4 ms·

What tools do you use for this kind of deciphering?, pencil and paper, some kind of mode for vim ( or any other editor), or special software?

by omegant 15y ago

jgrahamc 15y ago
I wrote a small program in Perl to do it. All I needed was the number frequencies and some way of doing substitutions. When I did the New Scientist code breaking competition I just used an EMACS buffer and did M-% substitutions. http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-to-break-new-scientist-cipher.html http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-to-break-new-scientist-ciphe... When I worked on the 'Reddit code' I think I just used EMACS again: http://blog.jgc.org/2010/12/breaking-reddit-code.html http://blog.jgc.org/2010/12/breaking-reddit-code.html When I worked on how the Zodiac Killer enciphered the 408 message I started out by hand and then wrote a small program: http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-zodiac-enciphered-zodiac-408-cipher.html http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-zodiac-enciphered-zodiac-408... For the hidden part of the GCHQ challenge that I discovered and reversed the key for I think I wrote some code in C: http://blog.jgc.org/2011/12/down-gchq-rabbit-hole-or-i-think-there.html http://blog.jgc.org/2011/12/down-gchq-rabbit-hole-or-i-think... In general, I like to stare at things, work by hand and write code to automate.
- omegant 15y ago
  Thank you!, since I read "the code book" by Simon Sinth, all this kind of deciphering just seems awesome to me. I'll check your articles for sure!
  - J3L2404 15y ago
    I think you mean Simon Singh, but yeah a great book.
    - omegant 15y ago
      Yep you are right, I am reading writting from the Iphone and made that mistake.
rmc 15y ago
If you're doing it yourself, you can just write simple programmes in a high level language like Python or Perl. It allows you to do things and change things that would be very tedious even during WW2
tikhonj 15y ago
Emacs has a mode for analyzing text encrypted with a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher--like the one in the article. You can access it by putting the ciphertext in a buffer and using M-x decipher.

What tools do you use for this kind of deciphering?, pencil and paper, some kind of mode for vim ( or any other editor), or special software?

by omegant 15y ago

What tools do you use for this kind of deciphering?, pencil and paper, some kind of mode for vim ( or any other editor), or special software?

jgrahamc 15y ago

I wrote a small program in Perl to do it. All I needed was the number frequencies and some way of doing substitutions. When I did the New Scientist code breaking competition I just used an EMACS buffer and did M-% substitutions. http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-to-break-new-scientist-cipher.html http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-to-break-new-scientist-ciphe... When I worked on the 'Reddit code' I think I just used EMACS again: http://blog.jgc.org/2010/12/breaking-reddit-code.html http://blog.jgc.org/2010/12/breaking-reddit-code.html When I worked on how the Zodiac Killer enciphered the 408 message I started out by hand and then wrote a small program: http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-zodiac-enciphered-zodiac-408-cipher.html http://blog.jgc.org/2011/06/how-zodiac-enciphered-zodiac-408... For the hidden part of the GCHQ challenge that I discovered and reversed the key for I think I wrote some code in C: http://blog.jgc.org/2011/12/down-gchq-rabbit-hole-or-i-think-there.html http://blog.jgc.org/2011/12/down-gchq-rabbit-hole-or-i-think... In general, I like to stare at things, work by hand and write code to automate.

omegant 15y ago
Thank you!, since I read "the code book" by Simon Sinth, all this kind of deciphering just seems awesome to me. I'll check your articles for sure!
- J3L2404 15y ago
  I think you mean Simon Singh, but yeah a great book.
  - omegant 15y ago
    Yep you are right, I am reading writting from the Iphone and made that mistake.

rmc 15y ago

If you're doing it yourself, you can just write simple programmes in a high level language like Python or Perl. It allows you to do things and change things that would be very tedious even during WW2

tikhonj 15y ago

Emacs has a mode for analyzing text encrypted with a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher--like the one in the article. You can access it by putting the ciphertext in a buffer and using M-x decipher.