>>910
So far we've learned about one time pads and pseudo random sources of entropy as "additives", something you add to the plain text. But lets take this a step further. Now, we're going to go over something called serration. I don't know who the jack ass was who coined the term but its even used in the DoppelKastenSchlussel paper on the NSA website. So the term's been a round for a while.
This is a basic transposition… kinda. It breaks up the ciphertext, so when the analyst goes to analyze it, he finds the a frequency distribution for ciphertext binomes if they were scrambled.
So lets apply this to the playfair cipher. In this example we will use a serration of 20 digits to keep it simple, but cryptanalysts like me will check for multiples of 4 and 5 in serration if we believe it is being used. 21, is semi prime of 3 and 7 is long enough and obtuse enough to provide a lot of security. Mixing the serration of the DoppelKastenSchlussel with the keying of a book like the Australians did for coast watching and we get this hot mess of a medium grade cipher.
On top of this, we will key the square. This means we will use a shared secret with our intended target. This may be a word, phrase, or something else used to further secure the cipher.
Firstly we will draw are polybius square. But instead of the normal alphabet lets use the key "8chan". Remember to not write any of the key letters twice, otherwise you have to do a lot of erasing.
Like the CIA book cipher we will choose a page, a set amount of keying material and then write it in the key box. I chose 100 characters from page 157.
Now, write your message out, in the serration length you have chosen, In this example we will use 20 because its square and I can tell if I fuck up. Next we will write the keying material above or below it, I prefer to write the key first then the message.
Next we begin cryptographic operations. For the playfair which you might remember from school if not here is the run down.
If the letters are in the same row, such as 8 and c, shift one letter to the right. Since 8 is the first letter it is C, the letter the right of C is H. So X and 2 are Y and 3. 2 and 3 is 3 and X. If it goes off the edge of the square, just wrap around.
Cipher text digits on the same column? Just go down one spot. 8D is DK, C5 is EC, I2 is P9… get it?
Plain text and Key letter are the same? Just ignore it. Sometimes a cipher digit needs to encrypt to itself. If it doesn't I can slide a word over the cipher text and compare looking for collisions on letters. This was part of the downfall to the Enigma. This is also a problem with original playfair.
Not only do we have a key space for the polybius square but we also have the key material from the book and the crypto operation. This is much stronger than the CIA book cipher but still not as strong as the Dice and Polybius square. True random trumps pseudorandom any day.
Ciphertext fit neither situation? Cool. It forms a rectangle if you think about it. IS makes a rectangle with E and V as the other corner markers. Not making sense? Say that you have 8 and 0 as the digits needing to be encrypted, on the other corners it will be B and 4. It should make sense now.
Against normal people, this is high grade, against an adversary such as a dedicated sigint group, this will provide some buffer space until they try a the correct serration distance and a hill climb attack with computers.