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Code (cryptography)

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281: 146: 84: 43: 624:" or "sow" information into a coded message, for example by executing a raid at a particular time and location against an enemy, and then examining code messages sent after the raid. Coding errors are a particularly useful fingerhold into a code; people reliably make errors, sometimes disastrous ones. Planting data and exploiting errors works against ciphers as well. 394:
conversation. Done properly they are almost impossible to detect, though a trained analyst monitoring the communications of someone who has already aroused suspicion might be able to recognize a comment like "Aunt Bertha has gone into labor" as having an ominous meaning. Famous example of one time codes include:
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It was common to encipher a message after first encoding it, to increase the difficulty of cryptanalysis. With a numerical code, this was commonly done with an "additive" - simply a long key number which was digit-by-digit added to the code groups, modulo 10. Unlike the codebooks, additives would be
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The most obvious and, in principle at least, simplest way of cracking a code is to steal the codebook through bribery, burglary, or raiding parties — procedures sometimes glorified by the phrase "practical cryptography" — and this is a weakness for both codes and ciphers, though codebooks
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A one-time code is a prearranged word, phrase or symbol that is intended to be used only once to convey a simple message, often the signal to execute or abort some plan or confirm that it has succeeded or failed. One-time codes are often designed to be included in what would appear to be an innocent
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The simplest sort and thereby impossible to break. The first ad told the person or persons concerned to carry out number seven or expect number seven or it said something about something designated as seven. This one says the same with respect to code item number ten. But the meaning of the numbers
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In contrast, because codes are representational, they are not susceptible to mathematical analysis of the individual codebook elements. In the example, the message 13 26 39 can be cracked by dividing each number by 13 and then ranking them alphabetically. However, the focus of codebook cryptanalysis
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In order to make life more difficult for codebreakers, codemakers designed codes with no predictable relationship between the codegroups and the ordering of the matching plaintext. In practice, this meant that two codebooks were now required, one to find codegroups for encoding, the other to look
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Codes are defined by "codebooks" (physical or notional), which are dictionaries of codegroups listed with their corresponding plaintext. Codes originally had the codegroups assigned in 'plaintext order' for convenience of the code designed, or the encoder. For example, in a code using numeric code
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Another comparison between codes and ciphers is that a code typically represents a letter or groups of letters directly without the use of mathematics. As such the numbers are configured to represent these three values: 1001 = A, 1002 = B, 1003 = C, ... . The resulting message, then would be 1001
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Constructing a new code is like building a new language and writing a dictionary for it; it was an especially big job before computers. If a code is compromised, the entire task must be done all over again, and that means a lot of work for both cryptographers and the code users. In practice, when
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can be an immediate giveaway to the definitions of codegroups. As codegroups are determined, they can gradually build up a critical mass, with more and more codegroups revealed from context and educated guesswork. One-part codes are more vulnerable to such educated guesswork than two-part codes,
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One fingerhold on a simple code is the fact that some words are more common than others, such as "the" or "a" in English. In telegraphic messages, the codegroup for "STOP" (i.e., end of sentence or paragraph) is usually very common. This helps define the structure of the message in terms of
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For example, a particular codegroup found almost exclusively in messages from a particular army and nowhere else might very well indicate the commander of that army. A codegroup that appears in messages preceding an attack on a particular location may very well stand for that location.
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groups, a plaintext word starting with "a" would have a low-value group, while one starting with "z" would have a high-value group. The same codebook could be used to "encode" a plaintext message into a coded message or "codetext", and "decode" a codetext back into plaintext message.
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defined a code as "A substitution cryptosystem in which the plaintext elements are primarily words, phrases, or sentences, and the code equivalents (called "code groups") typically consist of letters or digits (or both) in otherwise meaningless combinations of identical length." A
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is easy, solving even a simple code is difficult. Decrypting a coded message is a little like trying to translate a document written in a foreign language, with the task basically amounting to building up a "dictionary" of the codegroups and the plaintext words they represent.
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1002 1003 to communicate ABC. Ciphers, however, utilize a mathematical formula to represent letters or groups of letters. For example, A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, ... . Thus the message ABC results by multiplying each letter's value by 13. The message ABC, then would be 13 26 39.
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cannot be deduced through statistical analysis because the code can be changed long before a useful statistical universe can be reached. It's an idiot code... and an idiot code can never be broken if the user has the good sense not to go too often to the well.
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since if the codenumber "26839" of a one-part code is determined to stand for "bulldozer", then the lower codenumber "17598" will likely stand for a plaintext word that starts with "a" or "b". At least, for simple one part codes.
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up codegroups to find plaintext for decoding. Such "two-part" codes required more effort to develop, and twice as much effort to distribute (and discard safely when replaced), but they were harder to break. The
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Once codes have been created, codebook distribution is logistically clumsy, and increases chances the code will be compromised. There is a saying that "Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead,"
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In contrast, the security of ciphers is generally dependent on protecting the cipher keys. Cipher keys can be stolen and people can betray them, but they are much easier to change and distribute.
