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How long would it take an average computer to figure out the WWII Enigma machine
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CJay:

--- Quote from: Beamin on January 02, 2021, 08:18:53 pm ---
Do you have a link to the video you are in?

--- End quote ---

Probably not, it's just a video from someone else who was at Bletchley on the day I was there a few years ago and I slip into shot a couple of times.
CJay:

--- Quote from: Cyberdragon on January 03, 2021, 06:34:13 am ---
--- Quote from: CJay on January 02, 2021, 09:35:23 am ---
--- Quote from: themadhippy on January 02, 2021, 01:40:22 am ---cyberchef seems to get the job done rather quickly,description of how to use  it  and  links to examples https://github.com/gchq/CyberChef/wiki/Enigma,-the-Bombe,-and-Typex

--- End quote ---

It does,*much* faster than the original Bombe simulator I saw, would be interesting to see if it could be implemented on something embedded.

--- End quote ---

Would that have been this one?

https://www.101computing.net/turing-welchman-bombe-simulator/

--- End quote ---

No idea, that one may be based on their code but this is on the GCHQ Github:
https://github.com/gchq/CyberChef/wiki/Enigma,-the-Bombe,-and-Typex
Kjelt:

--- Quote from: Beamin on January 02, 2021, 04:15:47 pm ---3. Take that result compare to an english dictionary
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That is presuming the cleartext message is in english.
A different language, one extra permutation or the use of numbers in the start of the message and you will never find an answer.
Kleinstein:
The simulation of teh Enigma is rather fast. The tricky part in breaking such a code it to decide if the decifert text is valid or not. This part depends very much on what you know about the text - like knowing he likely end.  Imagine someone writing text with so many errors that it is bareley readbl a kompder wyll haf a hrt tme tu chech.
CJay:

--- Quote from: Kleinstein on January 03, 2021, 11:54:16 am ---The simulation of teh Enigma is rather fast. The tricky part in breaking such a code it to decide if the decifert text is valid or not. This part depends very much on what you know about the text - like knowing he likely end.  Imagine someone writing text with so many errors that it is bareley readbl a kompder wyll haf a hrt tme tu chech.

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That's the difficulty, to automatically check the validity of a solution you have to have some idea of the possible message content.

I could make an assumption based on your forum profile that a ciphertext from you is likely plaintext in German or English but I have no idea if you speak other languages too so my 'dictionary' may have just expanded immensely.

Similarly I don't know if you've used a translation application to a language you don't speak, if you've abbreviated, used txtspk, made typos, used a code or are just enciphering a message from somebody else who speaks a completely different set of languages.

There are so many possibly permutations that it becomes nigh impossible without a 'crib' and even after all that, if you somehow miraculously manage to get a machine to 'recognise' valid plaintext, it's possible there could be multiple 'hits' which will need to be checked and analysed.

It's not a trivial problem even if the keyspace is small enough to make a brute force decryption possible.


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