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Domain: bytereef.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to bytereef.org.

Comments · 8

  1. M4 Message Breaking Project by jones_supa · · Score: 1 · on The Spanish Link In Cracking the Enigma Code

    Do you still remember the M4 Message Breaking Project? I think it was featured in /. back when it started. There it is still lurking and one of the messages apparently remains uncracked.

  2. Re:What? by afabbro · · Score: 1 · on AOL To Discontinue LISTSERV

    No. We just recently broke the Enigma code.

    No, I think they're still working on it

  3. Re:How secure is Enigma these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Enigma Machine for Sale on eBay

    The first link describes the Bombe method, which requires cribs (known/guessed plaintext).

    The M4 Project uses a ciphertext-only attack, which is a combination of a hill climbing algorithm (=> plugboard) and brute force (=> rest). Since the project is dealing with short, isolated messages, this type of attack is the best bet.

    For longer messages (> 500 letters) you can use the Index of Coincidence to determine the correct wheel and ring positions. After that, you use the same hill climbing algorithm to get the plugboard settings. This is substantially faster, but does not work for shorter messages.

    To sum it up, while Enigma is obviously not secure these days, individual messages can be very tough to break. Short messages may require multiple repeats of the procedure (=> random restart hill climbing). This page addresses some of those issues.

    Stefan Krah

  4. How secure is Enigma these days? by hcdejong · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Enigma Machine for Sale on eBay

    this page claims modern computers can crack an Enigma message in "a few minutes".
    But a recent effort to crack some M4 messages using distributed computing estimated some 10,000 PC-hours to break a message.

  5. Distributed Cracking! by Kalak · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Judge Creates Own Da Vinci Code

    OK, so who wants to write a distributed cracking for this?

    Yes, I'm joking. My guess is that if you know enough to write a distributed cracking program, and it's a simple code, then it's probably something you can crack this code without one.

    Help finish the M4 project (enigma) with the new client at http://www.bytereef.org/

    Then go back to your favorite distributed code project when it's done - only one message left.

  6. Re:Encryption Being Broken in 20 Years... by True+Vox · · Score: 1 · on When an Algorithm Takes the Wheel
    Well, in some cases that may be true, but have you ever heard of The Enigma Machine? It was a World War II era cipher machine used by many (though most notably by the Nazi's). It's neat stuff.

    At any rate, while most of the messages from it have been broken long ago, some are only coming to light today using mass computing power.

    Use a good encryption, and you'll be safe 'till the sun eats us.

    For more good info on encryption, check out Steve Gibson and Leo Laport's Podcast, Security Now!, with special care taken to listen to episodes 30 through 35.

  7. Re:If I may make a suggestion... by martinultima · · Score: 1 · on Is Visual Basic a Good Beginner's Language?
    I just like how trivially easy it is to sit down and start coding. Just a couple weeks ago I dug up the latest version of PyWord from wherever I'd been keeping it – haven't really written that much Python code in a couple years now – and it was almost too easy to get started with it again.

    “But for cpu intensive stuff it's a bit slow.”


    You try telling that to Bram Cohen, the Enigma code-breaking guys, Industrial Light & Magic, or Google... :-)
  8. Uh, yeah, that's already covered in the docs. by NNKK · · Score: 1 · on Slashback: Enigma, Google, Java Games

    The enigma-client installation instructions explicitly tell users to replace "nominal" with a strong random password and provide precise instructions on how to do so. If you're too stupid to follow such simple instructions, you deserve to have your system compromised.

    http://www.bytereef.org/howto/m4-project/enigma-cl ient-winXP-Pro-install.html