Over 180 readers have commented on my recent blog articles about the Tengri 137 mystery. Now Tengri 137 has posted a new challenge.
For years, Cicada 3301 was the most important internet mystery game. To date nobody knows who was behind the series of puzzles and cryptograms that showed up in 2012, 2013, and 2014 (each series started in January). However, in January 2015 and 2017 nothing new was detected, and I’m still not sure whether the challenges published in January 2016 are genuine. Meanwhile I’m afraid that Cicada 3301 is dead.
Tengri 137
September 16, 2016, marked the start of a new internet mystery game (thanks to Bernhard Esslinger for the hint). On this day an unknown person using the pseudonym Tengri 137 twittered a link to an encrypted book. Pages 1 to 16 of this book were already solved, when I first heard about it. The solution is available at the Tengri 137 Wikia. In an ingenious act of codebreaking blog reader Klaus Tappeiner from South Tyrol decrypted pages 17 to 22. I wrote about his success in a recent blog post.
The last page of the Tengri 137 book is still unsolved. Here it is:
On March 14, which is known as Pi Day among mathematicians, Tengri 137 published another tweet. This one led to the following PGP-signed message:
B U R U M U T R E F A M T U N U R E S U T R E G U M F A Y A P S U A Z B E H I M L A Z A N R U A Z B E N O M B A T O B I K O T L U B U M Y O S U N O K U R G A N O Z Y I O K U Z I K U F A U S I H E Y A B E K A N S A B E R H O N A F E R A N S A H O T F E K O R E M O R B I Z U M R O S U N A K I R F A N E M B A Nothing is random. 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, ... https://bit.ly/2mUF7Xy Tengri 137 0x666ab731
The link given in this message leads to a sound file in MP3 format. My readers Norbert, nimrodx0, Alex, and Klaus found out that this file contains the following hidden messages:
LITTLE BIRD KNOWS WHEN THE GATE IS OPEN END END END
666666m7x6x5regc.onion
The letter sequence “B U R U M U T…” contained in the signed message is, as far as I understand it, an intermediate result that appears when one decodes the hidden text in the sound file. It is probably meant to be a confirmation that one is on the right track. “666666m7x6x5regc.onion” is a Tor network address that currently doesn’t lead to anything. Maybe we have to wait until “the gate is open”, i. e., somebody fills the page with content.
The latest Tengri 137 message
Yesterday another Tengri 137 tweet was published (thanks to Karin Isberg and Klaus Tappeiner for the hint). Again it led to a signed message. Here it is:
NOTHING IS RANDOM U T M A F E R T U M U R U B A F M U G E R T U S E R U N A L M I H E B Z A U S P A Y A B M O N E B Z A U R N A Z O Y M U B U L T O K I B O T I Y Z O N A G R U K O N U S E H I S U A F U K I Z U K O O H R E B A S N A K E B A Y E F T O H A S N A R E F A N O R N U Z I B R O M E R O K A B M E N A F R I K A N U S Tengri 137 0x666ab731
This time the message doesn’t contain a link. I have no idea what the letter sequence “U T M F …” means. Is it again an intermediate result that can be taken as a hint to decrypt something (e.g., the last book page)? Or is it an encrypted text itself? As this sequence contains words like EBAY, AFRIKANUS, KONUS and OHR, it is probably not the result of a letter substitution.
If you can decrypt the latest Tengri 137 message or if you have some other interesting clue, please let me know.
Follow @KlausSchmeh
Further reading: How a German World War II spy hid a message in a love letter
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13501820
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/763282653806483/
Kommentare (19)