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There is an encrypted email in the recent Deus Ex: Mankind Divided game:

email

From the game files, this appears to be the string:

FILE: client.pld31bf3856ad364e35.id
CecKIjBrWWr|9Vo2DN6DOWK|86lQSYxno0s|6c4yEcxnoGs|FxAgwKsaX0I|5LMLADBrWGr|SecLIdbTR04|FxAgwMbTQW4|9r2mtqyMtmX|AGVGov0nYGu|8zg5cz0nY0u|EX@DJoCyext|F#6XUkCyN0W

If you treat the pipes as column separators, we get 13 rows of 11 characters each:

CecKIjBrWWr
9Vo2DN6DOWK
86lQSYxno0s
6c4yEcxnoGs
FxAgwKsaX0I
5LMLADBrWGr
SecLIdbTR04
FxAgwMbTQW4
9r2mtqyMtmX
AGVGov0nYGu
8zg5cz0nY0u
EX@DJoCyext
F#6XUkCyN0W

And many pairs of rows appear to share the same substrings:

SecLIdbTR04 (doesn't seem to pair with anything, CecKIjBrWWr maybe)

9Vo2DN6DOWK 
9r2mtqyMtmX


CecKIjBrWWr
5LMLADBrWGr


86lQSYxno0s
6c4yEcxnoGs


FxAgwKsaX0I
FxAgwMbTQW4


EX@DJoCyext
F#6XUkCyN0W


AGVGov0nYGu
8zg5cz0nY0u

I wasn't really able to get anything out of this or if the pairings even mean anything.

I am curious if this stands out to anyone as a particular type of crypto-cipher who may be able to take this further.

bobble
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user6865514
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  • Hello, welcome to Puzzling.SE. Are there here anything what a simple Google search with terms Deus Ex Walkthrough would not provide you with instantly? – Matsmath Sep 22 '16 at 18:15
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    No -- this isn't a required part of the game (I've already 100%'d it / gotten the platinum trophy). This is more of a hidden easter egg that no one has cracked yet. – user6865514 Sep 22 '16 at 18:22
  • Pairings seem reasonable, just glancing at the two FxAgw strings. The two strings that start with 9, however, only have that first character in common (position-wise), so I'm not so sure they really are a pair. – Bulldogg6404 Sep 22 '16 at 18:52
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    http://i.imgur.com/9MbwnCg.png This image of the same message was taken by a different player and posted online, but there is a character missing (the # symbol) from the last string. @user6865514 Can you recreate this image on your game? – Bulldogg6404 Sep 22 '16 at 19:08
  • @Bulldogg6404 That image appears to be bugged. The contents of the mail can be pulled from a file in the game directory, which is what I've posted above (also so people don't have to type out the text in the screen, which is prone to human error) – user6865514 Sep 22 '16 at 19:16
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    @Bulldogg6404 not sure if relevant, but that imgur link shows when the message is first found. The screenshot here shows the archive of all messages (in the companion app?). Could be due to a different system, a bug, a different patch, etc. – Phlarx Sep 22 '16 at 19:21
  • @user6865514 Reddit says this code was found at a Picus reporter's apartment. If you know where that was, could you look around for their PC, or things written on walls? – Phlarx Sep 22 '16 at 19:27
  • @Phlarx There's really nothing else... this video here shows what's in that apartment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89InTqfcDpk&t=25s (you also see the player collect this code around 1:05). Some emails 30s in but nothing seemingly related to this code. – user6865514 Sep 22 '16 at 19:46
  • The pocket secretary doesn't belong to the reporter, does it? The emails on the computer suggest that the safe (and thus its contents) belong to someone higher up in her organization. If so, then the message and its cipher probably do not pertain to her. – Bulldogg6404 Sep 22 '16 at 20:13
  • Including capital letters (which seem to bear significance), there are 55 different symbols used, without a particularly interesting letter frequency. This implies there is no fixed letter substitution. There will be a password/keyword to decrypt. – Oliver Jul 06 '18 at 14:10
  • There are not enough characters to do proper frequency analysis, especially if it is some kind of polyalphabetic substitution. I was thinking of polyalphabetic because the amount of different characters suggests that different characters might correspond with the same letter in the plaintext. If it really is an easter egg, you might need more clues from the game. Worst case scenario it is encrypted using a one-time pad where you need the key or it is literally unbreakable. – Danagon Nov 20 '19 at 15:17
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    Surprised that nobody posted the answer online. So it IS a cipher, and it requires a specific in game item to decode. Go to the Zelen Apartments in the south section of Prague, and look for a boy in a red shirt with glasses. After talking to him, a letter will show up just inside the front door of your apartment. Inside the letter is a Secret Society Decoder Pin. With the pin in your inventory, check the email again. It should be decoded now, and you'll see the message ROT13(Or Fher Gb Qevax Lbhe Binygvar). Obviously, this means that ROT(V'z wbxvat, cyrnfr qba'g qbjaibgr zr gb Uryy)! – David Robie Feb 10 '20 at 22:19
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    @DavidRobie ROT13(YBY V qrsvavgryl tbg zl ubcrf hc gung gurer jnf na nafjre. V jnf cercnevat gb gryy lbh gb cbfg lbhe pbzzrag nf na nafjre!) – Galen Apr 30 '20 at 00:13
  • Very likely a base 64 code as base 64 requires a few additional symbols to 26*2+10=62 letters and digits, which we see with @ symbol. – David Jun 04 '20 at 17:56
  • @user6865514, could you show us what is in the email: "Our Break Protocol?" I wonder if it's related. – Chris Happy May 20 '22 at 06:44

