From msuinfo!agate!darkstar.UCSC.EDU!news.hal.COM!olivea!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!munnari.oz.au!news.uwa.edu.au!DIALix!sydney!chjintag Tue Jul 12 12:39:40 1994 Newsgroups: sci.crypt Path: msuinfo!agate!darkstar.UCSC.EDU!news.hal.COM!olivea!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!munnari.oz.au!news.uwa.edu.au!DIALix!sydney!chjintag From: chjintag@sydney.DIALix.oz.au (Chris Jones) Subject: old unbroken WW2 cipher Organization: DIALix Services, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Date: Sat, 09 Jul 94 07:08:36 GMT Message-ID: <1994Jul09.070836.17468@sydney.DIALix.oz.au> X-Newsreader: NN version 6.4.19 #1 Lines: 21 A friend of mine gave me a copy of an "unbreakable" cipher, that dates back to post WW2 and pre (nominal) computers. It is believed to be a hand cipher, not table driven( though it may be). The cipher appears to be based on a 25 letter alphabet. This may be an extremely trival cipher to break, but the process is unknown to me, or my friend, hence I am putting into the great beyond for assistance. The replication of the cipher below is as accurate as I recieved it, it has been checked by row and column and therefore (hopefully) error free (hopefully). Any help in the breaking and method behind it would be appreciated. 75628 28591 62916 48164 91748 58464 74748 28483 81638 18174 74826 26475 83828 49175 74658 37575 75936 36565 81638 17585 75756 46282 92857 46382 75748 38165 81848 56485 64858 56382 72628 36281 81728 16463 75828 16483 63828 58163 63630 47481 91918 46385 84656 48565 62946 26285 91859 17491 72756 46575 71658 36264 74818 28462 82649 18193 65626 48484 91838 57491 81657 27483 83858 28364 62726 26562 83759 27263 82827 27283 82858 47582 81837 28462 82837 58164 75748 58162 92000 From msuinfo!agate!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!rand.org!mycroft.rand.org!not-for-mail Tue Jul 12 12:39:41 1994 Path: msuinfo!agate!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!rand.org!mycroft.rand.org!not-for-mail From: jim@acm.org (Jim Gillogly) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Re: old unbroken WW2 cipher Date: 9 Jul 1994 20:58:47 -0700 Organization: Banzai Institute Lines: 27 Sender: jim@mycroft.rand.org Message-ID: <2vnrln$3hv@mycroft.rand.org> References: <1994Jul09.070836.17468@sydney.dialix.oz.au> Reply-To: jim@acm.org NNTP-Posting-Host: mycroft.rand.org Keywords: D'Agapeyeff In article <1994Jul09.070836.17468@sydney.dialix.oz.au>, Chris Jones wrote: > >A friend of mine gave me a copy of an "unbreakable" cipher, >that dates back to post WW2 and pre (nominal) computers. It ... >75628 28591 62916 48164 91748 58464 74748 28483 81638 18174 ... >82858 47582 81837 28462 82837 58164 75748 58162 92000 This is the d'Agapeyeff Cipher, a one-off effort produced as a challenge at the end of a cryptography book by Alexander d'Agapeyeff in 1939 -- so it's pre-WW2. In my opinion d'Agapeyeff was not knowledgeable about ciphers. He wrote a cartography book in a series for Oxford University Press, so I assume he was later tapped for this one in the same series. Quite a few people have had a go at it, and an article was written about it in an early Cryptologia pointing out some of the statistical oddities. My current theory is that he was trying to execute a Mirabeau cipher (like a checkerboard with nulls) but botched the encryption in some unknown way. This challenge cipher was removed from later editions; when interviewed he said he no longer remembered how he had done it, according to an article in The Cryptogram. Rather than "unbreakable" I'd prefer to call it "as-yet unbroken". -- Jim Gillogly Trewesday, 17 Afterlithe S.R. 1994, 03:58 From msuinfo!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!ddsw1!indep1!clifto Tue Jul 12 12:39:41 1994 Newsgroups: sci.crypt Path: msuinfo!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!ddsw1!indep1!clifto From: clifto@indep1.chi.il.us (Clifton T. Sharp) Subject: Re: old unbroken WW2 cipher Message-ID: Keywords: D'Agapeyeff Organization: as little as possible References: <1994Jul09.070836.17468@sydney.dialix.oz.au| <2vnrln$3hv@mycroft.rand.org> Date: Sun, 10 Jul 1994 11:48:00 GMT Lines: 50 In article <2vnrln$3hv@mycroft.rand.org| jim@acm.org writes: |In article <1994Jul09.070836.17468@sydney.dialix.oz.au>, |Chris Jones wrote: |> |>A friend of mine gave me a copy of an "unbreakable" cipher, |>that dates back to post WW2 and pre (nominal) computers. It |... |>75628 28591 62916 48164 91748 58464 74748 28483 81638 