cryptography-msg - 12/20/99
Codes and code-breaking in period.
NOTE: See also the files: languages-msg, Latin-msg, alchemy-msg, Latin-online-art, Med-Math-Sci-bib, seals-bib, seals-msg, sealing-wax-msg, P-Polit-Songs-art.
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: sommerfeld at apollo.hp.com (Bill Sommerfeld)
Subject: Re: Hazardous complaints
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 17:24:42 GMT
Organization: HP Apollo Systems Division, Chelmsford, MA.
doconnor at sedona.intel.com (Dennis O'Connor) writes:
sommerfeld at apollo.hp.com (Bill Sommerfeld) writes:
] Rot-13 is a simple substitution cipher with a known key. Encoding and
] decoding use the same substitution:
]
] ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
] NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm
]
] Non-alphabetic characters are left untouched.
Ob. SCA:
I think it's a period cypher, too.
It actually pre-dates our period; a "rotation" cipher like this is
attributed to Julius Caesar (though by the accounts I've read, he
rotated by two letters rather than 13). Period ciphers typically used
"nomenclators" (basically numbered dictionaries of words expected to
be used), unusual alphabets (greek, or geometric symbols), etc. Some
use of nomenclators used plaintext around it (i.e. "Will meet 653 at
467 to discuss 53 on 265"); occasionally folks got the bright idea of
squeezing out inter-word spaces, and using nulls and multiple
encodings for vowels (to discourage statistical analysis based on
letter frequency).
My source for this: vague memories of Kahn's "The Codebreakers", which
is an (excellent) history of cryptography from antiquity until just
after world war II.
- Bill
From: hwt at bnr.ca (Henry Troup)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Cryptography in Period (was... Francois Viete)
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 11:07:14 -0500
Organization: Bell-Northern Research
jeffs at math.bu.EDU (Jeff Suzuki) wrote:
...
> cryptography, and the greatest (or best known) cryptanalyst in period
> was the French mathematician Francois Viete, who regularly decrypted
> the Spanish military codes. The Spaniards, who couldn't figure out
> why the French were beating them (well, who wouldn't be), accused
> Viete of witchcraft. Anyone know where I can get details of the case?
> I.e., specific accusations, the outcome (if any -- IMSC, the charges
> were pretty much ignored), etc.? Also, what _was_ the Spanish
> military code of the time, that Viete could decrypt it?
A good question. The first reasonably strong code was the Playfair
cipher, which was well out of period. I suspect that most period
codes were either Caesar ciphers (like rot-13) or book substitution
ciphers.
(Take a book, which the recipient also owns. There are several
ways to use this, either count letters in some chapter or locate
the word you want in some chapter, then substitute some notation.
For example, Genesis 1:1 begins "In the beginning...". You could
encode the letter "I" as 1 - from the first letter; or the word
"In" as 1 - from the first word. Conventions can be introduced
to permit switching from word or letter code.)
Most such ciphers fall to frequency analysis, often on short
samples.
This would indicate that Viete was also a pioneer of statistics,
I guess.
These are vague and poor researched speculations...
--
Henry Troup - hwt at bnr.ca disclaimer - as usual
From: pat at lloyd.com (Pat McGregor)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Cryptography in Period (was... Francois Viete)
Date: 17 Mar 1995 08:37:36 -0800
Organization: House Northmark, Mountain's Gate, Cynagua, the West
Greetings from siobhan! Baron Henry wrote:
>
>The first reasonably strong code was the Playfair
>cipher, which was well out of period. I suspect that most period
>codes were either Caesar ciphers (like rot-13) or book substitution
>ciphers.
I've also read of codes which depended on a physical trick, such as
wrapping a strip of [writing material] around a staff and writing your
message on the strip of material. Then, the recipient must also have
a staff of the same diameter in order to decipher the message.
My failing memory says that this is Attic or Spartan, but I remember
not more pertinent details.
regards,
siobhan
======================================================
Pat McGregor pat at lloyd.com
3331 Kimberly Road +1 916 677 6607 (voice)
Cameron Park, CA 95682 +1 916 677 3442 (fax)
From: UDSD073 at DSIBM.OKLADOT.STATE.OK.US (Mike Andrews)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Pearl harbor and Francois Viete
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 14:18
Organization: The University of Oklahoma (USA)
In article <199503162253.RAA16091 at math.bu.edu>,
jeffs at math.bu.EDU (Jeff Suzuki) writes:
> ... and the greatest (or best known) cryptanalyst in period
>was the French mathematician Francois Viete, who regularly decrypted
>the Spanish military codes. The Spaniards, who couldn't figure out
>why the French were beating them (well, who wouldn't be), accused
>Viete of witchcraft. Anyone know where I can get details of the case?
