The Chaocipher Clearing House
Progress Report #24
Jeff Calof presents Kruh and Deavours's
unpublished "Exhibit 6" Chaocipher challenge
In May 2013 Jeff Calof visited the National Cryptologia
Museum in Ft. Meade, MD with the express purpose of examining the
Chaocipher-related papers donated by Patricia Byrne, wife of John Byrne
and daighter-in-law of John F. Byrne.
While perusing this Chaocipher treasure trove he uncovered an
unpublished paper prepared by Professor Cipher Deavours
and Lou Kruh. The paper presented a cryptanalytic challenge to
students of cryptology, and consisted of fifty (50) in-depth messages
enciphered using Chaocipher. The challenge was meant to
correspond to the material William F. Friedman had requested from
John F. Byrne in 1942 but had never received.
In this paper, Jeff Calof presents the cryptanalytic community with a
truly unique opportunity to "cut its teeth" on a near-real-life
challenge to solve the same type of messages that William F. Friedman
would have received back in 1942. More than seventy years later,
cryptanalts have a wealth of techniques to use in solving this
challenge.
The Chaocipher Clearing House hereby presents Calof's
challenge paper, and welcomes comments and solutions from its
readers. Cryptologists and cryptanalysts are invited to submit
papers to The Chaocipher Clearing House for publication on this site.
The text of the Kruh and Deavours's fifty challenge messages can be
downloaded from this
location.
Good luck!
Copyright
(c) 2012-2015 Moshe Rubin
Created: 9 January 2015