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Rumkin.com > Web-Based Tools


CIPHERS

Simpler, "pen and paper" style ciphers - all automated and running in your
browser.

Let's say that you need to send your friend a message, but you don't want
another person to know what it is. You can use a full-blown encryption tool,
such as PGP. If the message isn't that important or if it is intended to be
decrypted by hand, you should use a simpler tool. This is a page dedicated to
simple text manipulation tools, which all can be replicated with just paper and
pencil.

If you know of another cipher that you think should be on here or a tool that
would be useful, request it and perhaps it can be added to the site.


CIPHERS

 * Affine - Similar to a Caesarian shift, but also adds in a multiplier to
   further scramble letters.
 * Atbash - A very simplistic cipher where you change A to Z, B to Y, and so on.
 * Baconian - Used to hide a message within another message by using different
   typefaces or other distinguishing characteristics.
 * Base64 - This is typically used to make binary data safe to transport as
   strictly text.
 * Bifid - Breaks information for each letter up and spreads it out in the
   encoded message. An easy and fairly secure pencil & paper cipher.
 * Caesar - A Caesar cipher lets you add an arbitrary value, shifting each
   letter forwards or backwards. Traditionally, the offset is 3, making A into
   D, B into E, etc.
 * Columnar Transposition - Write a message as a long column and then swap
   around the columns. Read the message going down the columns. A simple cypher,
   but one that is featured on the Kryptos sculpture at the CIA headquarters.
 * Double Columnar Transposition - Because two is better than one. This was used
   by the U.S. Army during World War II.
 * Gronsfeld - This operates very similar to a Vigenère cipher, but uses numbers
   instead of a key word.
 * Letter Numbers - Replace each letter with the number of its position in the
   alphabet. A simple replacment method that is usually the first one taught to
   children and is still an effective way to obscure your message.
 * Morse Code - Once used to transmit messages around the world, this system can
   still be used in certain situations to send messages effectively when
   alternate mediums are not available.
 * One Time Pad - A virtually uncrackable cipher that relies heavily upon a
   random source for an encryption key.
 * Playfair - This cipher uses pairs of letters and a 5x5 grid to encode a
   message. It is fairly strong for a pencil and paper style code.
 * Rail Fence - A mildly complicated one where you align letters on different
   rows and then squish the letters together in order to create your ciphertext.
 * ROT13 - A popular method of hiding text so that only people who actually take
   the time to decode it can actually read it. You swap letters; A becomes N,
   and N becomes A. It was quite popular on bulletin board systems and Usenet
   newsgroups. You can do it with the cryptogram solver also, if you make A=N,
   B=O, C=P, etc.
 * Rotate - This acts as though you are writing the letters in a rectangular
   grid and then rotating the grid to the left or right 90°
 * Skip - To decode this, you count N characters, write down the letter, count
   forward N characters, write down the letter, etc. It is used for section 3 of
   the Kryptos.
 * Substitution - Substitute your plaintext letters with other letters, images,
   or codes. Includes two common pigpen ciphers and the Sherlock Holmes' Dancing
   Men cipher.
 * Übchi - A double columnar transposition cipher that uses the same key, but
   adds a number of pad characters. Used by the Germans in World War I.
 * Vigenère - Based somewhat on the Caesarian shift cipher, this changes the
   shift amount with each letter in the message and those shifts are based on a
   passphrase. A pretty strong cipher for beginners. Functionally similar to
   "Variant Beaufort" and this also supports autokey.


TOOLS

 * Analyze - Shows how often certain letters appear in your text. Used primarily
   to assist in decryption.
 * Cryptogram Solver - If you have a plain text message, this will help find
   possible solutions in a matter of seconds. It works with simple substitution
   ciphers in plain English only.
 * Cryptogram - This helps you manually solve simple ciphers, which are methods
   where you replace one letter with another.

© Copyright 2022 Tyler Akins <fidian@rumkin.com>, last build
2022-08-25T22:11:23.543Z
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