classical crypto programmatic aids

[Travis H.]

Hi folks,

Does anyone here know of any computer-based aids for breaking
classical cryptosystems?  I'm thinking in particular of the ones in
"Body of Secrets", which are so short that I really hope they're
monoalphabetic substitutions.  But I'm interested in these sorts of
programs more generally.  I could use paper, but it'd be nice if a
computer could keep track of what I've tried and otherwise ruled out.
I am aware of the "crypt breaker's workbench", but that's specific to
classic Unix crypt(3).  What else is there?

Incidentally, if anyone's interested, on my web page I have an article
on how I used classical techniques to recover files encrypted with CFS
and corrupted by disk failure or human error.  It's sort of a rambling
stream-of-consciousness that I wrote while learning CFS and breaking
the encryption.  It's not often that one gets to use classical methods
against a modern cryptosystem, so I figure it may be refreshing.  To
summarize, CFS XORs each file against an eight-byte IV that is stored
as a dangling symlink, and on my system the symlinks had become
desynchronized from the files.

PDF: http://www.usenix.org/publications/login/2004-08/pdfs/howard.pdf
TXT: http://www.lightconsulting.com/~travis/cfs_travails.txt
-- 
"I sometimes have delusions of adequacy" -- Woody Allen
Security "guru" for rent or hire - http://www.lightconsulting.com/~travis/ -><-
GPG fingerprint: 9D3F 395A DAC5 5CCC 9066  151D 0A6B 4098 0C55 1484

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