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Code and ciphers: Julius Caesar, the Enigma and the internet

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126<br />

chapter 9<br />

H) <strong>and</strong> (C, Q) are such pairs, <strong>and</strong>, if R2 doesn’t move during <strong>the</strong> indicator<br />

encipherment, we can hope to identify R1 <strong>and</strong> its setting.<br />

Since (i) is always true <strong>and</strong> (ii) holds about 80% of <strong>the</strong> time <strong>the</strong> prospects<br />

of success, using <strong>the</strong> method to be described, are good if enough<br />

information is available. Even if R2 does move <strong>the</strong> attack may still succeed<br />

for if R2 moves between <strong>the</strong> second <strong>and</strong> third letters (say) <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> third<br />

<strong>and</strong> sixth letters (C <strong>and</strong> Q in <strong>the</strong> example) will have been produced by <strong>the</strong><br />

same letter on a machine on which only R1 has moved. In <strong>the</strong> worst case,<br />

where R2 turns between <strong>the</strong> third <strong>and</strong> fourth letters, <strong>the</strong> attack is invalid,<br />

but <strong>the</strong> fact that it fails tells <strong>the</strong> cryptanalyst that R2 has probably moved<br />

<strong>and</strong> this may be helpful in a different attack.<br />

Before describing <strong>the</strong> method for finding <strong>the</strong> identity <strong>and</strong> setting of<br />

R1 it is helpful to look at a small scale example. In this example <strong>the</strong> indicator<br />

consists of just one letter which is immediately repeated, ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />

than three letters repeated as in <strong>the</strong> <strong>Enigma</strong> itself. The cryptanalytic<br />

attack is <strong>the</strong> same in both cases. The chains are formed from <strong>the</strong> cipher<br />

pairs at positions 1 <strong>and</strong> 2 ra<strong>the</strong>r than those at positions 1 <strong>and</strong> 4 (<strong>and</strong> (2, 5)<br />

<strong>and</strong> (3, 6) for <strong>the</strong> <strong>Enigma</strong>).<br />

Example 9.1 (Mini-<strong>Enigma</strong>)<br />

The following 12 pairs of cipher letters are <strong>the</strong> result of enciphering <strong>the</strong><br />

12 plaintext letter-pairs AA, BB, ..., KK, LL (in an unknown order) at consecutive<br />

positions, <strong>and</strong> at a common ground setting, through a 12-letter<br />

<strong>Enigma</strong>-type cipher machine:<br />

AK, BL, CI, DD, EB, FG, GE, HH, IA, JC, KJ, LF.<br />

We form ‘chains’ from <strong>the</strong>se pairs by joining pairs where <strong>the</strong> second letter<br />

of one pair is <strong>the</strong> same as <strong>the</strong> first letter of ano<strong>the</strong>r pair, stopping when a<br />

letter is repeated:<br />

AKJCI<br />

BLFGE<br />

DD<br />

HH<br />

We see that <strong>the</strong>re are two chains of 5 different letters <strong>and</strong> two chains of<br />

just 1 letter. Is this a coincidence? No; it is not. The Polish cryptanalysts<br />

discovered that encipherment of pairs of <strong>the</strong> same letter at positions one<br />

or more places apart when only R1 moves will always produce chains<br />

which occur in pairs. The proof of this is not very difficult <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>

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