The Challenge

The Crypto Box Challenge is a contest to decipher three scrambled pieces of text. You can use the Crypto Box program, a tool to transposition letters, to help you break the code. This is done by shuffling the rows and columns of the text square. Retrieving the original position of the letters has proved to be a real challenge due to the large number of possible moves and the complex way the letters travel around the square. Even the simplest shuffles with a few steps create a true brain-teasing puzzle. After the great success of the Enigma Challenge, with competitors from more than 30 countries, this is the second contest to show your code cracking skills to the rest of the world.

The Challenge consists of three shuffled portions of text, numbered 1, 2 and 3. These are little poems in the English language. Each of these boxes has its own difficulty level. The easiest one is Box 3, which can be solved in only 5 steps. Box 2 is more challenging and needs 10 steps to be solved. Finally, we have Box 1, a most complex and challenging puzzle which requires 20 steps to complete. Cracking this one will put you on top of the ranking! What's in it for you? A place in the Table Of Honor and the respect of fellow codebreakers, crypto amateurs and puzzle freaks from all over the world!

Some usefull tips on cracking the boxes:

• The words are written out without any space or other character between them.
• To limit the complexity there are never more that two successive identical steps.
• The text is trailed with X characters to complete the box.

How To Participate

The Crypto Box Challenge started on December 6, 2007. It is your task to shuffle the rows and columns of the box in such a way that the original text appears. Start by decrypting Box 3. If you succeed in cracking the box, you should send me an e-mail without hesitation. Include your full name, your country, the plain text solution and the used key. Your position in the Table of Honor depends on the date of submission! It is only after cracking Box 3 that you are allowed to attack Box 2, and that box needs to be solved before you can submit the most difficult one, Box 1.

You can download the Crypto Box software on this website. This software is optional but very usefull. You can copy and past the Challenge Boxes into the Crypto Box by using the 'Box' menu, and start the challenge. Of course, you can also use the program to create your own puzzles, or even encrypt short messages. With every new step the encryption becomes stronger and more complex. Don't forget that the 20 steps key of Box 1 is just a small key!

Finally, if you have deciphered a message, please do not publish or distribute the solution on the internet or elsewhere!

The Challenge Boxes

HTHLYTHXUG
TTHETINEHE
BOXAECRLTS
EVSRWIULCN
OMEEUTBYTA
SMAOTGUEBR
OKERHEKDYA
DSTREADALN
LTHPWORXSO
XUTEOUDOTX

RLITAEKXWW
WHETTSRYES
NAHWRTRDNW
SOWECWEAAE
EIOYHETHWK
RSGPYISYSE
OESHEDSPSC
EWTAAEXTWE
ETRSXNDEHE
EETEWHONXW

STARTHFHRS
EEREESIOAS
QCARYITNNO
STUASACLSE
AEEREREUOR
DRARFDAWCI
NSLENTTNRI
GGTURTIOTH
HECLETLEEE
SSHECIGSTX

TABLE OF HONOR
CRYPTO BOX CHALLENGE
Started on December 6, 2007

BOX 2 10 Steps			BOX 1 20 Steps		BOX 3 5 Steps
1		Derek Smyth		Olaf		Dave Goodwin
2		Klaus Becker		Bernard Right		Carol Crook
3		Richard Brisson		Hans Nelisse		Heinrich Jul
4		Mark van de Beek				Daniel Fretwell
5		David Carpenter				Thomas Boersma
6		Rod				Steve Mundy
7		George Burdell				Andreas R.
8		Jean-Marc Devroye				Ant Simmons
9		Victor Bunchukov				James Keener
10		Joachim Velten				Jens Joervad
11		Guntram Gelke				R Lopez
12		Rickard Norlander				Jason Leong
13		Zdenek Berka				Sven Westerlund
14		John Willemse
15		John Le Long
16		Allan Young
17		David Guidos
18		Trond Rognan
19		Jan Dvorak
20		Muthuvel Murugan
21		Frank Inklaar
22		Florian Hopfmuller
23		Bart den Hartog
24		Robert Sadler
25		Terence Turnbull
26		Michael Kaiser
27		Winfried Frühholz
28		Gerrit van Woerkom
29		Mohammad Mufti
30		Andrei Shishkin
31		Peter Hendriks
32		Peter Hardie
33		Jack Sui-hin Mak
34		Richard Bootsman
35

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