Thread

1. Sophira · 1790099036 · focus · HN ↗

   Is it possible that the key is incorrect but still decoded to a valid message? I realise it's possible when you're using keys that are the same length as the message, but I don't know exactly how the Enigma machine works and if this was something that they would do or not.

   1. dwedge · 1790104579 · focus · HN ↗

      I might be wrong but I was under the impression that these were one time pads and only cracked because of bad key hygiene when it came to generating them. If that's true, it's entirely possible

      1. reorder9695 · 1790104968 · focus · HN ↗

         Enigma wasn't one time pad based (although these were used a lot during the war), enigma does have known weaknesses such as letters never being decrypted to itself. Enigma was based off daily settings (rotor positions, plugboard settings etc), which could be mostly recovered by the end of the war, unlike actual one time pads which are only crackable by bad key hygiene/brute force.

         1. fpgaminer · 1790114807 · focus · HN ↗

            You cannot crack OTP, even by brute force.

            1. meatmanek · 1790197863 · focus · HN ↗

               Assuming the f(ciphertext, key) can produce any plain text (of the same length) from a given ciphertext with the right key, and the keys are chosen sufficiently randomly, you are correct.

               Classic XOR encryption is like this. You can make a given ciphertext decrypt to anything you want by XORing the ciphertext with the desired plaintext to get the key.

               Therefore, just because you've found a way to decode something to plausible-looking text doesn't mean you've found the correct key.

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