Amateur Cracks Secret Nazi Code

[2RHPZ]

Amateur Cracks Secret Nazi Code

By Walaika K. Haskins
March 2, 2006 4:15PM


Stefan Krah, responsible for cracking one of the three remaining Nazi codes that had remained mysteries for over 60 years, said he is not sure the final two codes will be cracked. So far, the power of thousands of PCs joined in this effort has resulted in little success. "There is no guarantee that another break will occur at all," Krah was quoted as saying. "There is simply a fair chance."

News Factor Magazine (http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=003000002OZ6)

[Shadow]

Interessting how advanced their cryptography was 60 years ago that 1000 PCs can't crack it.

[Musashi]

Log:

Date: 2006-02-20 11:02:26
Score: 6259047
UKW: B
W/0: B241
Stecker: ATBLDFGJHMNWOPQYRZVX
Rings: AAAV
Message key: VJNA

vonvonjlooksjhffttteinseinsdreizwoyyqnnsneuninhaltxxbeiangriffunterwasser
gedruecktywabosxletztergegnerstandnulachtdreinuluhrmarquantonjotaneunacht
seyhsdreiyzwozwonulgradyachtsmystossenachxeknsviermbfaelltynnnnnnoooviery
sichteinsnull

Interpretation:

1930 Funkspruch 1851/19/252:
" F T 1132/19 Inhalt:
Bei Angriff unter Wasser gedrückt.
Wabos. Letzter Gegnerstand 0830 Uhr
AJ 9863, 220 Grad, 8 sm. Stosse nach.
14 mb. fällt, NNO 4, Sicht 10.
Looks "

[PeaceWithMyPiece]

^^^^^ And what does this say in English?


Secondly, I find it hard to believe they haven't found documentation/instructions or someone from that regime (in earlier times) that invented or could crack the codes.

Interesting story nonetheless.

[eucalyptus]

Radio signal 1132/19 contents:

Forced to submerge during attack, depth charges. Last enemy location
08:30h, Marqu AJ 9863, 220 degrees, 8 nautical miles, (I am) following
(the enemy). (Barometer) falls (by) 14 Millibar, NNO 4, visibility 10.

........................

[PeaceWithMyPiece]

Thank you very much :)

[Knutsen]

Secondly, I find it hard to believe they haven't found documentation/instructions or someone from that regime (in earlier times) that invented or could crack the codes.
I've studied the Enigma machine and it's not that easy , even for today computers.
The Enigma is not a simple letter correspondence. The codes depend on several factors, being the most important :

a) Each time you press the button you get different symbols (letter/numbers). For example, if you have to write 3 A's, the first time you can get a K, the second a N and the third , a L, and that correspondence does not follow a pattern. It's a random process.

b) The codes depend on 2 things, the initial position of the cylinders (in this case, the 4 cylinder machine) and the codebook of the day (those codes were changed every day).

Basically, there were billions and billions of combinations for each message.
Besides, it's kind of surprising how simple (at first sight) problems can overflow the memory of today's computers.
As an example: Do you know what a pentamino is? A pentamino is a 13 piece puzzle like this:


Simple, isn't it? Well, a computer executing a backtracking algorithm for this problem, which basically is an algorithm which explores all the possible combinations , takes around 3 or 4 days to solve it. Now imagine what can happen with an Enigma code.


PS: I know there are better algorithms, i'm just oversimplifying things to show the problems in solving the Enigma codes p-)

[liberation]

This could be utter nonsense but didn't the Nazi's patent the Enigma machine with the British Home Office prior to the outbreak of WW2?

[psycho+logical]

thank you knutsen for the infos!

good article CAG

[Bacilluspolymyxa]

This could be utter nonsense but didn't the Nazi's patent the Enigma machine with the British Home Office prior to the outbreak of WW2?Scherbius probably filled patents in the UK for his machines but I doubt that patents really would help. The Polish Biuro Dzyfrow made good progress with the early Enigma machines.

[oregongrunt]

^^^^^ And what does this say in English?


Secondly, I find it hard to believe they haven't found documentation/instructions or someone from that regime (in earlier times) that invented or could crack the codes.

Interesting story nonetheless.
I wondered that myself. What happened to all the Germans that used it?

