Kryptos@Home: Difference between revisions
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'''Kryptos@Home''' was a [[BOINC]] [[wikipedia:Volunteer computing|volunteer computing]] project that applied [[wikipedia:Genetic algorithm|genetic algorithms]] to the search for [[wikipedia:Hill cipher|Hill cipher]] keys, in an attempt to decrypt the unsolved fourth passage, known as K4, of the [[wikipedia:Kryptos|Kryptos]] sculpture at the grounds of the [[wikipedia:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) headquarters in Langley, Virginia.<ref name="kh-launch">{{Cite web |title=Project launch |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517151345/https://www.kryptosathome.com/forum_thread.php?id=1 |website=Kryptos@Home Wayback Archive |date=January 8, 2021 |access-date=July 26, 2026}}</ref> It was launched in January 2021, and it operated for approximately eight months before its servers went offline and the project was abandoned by its volunteer developer.<ref name="boincstats-dead">{{Cite web |title=Kryptos@Home Dead? |url=https://www.boincstats.com/forum/10/12718,1 |website=BOINCstats/BAM! Forum |access-date=July 26, 2026}}</ref> | '''[https://web.archive.org/web/20210125080541/https://www.kryptosathome.com/ Kryptos@Home]''' was a [[BOINC]] [[wikipedia:Volunteer computing|volunteer computing]] project that applied [[wikipedia:Genetic algorithm|genetic algorithms]] to the search for [[wikipedia:Hill cipher|Hill cipher]] keys, in an attempt to decrypt the unsolved fourth passage, known as K4, of the [[wikipedia:Kryptos|Kryptos]] sculpture at the grounds of the [[wikipedia:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) headquarters in Langley, Virginia.<ref name="kh-launch">{{Cite web |title=Project launch |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517151345/https://www.kryptosathome.com/forum_thread.php?id=1 |website=Kryptos@Home Wayback Archive |date=January 8, 2021 |access-date=July 26, 2026}}</ref> It was launched in January 2021, and it operated for approximately eight months before its servers went offline and the project was abandoned by its volunteer developer.<ref name="boincstats-dead">{{Cite web |title=Kryptos@Home Dead? |url=https://www.boincstats.com/forum/10/12718,1 |website=BOINCstats/BAM! Forum |access-date=July 26, 2026}}</ref> | ||
The project never publicly credited a named individual as its developer; community discussion described it as a one-person effort, reportedly run by a university-affiliated volunteer.<ref name="boincstats-dead"/> Kryptos@Home is not to be confused with the unrelated K4 auction and archival discovery that ultimately disclosed the plaintext of the same cipher in 2025, several years after the project's own computations had ceased.<ref name="sciam2025"/> | The project never publicly credited a named individual as its developer; community discussion described it as a one-person effort, reportedly run by a university-affiliated volunteer.<ref name="boincstats-dead"/> Kryptos@Home is not to be confused with the unrelated K4 auction and archival discovery that ultimately disclosed the plaintext of the same cipher in 2025, several years after the project's own computations had ceased.<ref name="sciam2025"/> | ||
== Background: the Kryptos sculpture == | == Background: the Kryptos sculpture == | ||
[[File:Kryptos sculptor.jpg|thumb | [[File:Kryptos sculptor.jpg|thumb|The S-shaped copper screen bearing the Kryptos ciphertexts, in the courtyard of the CIA's George Bush Center for Intelligence|326x326px]] | ||
Kryptos is a sculpture by American artist [[wikipedia:Jim Sanborn|Jim Sanborn]], dedicated on November 3, 1990, on the grounds of CIA headquarters at the main entrance to the New Headquarters Building and in the courtyard between that building and the Original Headquarters Building cafeteria.<ref name="kryptos-home">{{Cite web |title=Kryptos@Home – Project Overview |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125080541/https://www.kryptosathome.com/ |website=Kryptos@Home |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125080541/https://www.kryptosathome.com/ |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |url-status=dead |access-date=July 26, 2026}}</ref> The centerpiece is a large, vertical S-shaped copper screen bearing four separate encrypted passages, referred to as K1, K2, K3, and K4.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> Sanborn worked for four months with Ed Scheidt, then the retired chairman of the CIA's Office of Communications, to devise the encryption schemes used in the piece.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> The sculpture's name derives from the ancient Greek word for "hidden," and its overall theme is intelligence gathering.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> The design and installation, commissioned through the GSA Art-in-Architecture program, cost $250,000 in 1988 dollars.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> | Kryptos is a sculpture by American artist [[wikipedia:Jim Sanborn|Jim Sanborn]], dedicated on November 3, 1990, on the grounds of CIA headquarters at the main entrance to the New Headquarters Building and in the courtyard between that building and the Original Headquarters Building cafeteria.<ref name="kryptos-home">{{Cite web |title=Kryptos@Home – Project Overview |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125080541/https://www.kryptosathome.com/ |website=Kryptos@Home |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125080541/https://www.kryptosathome.com/ |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |url-status=dead |access-date=July 26, 2026}}</ref> The centerpiece is a large, vertical S-shaped copper screen bearing four separate encrypted passages, referred to as K1, K2, K3, and K4.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> Sanborn worked for four months with Ed Scheidt, then the retired chairman of the CIA's Office of Communications, to devise the encryption schemes used in the piece.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> The sculpture's name derives from the ancient Greek word for "hidden," and its overall theme is intelligence gathering.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> The design and installation, commissioned through the GSA Art-in-Architecture program, cost $250,000 in 1988 dollars.<ref name="kryptos-home"/> | ||
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== Software and applications == | == Software and applications == | ||
The project distributed its computational application, referred to in configuration files by the internal name <code>kryptos-plato</code>, as an [[wikipedia:VM (BOINC)|Oracle VM VirtualBox]]-based virtual machine application rather than a native executable, running under the BOINC Virtualbox wrapper.<ref name="tsbt-thread"/> Work was available for 64-bit Windows (AMD64/Intel EM64T), 64-bit Linux (AMD64/Intel EM64T), and 64-bit Intel-based macOS 10.5 or later; no GPU-accelerated application was offered.<ref name="amdusers"/> The project's own documentation indicated that a native (non-virtualized) application was planned for at least the Windows platform, though it is not confirmed whether such a native client was ever released before the project went offline.<ref name="tsbt-thread"/> | The project distributed its computational application, referred to in configuration files by the internal name <code>kryptos-plato</code>, as an [[wikipedia:VM (BOINC)|Oracle VM VirtualBox]]-based virtual machine application rather than a native executable, running under the BOINC Virtualbox wrapper.<ref name="tsbt-thread"/> Work was available for 64-bit Windows (AMD64/Intel EM64T), 64-bit Linux (AMD64/Intel EM64T), and 64-bit Intel-based macOS 10.5 or later; no GPU-accelerated application was offered.<ref name="amdusers"/> The project's own documentation indicated that a native (non-virtualized) application was planned for at least the Windows platform, though it is not confirmed whether such a native client was ever released before the project went offline.<ref name="tsbt-thread"/> | ||