Timeline for How cryptographically secure was the original WW2 Enigma machine, from a modern viewpoint?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
26 events
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| Jul 8, 2019 at 15:17 | comment | added | e-sushi | @Patriot No problem. Glad you got it now. o/ | |
| Jul 8, 2019 at 14:17 | comment | added | Patriot | @e-sushi Thank you so much. It was my mistake. That link is blocked by a national firewall at my current location. | |
| Jul 8, 2019 at 13:31 | comment | added | e-sushi | @Patriot That PDF link? Works for me, just tried it and it downloaded perfectly using both Chrome and Firefox on desktop, and even when using latest FF on Android. Maybe an ad blocking thing stopping you? Anyway, here's a copy of what I just downloaded… for your personal convenience ;) — dropbox.com/s/zc3gav41isnd7gb/maurer-Enigma.pdf?dl=0 | |
| Jul 7, 2019 at 12:29 | comment | added | Patriot | @e-sushi That second link does not seem to be working. Could you please take a look at it? Thanks for that first link--really interesting. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:48 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://crypto.stackexchange.com/ with https://crypto.stackexchange.com/
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| Feb 6, 2017 at 22:40 | history | edited | yyyyyyy | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
fix spelling (Auguste Kerckhoffs)
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| May 20, 2016 at 13:02 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Updated last two links due to NSA.gov website changes, taking things offline. Also changed amazon link to point to free PDF.
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| May 20, 2016 at 11:48 | comment | added | e-sushi | @fgrieu Last but not least: The only obvious differency between the Army version and the Navy version is that the wheels of the latter have letters (A-Z) rather than numbers. (which is not a change of “wiring”) In fact, “…the machine was backwards compatible with an M3 machine. In other words: the combination of an M4 UKW + 4th wheel (set to A) is identical to an M3 UKW. … When UKW-B is combined with 4th wheel Beta, it is equal to an M3 UKW-B. The same is true for UKW-C and the Gamma wheel. ” | |
| May 20, 2016 at 11:30 | comment | added | e-sushi | @fgrieu That enigma versions (Enigma 1, the Enigma M3 “Kriegsmarine”, and the Enigma M4 “u-boot”) had the same wiring can also be taken from the wiring tables at cryptomuseum which show ETW,I,II,III,IV, and V to be the same – aka “unchanged” – for all involved versions. Browsing around, I noticed cryptomuseum has a nice enigma family tree which also seems to confirm the unchanged wiring… looking at non-changing “26 contacts” et al. (aside: i.imgur.com/ZA4ysQo.jpg ) | |
| May 20, 2016 at 11:16 | comment | added | e-sushi | @frgieu As for the wiring, even cryptomuseum states: ”…the M3 is functionally identical to the compatible Enigma I that was used by the Heer and Luftwaffe.” There were merely some manufacturing differences. Also… `The wiring of the M3 is given in the table below. Wheels I thru V are identical to those of the Enigma I. The same is true for UKW B and C. The three additional wheels (VI, VII and VIII) were used exclusively by the Navy.” But introducing 3 additional wheels did not change Enigma’s wiring (as already in place for wheel 1-5). | |
| May 20, 2016 at 11:08 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 20, 2016 at 11:04 | comment | added | e-sushi | @fgrieu My source: infsec.cs.uni-saarland.de/teaching/SS07/Proseminar/slides/… (page/slide 9) As for the polish involvement, that’s described in detail on pages 2-8. Page 4: “Rejewski determined the necessary complicated mathematical equations to determine the wiring of the Enigma rotors. Initially, there were too many unknown variables. With the information Hans Schmidt sold, Rejewski filled in some of the unknown values.” | |
| May 20, 2016 at 10:33 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 20, 2016 at 6:00 | comment | added | fgrieu♦ | The "Wiring never changed from 1920s until 1945" part of this answer is factually incorrect. According to this and this, rotor wrings used by the German armed forces during WW2 did not exist before 1930, or (I believe) 1938. This source, and others, mentions that reconstructing the wring of the rotor was a critically important step, performed by Polish cryptographers. | |
| Apr 1, 2015 at 6:18 | vote | accept | vsz | ||
| Jan 27, 2014 at 17:13 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 15:58 | comment | added | e-sushi | @vsz A pretty hypothetical question when talking about Enigma since we all know what really happened, but I'll answer it as good as a comment allows to: assuming they know absolutely nothing about the cipher algorithm yet, and assuming we speak of today, they would start by walking the usual path of frequency analysis and co. Eventually, things like Enigma's "no letter can be encrypted by itself" etc. will open small cracks that enable cryptanalysts to learn about the cipher's characteristics. In case of Enigma - it would eventually enable them to break the cipher, thanks to today's computers. | |
| Jan 27, 2014 at 15:36 | comment | added | vsz | If I understood the real WW2 events which lead to the cracking of Enigma correctly, the operator mistakes were useful to actually discover the "algorithm" itself. How would modern cryptanalysts with modern tools to their disposal discover the algorithm of an Enigma-like machine without putting their hands on a physical copy of the machine? | |
| Jan 27, 2014 at 14:17 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 14:11 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 14:03 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 13:55 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 13:44 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 13:37 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 13:31 | history | edited | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2014 at 13:26 | history | answered | e-sushi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
