Re: crypt
On Fri, 30 May 1997, Rick Jones wrote:
> On Tue, 27 May 1997, Nathan E Norman wrote:
> > The crypt (1) algorithm is based on the German WWII era "Enigma" cipher
> > - except that it's not as good. It emulates an Enigma machine with one
> > rotor. I'll point out that the chaps at Bletchley Park cracked four
> > rotor ciphers in the 1940s using mechanical computers.
>
> During the war there was only one way to decypher anything created this
> way. You had to have the machine. If these people where able to do it
> then where were they during the war?
The people were mainly in a few of the huts at Bletchley Park, just down
the road from here. The British-built Enigma machines they deciphered the
messages with were superior to the originals in that they printed onto
sticky tape (like telegrams) rather than just illuminating lamps.
Of course, typing the ciphertext into the Enigma machine is the easy bit -
you have to work out the correct ground setting of the rotors that had
been chosen, and the positions of the plugs in the superencipherment
plugboard. That's what the cryptanalysts used the Polish-designed bombas
for.
All this has been public knowledge for twenty years.
> [...]
> I have the knowledge and will spread it whenever possible [...]
> [...]
> Do you doubt me :-)
Yes, though I find the meaning of the smiley rather cryptic. But I have
an open mind and would be interested to know what new cyrptanalytical
methods you have discovered.
--
David Wright, Open University, Earth Science Department, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
U.K. email: d.wright@open.ac.uk tel: +44 1908 653 739 fax: +44 1908 655 151
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