Cryptanalysis

This section documents the ways in which many cryptographic ciphers can be cryptanalysed and broken. The easiest ciphers to break are the ones which have existed for a long time. With this in mind, we will be focussing on classical ciphers, as these will be the easiest to explain.

This page provides a very general overview of the methods and techniques used to cryptanalyse just about any algorithm that enciphers text. Much of this will be slightly mathematical, but we will try to provide programs for everything. This means that in the event that you don't completely understand the theory of a technique, you should still be able to use it.

Most of the techniques described here will not work on modern cryptographic algorithms, so if this is what you are looking for, you will probably have more success looking elsewhere.

Much of the fun with these algorithms lies in cracking them. Some of the simpler algorithms such as the caesar cipher and the substitution cipher can be solved by hand, while others like the ADFGVX and the trifid cipher are more easily solved with the help of a computer.

What different methods are there?

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