[Brzeczyszczykiewicz]

Scherbius probably filled patents in the UK for his machines but I doubt that patents really would help. The Polish Biuro Dzyfrow made good progress with the early Enigma machines.
It's Biuro Szyfrow (Cipher Bureau) :)



In early 1930s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930s) the German Army began using a Enigma with a plugboard, greatly increasing its security. While British and French cryptanalysts had no success with this version of Enigma, their Polish counterparts, starting with the work of Marian Rejewski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski), were able to solve the rotor wiring and read German Enigma traffic.
In December 1932, a 27-year-old Polish mathematician (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematician), Marian Rejewski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski), who had joined the Polish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland) Cipher Bureau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_Bureau) in September that year, made one of the most important breakthroughs in cryptologic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptology) history by using algebraic mathematical techniques to solve the Enigma wiring.
At the time, the indicator procedure was to encrypt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypt) an operator-selected message setting twice, with the machine at its "ground setting," and to place the twice-encrypted message setting at the opening of the message. For instance, if an operator picked QRS as their 'message setting', the operator would set the machine to the day's ground settings, and then type QRSQRS. This might be encrypted as JXDRFT. The feature of Enigma that Rejewski exploited was that the disk moved three positions between the two sets of QRS — knowing that J and R were originally the same letter, as were XF and DT, was vital information. Although the original letters were unknown, it was known that, while there were a huge number of rotor settings, there were only a small number of rotor wirings that would change a letter from J to R, X to F and D to T, and so on. Rejewski called these patterns chains.
The Poles became very experienced in exploiting even very subtle cryptological mistakes the Germans made. A blatant one, however, was the printing of a complete set of plaintext-key-ciphertext as a training example in an early Enigma manual, a copy of which Rejewski managed to get his hands on.
Finding the proper chains from the 105,456 possibilities was a tremendous task. The Poles, particularly Rejewski's classmates Jerzy Różycki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_R%C3%B3%C5%BCycki) and Henryk Zygalski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_Zygalski), developed a number of methods. The British had also developed such a technique when they succeeded in breaking the common commercial Enigma, though they failed to break the military versions of the Enigma.
Analysis of thousands of possibilities represents a vast human effort, if done by hand. To help in this, Marian Rejewski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski) about October (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October) 1938 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938) invented an electro-mechanical device which was dubbed the "cryptologic bomb" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba_%28cryptography%29): the name originated from the characteristic muffled noise it produced when operating; alternative names puckishly given the device by Polish Cipher Bureau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biuro_Szyfr%C3%B3w) personnel were "washing machine" and "mangle." The French and British later modified the spelling to "bombe." In mid-November (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November) 1938 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938) the Polish bombs were ready, and reconstruction of daily keys went on apace. Rejewski has written about the device: "The bomb method, invented in the fall of 1938 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938), consisted largely in the automation and acceleration of the process of reconstructing daily keys. Each cryptologic bomb (six were built in Warsaw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw) for the Cipher Bureau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biuro_Szyfrow) before September 1939) essentially constituted an electrically powered aggregate of six Enigmas. It took the place of about one hundred workers and shortened the time for obtaining a key to about two hours." (Rejewski, in Kozaczuk, Enigma 1984 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984), p. 290.)
The Poles were able to decrypt a large portion of German Enigma traffic from December (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December) 1932 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932). Rejewski had been aided in his reconstruction of Enigma's wiring by documents obtained by French (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France) military intelligence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_intelligence) from an agent in Berlin (Hans Thilo-Schmidt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Thilo-Schmidt), codenamed Asché by the French) who had access to Enigma key-schedules and manuals.
However, in 1939 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939) the German Army increased the complexity of its Enigma operating procedures. Initially only three rotors had been in use, and their sequence in the slots was changed periodically. Now two additional rotors were introduced; three of the five would be in use at any given time. The Germans also stopped transmitting a twice-enciphered individual three-letter message setting at the beginning of a message, thus putting an end to one of the Poles' original methods of cryptological attack.
Polish intelligence had been reading Enigma-generated cryptograms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptogram) since December 1932. Subsequent modifications in the machine and its operating procedures caused periodic "blackouts" requiring the Poles (and, after July (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July) 1939 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939), also the British) to find new ways of breaking into the ciphers. In April and May 1939 Poland contracted military alliances with Britain and France. The Poles, realizing the pace and direction of changes in the European political situation, decided in mid-1939 to share their work. At a conference in Warsaw on July 25 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_25), 1939 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939), they pledged to give the French and British each a Polish-reconstructed Enigma, along with details of Enigma-solving techniques that they had developed, such as Zygalski's "perforated sheets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perforated_sheets)" and the "cryptologic bomb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba_%28cryptography%29)" (Polish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language): Bomba kryptologiczna). The two "Enigma doubles" were shipped to Paris, whence Gustave Bertrand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Bertrand) brought one to London for the British, turning it over at Victoria Station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Station), as he was to recall in his Enigma, to Stewart Menzies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Menzies) of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service). Until then, German military Enigma traffic had utterly defeated the British and French, and they had faced the disturbing prospect that German communications would remain "black" to them for the duration of the coming war.
During the German invasion of Poland in September (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September) 1939 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939), key Cipher Bureau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biuro_Szyfrow) personnel were evacuated southeastward and — after the Soviets invaded eastern Poland on September 17 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_17) — into Romania, on the way destroying their cryptologic equipment and documentation. Eventually, crossing Yugoslavia and still-neutral Italy, they reached France. There, at PC Bruno (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Bruno) outside Paris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris), they resumed their work on breaking German Enigma ciphers, continuing it into the subsequent Battle of France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France).
Several months before the German invasion of France, in January 1940 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940), British mathematician Alan Turing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing) came to Bruno for several days to confer with his Polish mathematician colleagues.
After the French-German armistice, the Polish Cipher Bureau continued its work in France's southern "Free Zone" (Vichy France) and in French Algeria, at constant risk of discovery and imprisonment or worse. When Germany took over Vichy France in November (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November) 1942 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942), the Poles once again had to flee. The Cipher Bureau's chiefs, Colonel Gwido Langer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwido_Langer) and Major Maksymilian Ciężki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maksymilian_Ciezki), and some of the technical staff were captured by the Germans but, despite extensive interrogation, managed to preserve the secret of Enigma decryption. The mathematicians Marian Rejewski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski) and Henryk Zygalski (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_Zygalski), after a perilous Odyssey that took them across France, into a Spanish prison, to Portugal and at last by ship to Gibraltar, finally made it to Britain. (The third mathematician, Jerzy Różycki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_R%C3%B3%C5%BCycki), had perished in the sinking of a passenger ship while returning in 1942 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942) to southern France from a tour of duty in Algeria.)
In Britain, Rejewski and Zygalski were inducted as privates into the Polish Army. Eventually they were promoted to second lieutenant, then lieutenant, and put to work breaking German SS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS) and SD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD) ciphers at a Polish signals facility in Boxmoor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxmoor); they were not invited to work on Enigma at Bletchley Park.
Until 1945, numerous enhancements were made to the system, although the Germans considered it unbreakable for all practical purposes.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma

