Happy Holidays from Hawaii (the H³ challenge)

[madness]

The Hawai’ian language uses only these 12 letters:

A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W.

The following ciphertext is a traditional Hawai’ian song,
which has been encrypted with a Vigenère cipher. The cipher
is the normal one and uses all 26 English letters in the
normal English order.

This is all the information that you need to crack the text.
The key is a short but familiar phrase that is appropriately
shouted by Sandy Claws while surfing off Moloka’i this time of year.

TIVEXAPVKMZOVAWELOOKFIRQIISKQOFEVOYWUCMNKOXEVESKLUKCZAXOTSLRKOWIUIUKOP
ASZOKOSCYTMKKKGQFLELLVKVMIKEWEHEYKPTOSMHSKMLTMWOWQKQWAZUMETOOPZWZCMARE
BYLERIHIXIWAXETIVEXEYIVIWAXAWEHERIYMSWZIKKQPLOOLLQUIXAXIUOFTEKPIKQWEUU
YYTPKULXESMKKMGSVEVIVWUIMOSLGRLOEPFSKTMLKHGEXEUASQUQZAUUBYVEVALCYVMAWA
WEWMSOXIUIXESLMEFOKUWIXIYASKMTZQKIXISSMPYMMMVEYILQYQTOSOUPFRKIZWSTGNKH
QPFRKAFMUQUMKIZITMKOPMVIWAOHAMVIUOVCKXMUREXEFRSKTMXWWAEATETOOIVMYSQAUU
MLZMUEVIWIZAYKMALLSNPWVIWAUAUOFERIYMGITIXEMPZRYIVIYCMLSIQPZRYESCSIYASK
MPLRSMPSKPANEAZSFSUOLSESGLEOWESMUIXMUMMNYAUMLPYHLMOWXAO

 

[kford_academy]

So… I have solved the cipher (the easy bit). Now how do I read it (the hard bit)? I do not know Hawai’ian and none of the spaces are present so I can’t use Google Translate!

[srengarajan]

I think I have the solution but I have no idea how to check it. Shall I post it, or perhaps the key?

[madness]

The Hawaiian text is not the goal. The goal is the key, which is a message to everyone. Sadly, that message is in Hawaiian.

[The_Letter_Wriggler]

@madness You should have made it clear what was needed,
I second what @kford_academy wrote (wish you hade left the spaces in, can repost with spaces in?) anyway Merry Christmas to you!

MD5: 5f722a75cfa0378f9fd04a00e8f4737f (All Caps No Spaces, + TLW)

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

I solved it, but only because I heard Santa shouting.

[madness]

@TLW, confirmed. Now go surfing.

[srengarajan]

To be fair it’s not that hard to guess what the message could be considering the time of the year

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

This song is a song of praise of Laka.
It can be found p. 19 in pdf :

Nā Oli no ka ʻĀina o Kanakaʻole
(The Chants for the Kanakaʻole lands)
A Compilation of Oli and Cultural Practices

Copyright 2017
Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation
Hilo, Hawaiʻi

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

Using old school methods, you can easily find the length of the keyword.
Madness + Five-way-to-Crack-A-Vigenere-Cipher almost gives the key with a crib.
By politely asking Google, the keyword is found.

[f6exb_the_frenchy]

Another way to find the key:
Once we know the period, we divide the text into slices corresponding to the letters of the keyword.
Then we test each slice by decoding it according to Caesar using the “brute force” method.
The line giving letters contained only in the Hawaiian alphabet gives the key letter corresponding to the slice number.
Once the key word has been obtained, all that remains is to decode the Vigenère.

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