>I.e., specific accusations, the outcome (if any -- IMSC, the charges
>were pretty much ignored), etc.? Also, what _was_ the Spanish
>military code of the time, that Viete could decrypt it?
David Kahn, in his book _The Codebreakers_, says that the
Spanish nomenclator given to Moreo "consisted of the usual
alphabet with homophonic substitutions, plus a code list of
413 terms represented by groups of 2 or 3 letters
(LO=_Spain_, PUL=_Navarre_, POM=_King of Spain_) or of two
numbers, either underlined (underlined-64=_confederation_)
or dotted (overdotted-94=_Your Majesty_). A line above a
two-digit group indicated a null." (Kahn, p. 117)
Kahn defines a nomenclator thus:" ... a system that was half a
code and half a cipher ... . It usually had a separate cipher
alphabet with homophones and a codelike list of names, words,
and syllables." (Kahn, p. xv)
Kahn further says,
"Meanwhile, Philip had learned, from his own
interceptions of French letters, that Viete had broken
a cipher that the Spanish -- who apparently knew
little about cryptanalysis -- had thought unbreakable.
It irritated him, and thinking that he would cause
trouble to the French at no cost to himself, {he} told
the pope that Henry could have read his ciphers only
by black magic. But the tactic boomeranged. The pope,
cognizant of the ability of his own cryptologist,
Giovanni Batista Argenti, and perhaps even aware that
papal cryptanalysts had solved one of Philip's ciphers
30 years before, did nothing about the Spaniard's
complaint; all Philip got for his effort was the
ridicule and derision of everyone who heard about it."
(Kahn, p. 118)
>William the Alchymist
--
udsd007 at ibm.okladot.state.ok.us (192.149.244.136)
Michael Fenwick of Fotheringhay, O.L. (Mike Andrews) Namron, Ansteorra
From: john.robarts at mercopus.com (John Robarts)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Cryptography in Period (w
Date: 27 Mar 95 23:19:00 GMT
Organization: Mercury Opus BBS - St. Petersburg, FL - 813-321-0734
SH>\<< Henry Troup quoth unto All thusly >>/
SH>HT> From: hwt at bnr.ca (Henry Troup)
SH>HT> In article <199503162253.RAA16091 at math.bu.edu>, jeffs at math.bu.EDU
>HT> (Jeff Suzuki) wrote:
SH>...
>> cryptography, and the greatest (or best known) cryptanalyst in period
>> was the French mathematician Francois Viete, who regularly decrypted
>> the Spanish military codes. The Spaniards, who couldn't figure out
>> why the French were beating them (well, who wouldn't be), accused
>> Viete of witchcraft. Anyone know where I can get details of the case?
>> I.e., specific accusations, the outcome (if any -- IMSC, the charges
>> were pretty much ignored), etc.? Also, what _was_ the Spanish
>> military code of the time, that Viete could decrypt it?
<snip>
SH>What cipher did Shakespeare use? I've heard he wrote some things (his
>epitaph?) that have never been satisfactorily decoded...
SH>(Anyone know more about this?)
Indeed! The Bard used a "bilitteral" cipher. That is, he used two
VERY slightly different fonts as he wrote. For instance, the trailing
end of a capital letter "A" would be slightly longer in one font than
the other. As he wrote, each letter would be selected from one font or
the other to produce five letter code groups. If you were to designate
one font as "A" and the other one as "B" then the groups could be
represented by combinations such as these: aabba aaaaa bbabb ababa bbaaa
aabbb babab etc. etc. Each of these groups represent a letter, usually
in order. Like A=aaaaa B=aaaab C=aaaba D=aaabb etc. etc. .... (Please
note this is a BINARY format very much like ASCII!!!!!!!!!)
Anyway, from this point the decoded letters are compared to a
"slip wheel". A slip wheel is simply two rings, one inside the other,
each with the alphabet inscribed on them. The rings may be rotated
against one another to align different letters together. This part is a
straight substitution cipher. For example: A=C, B=D, C=E, etc. etc. ...
or any other displacement value. Knowing which displacement to use can
only be determined through trial by error, by looking for subtle clues
within the body of the ciphertext itself, or by application of suitable
cryptologic mathematics. Recognition of the plaintext at this point is
possible but often not obvious as it was usually written BACKWARDS!
Of course the Gentleman in question may have used many other
techniques.
I hope this information is a help. Wouldn't it be nice if there
were some nice GIFs of the original manuscripts!!
