Home TAB
Home Tab
Clipboard
Cut
Clicking on Cut copies the selected text to the clipboard then deletes it.
Copy
This option behaves exactly the same way as the Cut entry but doesn’t delete the text.
Paste
Selecting Paste will copy the text in the clipboard to the cursor position. Ciphers can also be entered into CryptoCrack by pasting text into the Cipher field. After clicking on another field within CryptoCrack the text may change, showing only those characters valid for the cipher type selected. The cipher length display will also be updated.
Actions
Solve
Starts the search for a solution to the cipher. Two different methods of solving are used in CryptoCrack:
Dictionary search. A list of dictionary words is used as a keyword to solve the cipher.
Hill climbing. This uses a genetic algorithm with simulated annealing. It should be noted that some solving routines use a combination of methods such as the brute force method for short key lengths changing to hill climbing for longer ones. Some cipher types test all possible keys such as the Bacon, Bazeries, Monome-Dinome and Morbit cipher types.
The method being used is shown in the status bar at the bottom-left of the main window.
Stop Solving
Stops the solving search. The top 10 best solutions will be displayed in the Top solutions field.
Cipher Settings
Key Type/Period/Rails/Key Primer/Matrix Size
The label is dependant on the cipher type selected.
Key Type - Used in Monoalphabetic Substitution cipher types (Aristocrat/Patristocrat/Headline (K2 only)) when the dictionary search is used. If the dictionary search is not selected this setting is ignored.
K1 Keyword type: Plaintext alphabet contains the key, cipher alphabet is normal.
Pt: vxzkeywordabcfghijlmnpqstu
Ct: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
K2 Keyword type: Plaintext alphabet is normal, cipher alphabet contains the key.
Pt: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Ct: VXZKEYWORDABCFGHIJLMNPQSTU
K3 Keyword type: Both alphabets are produced from the same key.
Pt: keywordabcfghijlmnpqstuvxz
Ct: STUVXZKEYWORDABCFGHIJLMNPQ
K4 Keyword type: Both alphabets are produced from different keys.
Pt: keywordabcfghijlmnpqstuvxz
Ct: UVWXYZCIPHERABDFGJKLMNOQST
Period - Used in periodic ciphers to set the key length. Select 0 (zero) to test all 3-10 possible rails .
Rails - Sets the number of rails used in the Railfence and Redefence cipher types. Select 0 (zero) to test all 3-10 possible rails .
Key Primer - Used in the Gromark, Periodic Gromark and Sequence Transposition cipher types to set the numerical key primer.
Matrix Size - Used in the Hill cipher type to set the size of the matrix used; 2x2 or 3x3.
Dictionary Search
Selecting this sets the program to use the words listed in the selected Keyword language as keywords. If the option for a specified cipher type is not available it is disabled. When selected the Test All Key Routes option becomes available. See below.
Test All Key Routes
Select this option when using a dictionary search and if all routes in a key square grid should be checked. By default, the most common eight routes are tested;
Horizontal
Vertical
Alternative Horizontal (Boustrophedon)
Alternative Vertical
Clockwise, starting at top left
Clockwise, starting at bottom left
Diagonal, top right to bottom left
Alternative Diagonal, top right to bottom left
Selecting or checking this option will test all 48 commonly found routes for entering a keyed alphabet into a grid. It should be noted that checking all 48 routes will take longer than the default of testing 8 routes. The routes tested are:
Horizontal
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Vertical
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Diagonal, top right to bottom left
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Diagonal, bottom left to top right
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Clockwise, starting at…
Top left
Top right
Bottom right
Bottom left
Clockwise, from the middle starting…
Up
Right
Down
Left
Alternative Horizontal (Boustrophedon)
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Alternative Vertical
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Alternative Diagonal, top right to bottom left
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Alternative Diagonal, bottom left to top right
From top left
Reverse from top right
From bottom right
Reverse from bottom left
Anticlockwise, starting at…
Top left
Top right
Bottom right
Bottom left
Anticlockwise, from the middle starting…
Up
Right
Down
Left
Cipher Type
Cipher Types
Most of the cipher types included in CryptoCrack are those used in the American Cryptogram Association. Details of the types are shown elsewhere in this User Guide.
Cipher types are separated into Substitution, Transposition and Other types for ease of identification and can be selected in the drop-down menu. Selecting a cipher type will filter the characters of the original cipher to only those valid for the selected cipher.
With some cipher types the Cipher Settings drop down menu is enabled from where the cipher period, number of rails or key primer can be set or a specific variant of the cipher can be selected.
The list can be filtered by selecting the Substitution, Transposition or Other options.
Language
Keyword
Select the language of the keyword from this menu. This determines which dictionary file to use when solving a cipher with the Dictionary Search option enabled. It is also used by the functions in the Word Search tab and determining word breaks in Edit - Add Word Breaks.
Plaintext
Select the language of the plaintext from this menu. This sets the language data files to use when solving a cipher which determines the best solutions.
Same Plaintext/Keyword
Set the keyword language to the same as that set for the plaintext.
Foreign Chars
If the selected language contains characters from an extended alphabet, such as ÅÄÖØÜ, selecting this option will include them in the plaintext. If this option is unchecked the extended alphabet characters are replaced by their nearest English equivalent, i.e. ÅÄÖØÜ are replaced by AAOOU.
This is only used by the Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish plaintext languages.
Solutions
All Solutions
Opens a new window displaying the best solutions with their keywords and scores. By default it will show the top 50 solutions but this number can be changed in Tools - Options. The order of the solution is shown as key - plaintext - score but this can be changed to plaintext - key - score in Tools - Options.
Help
Provides a direct link to this User Guide on the CryptoCrack website.
An internet connection is required.