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I've been attempting to solve this ARG named SAN for the past 2 days or so, and I've been stuck on this image for about a day. Are there any algorithms or methods to figure it out? By the way, the language this is in Serbian, so if you find Serbian text, it's most likely the solution. Here's the image:

it appears to be just a series of dots, however we've identified that it is octal, and has some pattern of sorts.

It appears to be just a series of dots, however we've identified that it is octal, and has some pattern of sorts.

A E
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  • 41
  • 81
sirallman
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  • Looks like Braille to me. –  Mar 19 '15 at 22:23
  • Its not, we've tried every single possible combination for braile, nothing. – sirallman Mar 19 '15 at 22:29
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    And for that matter, what sort of Braille uses the same letter over and over again. –  Mar 19 '15 at 22:30
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    I'd hazard a guess that a series of n groups of dots represents numbers between 1 and 5, and the pairs of numbers that you get from interpreting the dots like this (13 15 13 32 11 22 45 43 24 41 24 24 52 24 41 11 11 32 11 11 34 13 11 34) forms a modified Bifid cipher. – Tryth Mar 19 '15 at 22:55
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    @sirallman - Are you looking for something like one word or perhaps 5 words? Are there any more clues? How do you know it is octal? – Len Mar 20 '15 at 07:45
  • Might be relevant: http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/5905/what-characteristics-of-a-ciphertext-can-be-indicators-of-a-particular-cipher – A E Mar 20 '15 at 17:14
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    @JoeZ. Said no blind people ever – pwnsauce Jul 21 '16 at 14:15

1 Answers1

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I imagine that you have already tried this but I will post in case somebody can build on it.

As Tryth noted, the code appears to represent digits from 1-5 and the cipher could be Bifid. Digits are in pairs with half a space between single digits and a full space between pairs.

The resulting pairs are shown below as well as the letters from a basic Polybius square. This assumes that fractionation was not applied because there are 25 pairs of digits (not an even number).

13  15  13  32  11  11  11  45  43  24  41  24  24  52  24  41  11  11  32  11  11  34  13  11  34
C   E   C   M   A   A   A   U   S   I/J Q   I/J I/J W   I/J Q   A   A   M   A   A   O   C   A   O

If fractionation was applied by splitting the center pair of digits, the resulting pairs are shown below.

14  35  12  52  14  34  31  21  11  11  11  13  12  11  41  51  41  33  24  41  43  11  21  43  24
D   P   B   W   D   O   L   F   A   A   A   C   B   A   Q   V   Q   N   I/J Q   S   A   F   S   I/J

One could continue to try various substitutions but this method does not seem to be correct primarily because it produces an unusually high number of 1's. In addition, the range of the numbers from 11 to 52 seems too high considering an alphabet of either 26 or 30 characters.

Len
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  • Serbian alphabet is built from 30 characters, and for puzzle to be a little bit more complicated, there are two serbian alphabets. Cyrillic and Latin. – Izzy Mar 20 '15 at 09:10
  • This is the crylic version of serbian, or at least in all the other steps, thanks for the input, im at school right now but when i get home i'll take a closer look and see if your answer is correct. – sirallman Mar 20 '15 at 15:21