Corwin ap Arawyn
From: john.robarts at mercopus.com (John Robarts)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Cryptography in Period (w
Date: 10 Apr 95 01:19:00 GMT
Organization: Mercury Opus BBS - St. Petersburg, FL - 813-321-0734
MA>Reply-To: udsd007 at dsibm.okladot.state.ok.us
MA>In article <5939.1402.uupcb at mercopus.com>,
MA>john.robarts at mercopus.com (John Robarts) writes:
MA>>Indeed! The Bard used a "bilitteral" cipher. That is, he used two
MA>>VERY slightly different fonts as he wrote. For instance, the trailing
MA>>end of a capital letter "A" would be slightly longer in one font than
MA>>the other. As he wrote, each letter would be selected from one font or
MA>>the other to produce five letter code groups. If you were to designate
MA>>one font as "A" and the other one as "B" then the groups could be
MA>>represented by combinations such as these: aabba aaaaa bbabb ababa bbaaa
MA>>aabbb babab etc. etc. Each of these groups represent a letter, usually
MA>>in order. Like A=aaaaa B=aaaab C=aaaba D=aaabb etc. etc. .... (Please
MA>>note this is a BINARY format very much like ASCII!!!!!!!!!)
MA>>Anyway, from this point the decoded letters are compared to a
MA>>"slip wheel". A slip wheel is simply two rings, one inside the
other, MA>>each with the alphabet inscribed on them. The rings may be
rotated MA>>against one another to align different letters together.
This part is a MA>>straight substitution cipher. For example: A=C, B=D,
C=E, etc. etc. ... MA>>or any other displacement value. Knowing which
displacement to use can MA>>only be determined through trial by error,
by looking for subtle clues MA>>within the body of the ciphertext
itself, or by application of suitable MA>>cryptologic mathematics.
Recognition of the plaintext at this point is MA>>possible but often not
obvious as it was usually written BACKWARDS!
MA>This "slip wheel" is actually the cipher disk invented, to
MA>the best of my knowledge (and that of David Kahn) by Leon
MA>Battista Alberti, who was born about 1404.
.... so some claim. Actually the "slip wheel" was a natural
development of a VERY MUCH OLDER system. i.e. *LONG strips of
narrow paper or cloth are covered with what appear to be random
letters. Only when the strip is carefully wound around a
cylinder of an exact and specific diameter can the plaintext be
read. Of course this type of code was not too hard to break.
However as an expediant means of secure communication it had
good use, a cylinder of the precise diameter would not likely be
close a hand and very considerable effort would have to be used
to arrive at the correct size. Further more the key was VERY
easy to remember! And even if the user had trouble remembering
the correct size it would be a very simple matter to keep an
innocent "token" to guage the diameter, for instance, a walking
stick, dagger handle, or maybe even his FINGER!
MA>Let me commend to your attention, and to the attention of
MA>all, the chapters of David Kahn's book _The Codebreakers_
MA>entitled "Ciphers in the Past Tense" and "The Pathology of
MA>Cryptography", which deal with the ciphers alleged to have
MA>been used by Shakespeare.
Well, I just this very minute finished rereading "Ciphers in the
Past Tense" from "The Code Breakers" by David Kahn. And it MAKES
no mention of Shakespeare AT ALL ! I also would have liked to
read " The Pathology of Crytography" in the same book, BUT IT
DOESN'T EXIST. If you ever get a copy of this book however you
can find the Bard mentioned on pages 184-185, 416, 459. Nothing
there really refutes Shakespearean use of Cryptology.
MA>>Of course the Gentleman in question may have used many other
MA>>techniques.
MA>done a largish amount of reading in the past 35 years. William
MA>and Elizabeth Friedman did a great deal of work along these
MA>lines at Riverbank Laboratories, and (with Dr. Fred Miller of
MA>the FBI) utter demolished a principal proponent of the thesis
A careful look at their feeble attempts at "The Beale Code" will
call into question their competancy in these matters. However
this line of thought is probably more suited to another echo.
MA>that Shakespeare's First Folio contained messages in a
MA>biliteral (Baconian) cipher. Frederick Goudy, the
MA>typographer, drove the final nails into the coffin of this
MA>thesis, concluding that a multiplicity of typefaces had been
MA>used, instead of just two.
... well maybe, you argue it that way, however, they Still break down
into a very good semblance of TWO groups.
One of the greatest problems in the Study of Historical Cryptology in
our modern adherance to precision. In past times the naturalistic
environment let to a more defocused developement. For example a modern
computer doing a word search would not recognize that the letter "r" may
mean "are", "u" = "you" etc. etc.
MA>>Wouldn't it be nice if there
MA>>were some nice GIFs of the original manuscripts!!
MA>I'd like to have the GIFs for their own value, which (IMHO)
MA>is considerable.
---
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 22:49:42 -0500 (EST)
From: "Charles J. Cohen" <charles at eecs.umich.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Espionage
>I am currently searching for information on period espionage. I am unable to
>locate any outside of what I already have. Does anybody out there have any I
>dea where i can get my hands on period material, without having to write the
>CIA.