18174 |... |>82858 47582 81837 28462 82837 58164 75748 58162 92000 | |This is the d'Agapeyeff Cipher, a one-off effort produced as a challenge |at the end of a cryptography book by Alexander d'Agapeyeff in 1939 -- so |it's pre-WW2. In my opinion d'Agapeyeff was not knowledgeable about |ciphers. He wrote a cartography book in a series for Oxford University |Press, so I assume he was later tapped for this one in the same series. |Quite a few people have had a go at it, and an article was written about |it in an early Cryptologia pointing out some of the statistical oddities. |My current theory is that he was trying to execute a Mirabeau cipher (like |a checkerboard with nulls) but botched the encryption in some unknown way. |This challenge cipher was removed from later editions; when interviewed he |said he no longer remembered how he had done it, according to an article |in The Cryptogram. Well, I feel better now. I spent a few hours on this one before deciding it was beyond my ability. Unfortunately, my meager abilities didn't take me very far. I dropped the "000", natch, and counted 196 digrams, 18 unique. Frequency counts suggested the distribution was very English-like, and that solution would therefore involve substituting letters for numeric digrams and possibly transposing. Thinking in terms of a checkerboard alphabet (5x5), I did a quickie substitution and looked at the result; setting it up as a 14 x 14 matrix, I saw that the only three letters with frequency == 1 were at the ends of rows 7, 8 and 9. Digram and trigram analysis of the matrix were useless, which suggested transposition of some kind; the three-letter clue suggested Nihilist transposition to me. Unfortunately for me, my abilities aren't up to fooling around with a substituted transposition, and I quit there. What the heck, it kept me off the streets. The hubcaps of the neighborhood were safe for a few hours... -- Optimists say, "The glass is half full." Cliff Sharp Pessimists say, "It's half empty." WA9PDM We realists say, "Before I decide, clifto@indep1.chi.il.us tell me what's in the glass." From msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!MathWorks.Com!news2.near.net!news.delphi.com!usenet Thu Jul 21 00:13:53 1994 Path: msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!MathWorks.Com!news2.near.net!news.delphi.com!usenet From: lharnisch@delphi.com Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Re: old unbroken WW2 cipher Date: Sun, 17 Jul 94 22:04:48 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Lines: 34 Message-ID: <5K1TCjA.lharnisch@delphi.com> References: <1994Jul09.070836.17468@sydney.dialix.oz.au> <2vnrln$3hv@mycroft.rand.org> <2vobsc$ima@agate.berkeley.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: bos1f.delphi.com X-To: John K. Taber For further info, see Cryptologia, April, 1978. ``The Unsolved D'Agapeyeff Cipher" by Wayne G. Barker, pp 144-147.... The code posted to usenet is the same as that appearing in magazine. (in other words no apparent errors). The article poses four possibilities: 1) Has a form of transposition taken place within columns? Between rows? 2) Has a form of "addition" taken place within columns? This might explaine, for example, the last column on the right which might have an "additive" different from other columns (Barker is referring to the 14x14 matrix version of message).... 3) Do perhaps the numbers in the last column serve as some sort of "check" or "indicating device" for the other two-digit numbers within the same or next row? 4) Is it possible that a three-digit system is involved? Within each row there are a total of 28 digits. If one digit serves as a check/ indicator, the remaining 27 digits divide into nine different three- digit groups..... Also..... "if the three final zeros are treated as nulls then the only other zero in the cryptogram falls almost at the midpoint of the message! Chance? Significant? It appears that the cryptogram is certainly capable of being solved and a mathematical approach in analyzing columns might eventually lead to solution. Are the frequence distributions of odd columns compatible with the frequency distributions of even columns? Are there other things in the cryptogram that appear unusual? ... Might the cryptogram be broken into two smaller squares or rectangles? These and other questions make the d'Agapeyeff challenge extremely interesting. ...d'Agapeyeff, Alexander, "Codes and Ciphers" (London, Oxford University Press, 1939) Cheers and good luck... Larry Harnisch