Any early how-to tips?

[Oscar Vermeulen]

I can't wait to get my Enigma touch - I can best pick it up at CEDS in a week from now I guess - but in the mean time, are there any tips for daily use?

Such as, 

- what is the best, cleanest C source for trying to break Enigma messages to start with?

- which codebook generator do you recommend?

Kind regards, 

Oscar.

[jue...@e-basteln.de]

I have not come across proven source code for breaking the Enigma so far. (But can't claim that I have done an exhaustive search.) It seems somewhat common for the amateur researchers in the field to keep their cards close to the chest. E.g. Michael Hörenberg has developed an extensive suite of code-breaking programs and has broken many historic M4 messages, but he has only published screenshots as teasers: https://enigma.hoerenberg.com/index.php?cat=Breaking%20the%20M4   

What I can recommend as a starting point is a Cryptologia paper by Olaf Ostwald and Frode Weierud, "Modern Breaking of Enigma Ciphertexts" (2017).  A relatively recent overview of the state of the art, with explanations and many additional references, but no direct source code links either. https://cryptocellar.org/pubs/enigma-modern-breaking.pdf

Also, an earlier short paper by Geoff Sullivan and Frode Weierud specifically on the Hillclimbing technique, nicely explained: https://cryptocellar.org/bgac/hillclimb-enigma.pdf 

Best,

Jürgen

[Oscar Vermeulen]

Thankk you! I had a nice time today with these projects, easy to use and clear source code to study as well:

https://github.com/MaddyGuthridge/Enigma-Breaker

In Rust, simple but clear as glass

https://github.com/torognes/enigma/tree/master
More advanced

https://github.com/Wikunia/Enigma.jl

Includes a simulated bombe, but stands out for the very clear videos he made (links on his Github)

Thanks for the links to the papers! I think we should aim for an Enigma challenges web page, maybe "Midnight Enigma", with a new challenge appearing on it regularly next to providing an index of how-to sites, papers, and software tools? 

I want to exercise my Enigma touch, when it arrives :-)

Kind regards,

Oscar.