441:(SOE) agents operating behind enemy lines. An example might be "The princess wears red shoes" or "Mimi's cat is asleep under the table". Each code message was read out twice. By such means, the 484:"Operated on this morning. Diagnosis not yet complete but results seem satisfactory and already exceed expectations. Local press release necessary as interest extends great distance. 353:. In the above example, the code group, 1001, 1002, 1003, might occur more than once and that frequency might match the number of times that ABC occurs in plain text messages. 300:
that operates at the level of meaning; that is, words or phrases are converted into something else. A code might transform "change" into "CVGDK" or "cocktail lounge". The U.S.
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codes were in widespread use, they were usually changed on a periodic basis to frustrate codebreakers, and to limit the useful life of stolen or copied codebooks.
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Example: Any sentence where 'day' and 'night' are used means 'attack'. The location mentioned in the following sentence specifies the location to be attacked.
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Sometimes messages are not prearranged and rely on shared knowledge hopefully known only to the recipients. An example is the telegram sent to U.S. President
437:" as part of its regular broadcast schedule. The seemingly nonsensical stream of messages read out by announcers were actually one time codes intended for 680: 573:
Further progress can be made against a code by collecting many codetexts encrypted with the same code and then using information from other sources
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is the comparative frequency of the individual code elements matching the same frequency of letters within the plaintext messages using
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is a code that is created by the parties using it. This type of communication is akin to the hand signals used by armies in the field.
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in January 1917 used the German diplomatic "0075" two-part code system which contained upwards of 10,000 phrases and individual words.
562: 280: 851:, William Friedman, U.S. War Department, June 1942. Exhibits many examples in its appendix, including a "Baseball code" (p. 254) 247: 229: 127: 70: 94: 430: 210: 633:. While a good code may be harder to break than a cipher, the need to write and distribute codebooks is seriously troublesome. 182: 167: 769: 189: 438: 410: 318:
encrypt messages at the level of individual letters, or small groups of letters, or even, in modern ciphers, individual
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The Codebreakers : The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet
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An early use of the term appears to be by George Perrault, a character in the science fiction book
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on the United States used basic e-mail and what he calls "idiot code" to discuss their plans.
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We walked day and night through the streets but couldn't find it! Tomorrow we'll head into X.
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American Army Field Codes In the American Expeditionary Forces During The First World War
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was not in the German codebook and had therefore to be split into phonetic syllables.
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This article, or an earlier version of it, incorporates material from Greg Goebel's
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were instructed to start sabotaging rail and other transport links the night before
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A History of U.S. Communications Security; the David G. Boak Lectures, Vol. I
322:. Messages can be transformed first by a code, and then by a cipher. Such 342: 307: 900: 17: 570:
sentences, if not their meaning, and this is cryptanalytically useful.
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Terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp said that the men who carried out the
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Partially burnt pages from a World War II Soviet KGB two-part codebook
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A History of U.S. Communications Security; the David G. Boak Lectures
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Codes have a variety of drawbacks, including susceptibility to
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the normal habits of the people sending the coded messages
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is needed to encrypt, and decrypt the phrases or words.
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events occurring before and after the message was sent
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pleased. He returns tomorrow. I will keep you posted."
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Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 629:are generally larger and used longer than cipher 341:and the difficulty of managing the cumbersome 8: 356:(In the past, or in non-technical contexts, 71:Learn how and when to remove these messages 586:the location from where a message was sent 726:"Zimmermann Telegram: The Original Draft" 433:'s overseas service frequently included " 248:Learn how and when to remove this message 230:Learn how and when to remove this message 128:Learn how and when to remove this message 454:the nationalist military revolt in Spain 670: 364:are often used to refer to any form of 809:Cryptorunes: Codes and Secret Writing 7: 409:"One if by land; two if by sea" in " 326:, or "superencryption" aims to make 168:adding citations to reliable sources 768:Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: 901:Codes, Ciphers, & Codebreaking 589:where it was being sent to (i.e., 563:monoalphabetic substitution cipher 25: 52:This article has multiple issues. 498:, an unrelated cypher algorithm 431:British Broadcasting Corporation 144: 82: 41: 27:Method used to encrypt a message 708:from the original on 2021-09-19 620:Various tricks can be used to " 155:needs additional citations for 60:or discuss these issues on the 811:. Pomegranate Communications. 596:the time the message was sent, 583:diplomatic cocktail party chat 296:is a method used to encrypt a 1: 826:Boak, David G. (July 1973) . 644:Benjamin Franklin - Wikiquote 413:" made famous in the poem by 698:"16.2: Substitution Ciphers" 468:to meet with Soviet premier 439:Special Operations Executive 108:the claims made and adding 934: 472:, informing Truman of the 415:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 270:British Naval Intelligence 29: 402:prearranges a code with 302:National Security Agency 179:"Code" cryptography 372:One- and two-part codes 272:codebreakers. 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Index

Codetext
Code (disambiguation)
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talk page
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original research
improve it
verifying
inline citations
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verification
improve this article
adding citations to reliable sources
"Code" cryptography
news
newspapers
books
scholar
JSTOR
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Learn how and when to remove this message

Zimmermann Telegram
British Naval Intelligence

cryptology
message
National Security Agency
codebook

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