3 Answers3

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FILE: client.pld31bf3856ad364e35.id

--this looked suspiciously like hexadecimal to me. I removed "pld" (or p|d?) from the front of the string and used this converter: https://www.convertstring.com/EncodeDecode/HexDecode

to convert 31bf3856ad364e35

That gave me: 1¿8V­6N5

Which looks a bit sus to me. I offer that this might be "Snake?!" flipped upside down. (And I guess p|d might be a hint towards this.)

I shall continue to think about the main body of the email!

R1s1ble
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So, I think I may have a partial answer/ correct line of thought to solve the main body of the cipher.

Essentially, I think that both the "Encrypted" tag on the email and the surface appearance of base-64 are red herrings. Rather, it seems to be a person typing on some kind of inconvenient device or broken keyboard.

I noticed that when you compare the certain similarities that obviously exist between parts of these strings, there are letters that are either close together on the keyboard or look like other symbols that they could stand in for.

Below is what I came up with. You can check and find that a lot of the letters, if not the same, are either potentially similar-looking or within one key on a QWERTY keyboard.

Others may perhaps think that I have convinced myself of a pattern that doesn't exist. (I welcome any comment!)

ct1 = "CecKIjBrWWr"

SENDINGTEXT

ct2 = "9Vo2DN6DOWK"

ILOSTMYCODE

ct3 = "86lQSYxno0s"

ITISNTAJOKE

ct4 = "6c4yEcxnoGs"

??????AJOKE

ct5 = "FxAgwKsaX0I"

   ???????????

ct6 = "5LMLADBrWGr"

   ???????????

ct7 = "SecLIdbTR04"

SENDINGTEXT

ct8 = "FxAgwMbTQW4"

   ???????????

ct9 = "9r2mtqyMtmX"

   ???????????

ct10 = "AGVGov0nYGu"

WHYNOTONYOU

ct11 = "8zg5cz0nY0u"

ISTHISONYOU

ct12 = "EX@DJoCyext"

    ??????????? (possibly an email address, see ct5 and ct8 also)

ct13 = "F#6XUkCyN0W"

THINKINGHOW (or indeed an f-bomb perhaps...)

R1s1ble
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Decoded pld31bf3856ad364e35 from

base64

and got:

Wwշw~{~

Maybe similar to www? I wonder why there's symmetry among the letters too, e.g. the two w's and the two ~'s

Chris Happy
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