The Chaocipher Clearing House
Progress Report #18
Chaocipher Revealed: Deciphering Exhibit #1 of "Silent Years"
Following
in the footsteps of last month's disclosure of how Chaocipher works,
The Chaocipher Clearing House is proud to add a new paper to the
series: "Chaocipher Revealed: Deciphering Exhibit #1". This paper presents an in-depth
analysis of Exhibit 1, the first exhibit in Chapter 21 of John F.
Byrne's autobiographical "Silent Years".
The paper discusses the following topics:
- The textual layout of Exhibit 1
- What is the challenge for the cryptanalyst
- Chaocipher as a known-plaintext / known system problem
- The starting alphabets
- A discussion of the deciphered plaintext, including unanswered questions
- Errata observed in Exhibit 1 as presented in "Silent Years"
- How Byrne generated the starting alphabets
- A discussion of Byrne's intended cryptographic indicator system
- Numerous references to related topics
Copyright
(c) 2010 Moshe Rubin
Created: 2 July 2010
Updated: 8 August 2010