This might not be what you are looking for, but...Cryptanalysis sort
of started around 1589. Spain had a 600 character cipher, which was
changed periodically and thought to be impossible to break. Henry IV
gave the problem to the mathematician Francisus Vieta, who decoded
it. The French used it for two years, decoding secret Spanish
documents. Philip II of Spain complained to Pope Sixtus V that the
French must be using sorcery ...
- Midair
From: Joe Skeesick <jskeesick at mmcable.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Codes and Ciphers
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 14:48:09 GMT
Deykin ap Gwion wrote:
> Just finished reading Kahn's The Code breakers and was wondering if
> anyone knows details about in-period cryptographic systems... I'm sure
> I could invent multiple substitution ciphers which would work
> substantially like Period crypts would, but I'm looking for any detailed
> analysis of in period systems... I'm sure the Florentine and Star
> Chamber would have used them aplenty.
>
> Deykin
Not specifically the type of crypto you are referring to but......
In a program hosted by Terry Jones (I will look back through some things see
if I can find the name of it wasn't "The Crusades") He spoke of different
signal codes. One of particular interest was where two Roman out posts both
with barrels of water and a floating stick with a series of messages marked
on it (i.e. "all clear", "replacement needed", "this job sucks", et) a torch
was waved, both barrels plugs were opened and the water was drained, when
the signal torch went up again the hole was plugged. The message then in
line with the top of the barrel was the one passed.
With such "fail safe" messaging systems like that, no wonder there were more
than one instance of communication break down.
I will look up the film info since I'm fairly sure he actually went on to
speak about some actual cryptographic systems of the time, which would give
you places to start in your study since even those references would be just
surface glances compared to what you seem to want.
Janos
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 19:42:51 -0400
From: james koch <alchem at en.com>
Organization: alchem inc
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Codes and Ciphers
Joe Skeesick wrote:
> I will look up the film info since I'm fairly sure he actually went on to
> speak about some actual cryptographic systems of the time, which would give
> you places to start in your study since even those references would be just
> surface glances compared to what you seem to want.
>
> Janos
You might also read Strategemata(sp?) by Frontinus. He writes of all
sorts of trickery used in classical warfare, though I can't remember any
specific references to codes. Of course the Pythagoreans supposedly
used mathematical encryption. Julius Caesar mentions in his Bello
Gallica(sp?) how while surrounded during a siege, the Romans sent
couriers through the enemy lines with letters written in Greek which the
Gauls of that region could not read. During the middle ages the most
notorious users of codes were the alchemists. Of course at that time
encryption was really not a major concern since widespread illiteracy
and the fact that (at least in Europe) most writing was done in Latin or
Greek made letters inherently more private (assuming you and the
intended recipient could read and write). If you want a really
interesting (though suspect) book on the subject of classical and
medieval encryption, read The White Goddess. It describes the training
of Druids in the use of hand and body signals. This was supposedly used
by them to secretly share information while in the presence of
outsiders. It made the local yokels believe the Druid priests had real
magical powers. They supposedly developed the techniques used to this
day by faith healers, and stage psychics.
Jim Koch (Gladius The Alchemist)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: djheydt at kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt)
Subject: Re: Codes and Ciphers
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 19:49:13 GMT
james koch <alchem at en.com> wrote:
>Joe Skeesick wrote:
>... read The White Goddess.
No, *don't* read The White Goddess. Not if you're looking for
information. (If you just want a fun read, go right ahead.)
Graves, whenever he didn't have enough information, just *made it
up.* So did Marion Zimmer Bradley; so do I; but we don't market
the result as scholarly research, but as fantasy fiction.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt at kithrup.com
http://www.kithrup.com/~djheydt
From: Lou Stewart <lhs at jobe.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Codes and Ciphers
Date: 31 Oct 1999 03:20:12 GMT
Deykin ap Gwion wrote:
> Just finished reading Kahn's The Code breakers and was wondering if
> anyone knows details about in-period cryptographic systems... I'm sure
> I could invent multiple substitution ciphers which would work
> substantially like Period crypts would, but I'm looking for any detailed
> analysis of in period systems... I'm sure the Florentine and Star
> Chamber would have used them aplenty.
>
> Deykin
One of the better known ciphers was the one used by Mary Queen of Scots
and her associates when they were conspiring to assassinate Elizabeth
and put Mary on the throne. When the code was broken by agents of Sir
Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's principal secretary, the messages
implicated Mary and six or seven main conspirators, and they were all
eventually executed.
Mary's grandson, Charles I, was also undone in connection with ciphers,
but that is another story, and out of period. :)
In service, Luigsech ni Ifearnain
<the end>