[eindhoven]

I have seen Swedish Engima machines for sale on Ebay and other collector sites. They arent export/import controlled? Considering the last two combinations haven been broken yet?

Interesting read.

[Bacilluspolymyxa]

It's Biuro Szyfrow (Cipher Bureau) :)Oops slip of the key thanks for that.

[gjm75]

Their cryptography wasn't so advanced that it couldnt be broken. The project was started on Jan 9th 2006 and the first message was cracked on Feb 20th 2006.

[Mollari]

Their cryptography wasn't so advanced that it couldnt be broken. The project was started on Jan 9th 2006 and the first message was cracked on Feb 20th 2006.

Cracking a 60 years old code with 1000 modern PCs isn't such a big achievement. Try to crack the code with 60yrs old technology and see how advanced enigma was for its time. :P Even a month is a really long time in times of war - what should the enemy do with an one month old message? ;)

[btdown]

Another break as of yesterday (I think)

Confirmed result:
Dan Girard had already told me privately that this might be the plaintext for the third signal. That was two weeks ago. Well spotted, Dan! - Of course the message had to be broken first to be sure. The plaintext of the message appears in the war diary of U623, which can be found at NARA, Microfilm Publication T1022, Roll 3385.


0425 Ausgang FT. 0246/21/203:
Auf Geleitkurs 55° nichts gefunden, marschie-
re befohlenes Qu. Standort Marqu. AJ 3995.
SO 4, See 3, 10/10 bedeckt, 28 mb steigend,
Nebel, Sicht 1 sm.
Schroeder



Translation:

0425 Outgoing Radio Signal 0246/21/203:
Found nothing on convoy's course 55°, [I am] moving to
the ordered [naval] square. Position naval square AJ 3995.
[wind] south-east [force] 4, sea [state] 3, 10/10 cloudy,
[barometer] [10]28 mb [and] rising, fog, visibility 1 nautical mile.
Schroeder



Explanation:

0246/21/203: time/date/message serial number

AJ 3995: German naval grid reference, 56-33 N, 37-36 W

Schroeder Hermann Schröder, Oberleutnant zur See on U623

[OldRecon]

I have seen Swedish Engima machines for sale on Ebay and other collector sites. They arent export/import controlled? Considering the last two combinations haven been broken yet?

Interesting read.

Sure it's not a Hagelin machine you're talking about here?

[OldRecon]

These "unckracked" Enigma messages are 4-rotor naval enigma messages aren't they?
What about army enigma signals? From what I've read the Western Allied cryptographers had great difficulty in cracking German Army Enigma between 1940-44. Even though that was only a 3 rotor. Mainly through a lack of traffic volume and better user procedures on the part of the German army (Heer).
Have those Army Enigma messages between 1940-44 all been backcracked?

[OldRecon]

I have seen Swedish Engima machines for sale on Ebay and other collector sites. They arent export/import controlled? Considering the last two combinations haven been broken yet?

Interesting read.

Incidentaly after the war the Britts handed out captured German Enigma machines to the new governments of some of their former colonies so as to "help them establish secure communications" :lol:.
Further extending the usefullness for the Britts of being able to read Enigma :).

[Ea$y-8]

just goes to show what a amateur historian with a lot of time on his hands can do!