out of something. Lawyers are now involved and the value of the solution is rapidly plummeting.
> Upon being notified, the Smithsonian immediately sealed Sanborn's archives for 50 years to protect Sanborn's intellectual property rights.
Sanborn actually showed off some of his worksheets during a PBS interview years ago, which I assume are the same documents later given to the Smithsonian. At one point I looked into buying the B-roll footage to take a closer look at them, but I discovered enterprising Kryptos sleuths had already done so years before.
It seems to me that if a puzzle has gone unsolved for 35 years despite many very skilled people trying hard to solve it... It is not actually a good puzzle?
Like, here - here's a code that no one will ever solve: ITIWKSMNDIWKD WJSIKWMWMSONQ
Turn that into a sculpture and put it outside the CIA.
> Last week, Mr. Kobek and Mr. Byrne received an email from lawyers for RR Auction that threatened legal action if they published the text, citing copyright infringement and interference with contracts.
I see people upset about the solution being found "Through other means", but this is technically still in the spirit of the puzzle.
1. That is technically normal espionage practices, the CIA wouldn't be the CIA if they were only reliant on cryptography... (they'd be the NSA)
2. The solution to this puzzle would bring closure to at this point generations of curious people.
3. On the more technical side, it's been discussed that the potential method for decrypting K4 is more or less insolvable through normal patterns because Jim not being a cryptographer decided to use a multi stage encryption method which relies on knowing both (or multiple) keys with accuracy. The risk here with him not being a cryptographer is not realizing the how hard/impossible he might have made it.
4. I also like to believe as we culturally move through time the potential Keywords or transposition shift keys may dissolve away. For all we know he may have chosen a word that was colloquial to the 80's, CIA, Espionage...ect that has just dissolved with time.
I want to see the solution, I want to reiterate Jim was not a cryptographer and may have gone buck wild with his encryption.
Just throwing out some solution banter.
I believe one layer of K4 is null cipher, but I think its screwed by a transposition of which I think the key is based off K0, or something to do with the lat-long coordinates.
Also when he says Berlin clock I think he means Kalendarplatz, this would make more sense as he is a sculpture artist who works with forces of nature.
My only other call out is he may have tied Kryptos into the north east area of the CIA, potentially linking it to the memorial gardens or the wall of the fallen officers.
30 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 74.6 ms ] threadGift link https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/science/kryptos-cia-solut...
Victor Wong writes,
“If they don’t have the method,” she said, “it’s not solved,” she said.
That does raise a philosophical point to the craft of intelligence gathering. Speaking as a professional librarian, I do applaud the use of ATI (access to information) to find the appropriate data -- it's akin to a WW2 unit capturing an Enigma codebook.
Kobek may actually have pulled that off once before, by the way. I'm pretty sure that his Zodiac killer candidate, Paul A. Doerr, will turn out to have been correct.
The secret code behind the CIA's Kryptos puzzle is up for sale - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44907366 - Aug 2025 (53 comments)
Sanborn wants the money for medical reasons so he needs to maintain a high sale price.
The two fans want to share the solution with the world.
Presumably the winner of the auction will be buying a severely depreciating asset: the right to know but not disclose the solution. There are at least four people who have the solution and as soon as one of them shares it, its value goes to zero.
Maybe the “solution” to this meta problem is simple: auction it off to the public with a go fund me. As soon as it reaches $500k, publish the solution. That way everyone wins.
The whole thing got more complicated with the addition of lawyers, not less. I don’t see how the two fans violated any contracts with the artist or auction house since they never signed one. But of course lawyers will charge a ton for you to find out.
Actual decryption effort group didn't get to decrypt (a small but faithful community), the creator needed the money for medical procedures that he really believed was coming in. The solution feels like we all go cheated out of something. Lawyers are now involved and the value of the solution is rapidly plummeting.
No one's winning because of a small mistake.
> Upon being notified, the Smithsonian immediately sealed Sanborn's archives for 50 years to protect Sanborn's intellectual property rights.
Sanborn actually showed off some of his worksheets during a PBS interview years ago, which I assume are the same documents later given to the Smithsonian. At one point I looked into buying the B-roll footage to take a closer look at them, but I discovered enterprising Kryptos sleuths had already done so years before.
This essay is relevant to this situation because the threat model in James’ essay is almost the same way this cipher was decrypted.
Like, here - here's a code that no one will ever solve: ITIWKSMNDIWKD WJSIKWMWMSONQ
Turn that into a sculpture and put it outside the CIA.
Shameful behavior.
1. That is technically normal espionage practices, the CIA wouldn't be the CIA if they were only reliant on cryptography... (they'd be the NSA)
2. The solution to this puzzle would bring closure to at this point generations of curious people.
3. On the more technical side, it's been discussed that the potential method for decrypting K4 is more or less insolvable through normal patterns because Jim not being a cryptographer decided to use a multi stage encryption method which relies on knowing both (or multiple) keys with accuracy. The risk here with him not being a cryptographer is not realizing the how hard/impossible he might have made it.
4. I also like to believe as we culturally move through time the potential Keywords or transposition shift keys may dissolve away. For all we know he may have chosen a word that was colloquial to the 80's, CIA, Espionage...ect that has just dissolved with time.
I want to see the solution, I want to reiterate Jim was not a cryptographer and may have gone buck wild with his encryption.
Just throwing out some solution banter. I believe one layer of K4 is null cipher, but I think its screwed by a transposition of which I think the key is based off K0, or something to do with the lat-long coordinates.
Also when he says Berlin clock I think he means Kalendarplatz, this would make more sense as he is a sculpture artist who works with forces of nature.
My only other call out is he may have tied Kryptos into the north east area of the CIA, potentially linking it to the memorial gardens or the wall of the fallen officers.
https://zonamotel.substack.com/p/interview-kryptos-k4-uncove...