How to resolve the algorithm ADFGVX cipher step by step in the Wren programming language

Published on 12 May 2024 09:40 PM

How to resolve the algorithm ADFGVX cipher step by step in the Wren programming language

Table of Contents

Problem Statement

The ADFGVX cipher was a manually applied field cipher used by the German Army during World War I. It was broken in 1918 by the French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin. The workings of the cipher are described in the Wikipedia article, linked to above, and so will not be repeated here. Write routines, functions etc. in your language to:

  1. Encrypt suitable plaintext and decrypt the resulting cipher text using the ADFGVX cipher algorithm given a Polybius square (see 2. below) and a suitable key. For this purpose suitable means text consisting solely of ASCII upper case letters or digits.
  2. Create a 6 x 6 Polybius square using a random combination of the letters A to Z and the digits 0 to 9 and then display it.
  3. Given the number of letters (between 7 and 12 say) to use, create a key by selecting a suitable word at random from unixdict.txt and then display it. The word selected should be such that none of its characters are repeated. Use these routines to create a Polybius square and a 9 letter key. These should then be used to encrypt the plaintext: ATTACKAT1200AM and decrypt the resulting cipher text. Display here the results of both operations. As it's unclear from the Wikipedia article how to handle a final row with fewer elements than the number of characters in the key, either of the methods mentioned in Columnar transposition may be used. In the case of the second method, it is also acceptable to fill any gaps after shuffling by moving elements to the left which makes decipherment harder.

Let's start with the solution:

Step by Step solution about How to resolve the algorithm ADFGVX cipher step by step in the Wren programming language

Source code in the wren programming language

import "random" for Random
import "./ioutil" for FileUtil
import "./seq" for Lst
import "./str" for Char, Str

var rand = Random.new()
var adfgvx = "ADFGVX"
var alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789".toList

var createPolybius = Fn.new {
    rand.shuffle(alphabet)
    var p = Lst.chunks(alphabet, 6)
    System.print("6 x 6 Polybius square:\n")
    System.print("  | A D F G V X")
    System.print("---------------")
    for (i in 0...p.count) {
        System.write("%(adfgvx[i]) | ")
        System.print(p[i].join(" "))
    }
    return p
}

var createKey = Fn.new { |n|
    if (n < 7 || n > 12) Fiber.abort("Key should be within 7 and 12 letters long.")
    var candidates = FileUtil.readLines("unixdict.txt").where { |word| 
        return word.count == n && Lst.distinct(word.toList).count == n &&
               word.all { |ch| Char.isAsciiAlphaNum(ch) }
    }.toList
    var k = Str.upper(candidates[rand.int(candidates.count)])
    System.print("\nThe key is %(k)")
    return k
}

// helper function to sort the key into alphabetical order
// and return a list of the original indices of its letters.
var orderKey = Fn.new { |key|
    var temp = (0...key.count).map { |i| [key[i], i] }.toList
    temp.sort { |x, y| x[0].bytes[0] < y[0].bytes[0] }
    return temp.map { |e| e[1] }.toList
}

var encrypt = Fn.new { |polybius, key, plainText|
    var temp = ""
    for (ch in plainText) {
        var outer = false
        for (r in 0..5) {
            for (c in 0..5) {
                if (polybius[r][c] == ch) {
                    temp = temp + adfgvx[r] + adfgvx[c]
                    outer = true
                    break
                }
            }
            if (outer) break
        }
    }
    var colLen = (temp.count / key.count).floor
    // all columns need to be the same length
    if (temp.count % key.count > 0) colLen = colLen + 1
    var table = Lst.chunks(temp.toList, key.count)
    var lastLen = table[-1].count
    if (lastLen < key.count) table[-1] = table[-1] + ([""] * (key.count - lastLen))
    var order = orderKey.call(key)
    var cols = List.filled(key.count, null)
    for (i in 0...cols.count) {
        cols[i] = List.filled(colLen, null)
        for (j in 0...table.count) cols[i][j] = table[j][order[i]]
    }
    return cols.map { |col| col.join() }.join(" ")
}

var decrypt = Fn.new { |polybius, key, cipherText|
    var colStrs = cipherText.split(" ")
    // ensure all columns are same length
    var maxColLen = colStrs.reduce(0) { |max, col| max = (col.count > max) ? col.count : max }
    var cols = colStrs.map { |s| 
        return (s.count < maxColLen) ? s.toList + ([""] * (maxColLen - s.count)) : s.toList
    }.toList
    var table = List.filled(maxColLen, null)
    var order = orderKey.call(key)
    for (i in 0...maxColLen) {
        table[i] = List.filled(key.count, "")
        for (j in 0...key.count) table[i][order[j]] = cols[j][i]
    }
    var temp = table.map { |row| row.join("") }.join("")
    var plainText = ""
    var i = 0
    while (i < temp.count) {
        var r = adfgvx.indexOf(temp[i])
        var c = adfgvx.indexOf(temp[i+1])
        plainText = plainText + polybius[r][c]
        i = i + 2
    }
    return plainText   
}

var plainText = "ATTACKAT1200AM"
var polybius = createPolybius.call()
var key = createKey.call(9)
System.print("\nPlaintext : %(plainText)")
var cipherText = encrypt.call(polybius, key, plainText)
System.print("\nEncrypted : %(cipherText)")
var plainText2 = decrypt.call(polybius, key, cipherText)
System.print("\nDecrypted : %(plainText2)")


  

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