{"id":"hist-stager-001","title":"Civil War Route Cipher — Grant to Halleck, 1863","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"stager_route","plaintext":"ATTACK THE ENEMY AT DAWN WITH ALL AVAILABLE FORCES DO NOT DELAY","ciphertext":"AETNTHHIFAOAEDECXDLRSLYWBLATEWKLIAELATAVNOATNLAD","key":{"type":"integer","value":5,"label":"Columns"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":63,"normalized_text_length":52,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Adapted from Civil War route cipher training corpus; key pattern documented in Plum, W.R., 'The Military Telegraph During the Civil War' (1882)","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["multiple anagramming","probable word","route reconstruction"],"tags":["historical","civil-war","american","route-cipher","telegraph","stager"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"reconstruction","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"Civil War Signal Corps Records; Plum (1882)","publication_date":"1882","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Union Army Stager cipher (route/columnar transposition with 5 columns) was the primary Union field telegraph cipher 1861–1865. Messages were read in serpentine column order.","year":"1863","historical_context":"The Union Army used William Myer and Anson Stager's route cipher for telegraphic communications. Operatives memorized route tables (column reading order) that changed periodically.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-confed-001","title":"Confederate Vigenère — Pemberton to Johnston, Vicksburg 1863","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"confederate_vigenere","plaintext":"HOLD YOUR POSITION RELIEF IS ON THE WAY DO NOT SURRENDER","ciphertext":"YZTOQMZDZOAOZWBAQZWSAZBAQYOZWBAQMDQTDQQZFNWZMQ","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"MANCHESTER"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":56,"normalized_text_length":46,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Confederate brass cipher disk, Vicksburg campaign. Key 'MANCHESTER' documented in Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. XXIV.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence","disk alignment analysis"],"tags":["historical","civil-war","confederate","polyalphabetic","brass-disk","vicksburg"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (OR), Series I Vol XXIV","publication_date":"1863","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Confederate signals used a brass cipher disk (Vigenère variant) with rotating keywords. 'MANCHESTER' and 'COMPLETE VICTORY' were documented Vicksburg-campaign keys.","year":"1863","historical_context":"The Confederate Army used a brass cipher disk implementing a Vigenère cipher with keywords distributed by courier. Blaine Pitts and David Kahn have documented multiple recovered keys.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-zimmermann-001","title":"Zimmermann Telegram Excerpt — 1917","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"zimmermann","plaintext":"WE INTEND TO BEGIN ON THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE","ciphertext":"13042 13401 8501 115 3528 416 17214 6491 11310 18147 18222 21560 10247 11518 23677","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"German diplomatic code 13040"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":74,"normalized_text_length":63,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Zimmermann Telegram, January 16 1917. Decoded by Room 40 (Nigel de Grey and William Montgomery). Declassified and published by British Naval Intelligence.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","diplomatic code analysis","Room 40 methods"],"tags":["historical","wwi","german","diplomatic","zimmermann-telegram","room-40"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"UK National Archives; Barbara Tuchman 'The Zimmermann Telegram' (1958)","publication_date":"1917","license":"public domain"},"notes":"This is the famous telegram from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister in Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance. The code numbers represent entries in German diplomatic codebook 13040. Room 40's decryption brought the United States into WWI.","year":"1917","historical_context":"Decoded by Room 40 in January 1917, the Zimmermann Telegram proposed that Mexico attack the United States in exchange for Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Its revelation accelerated US entry into WWI.","known_solution_method":"Partial codebook reconstruction from earlier intercepts; Nigel de Grey and William Montgomery exploited overlapping code groups.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-enigma-001","title":"Enigma Training Message — Bletchley Test Vector","cipher_family":"machine","cipher_type":"enigma","plaintext":"THISISATESTMESSAGEFORBLETCHLEYPARK","ciphertext":"OPGNDXCRWOMNLNECJZZJPLSZKMQOXNKGEO","key":{"type":"rotor_start","value":"AAA","label":"Rotor starting positions"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":34,"normalized_text_length":34,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"synthetic","source":"Derived from Enigma machine operational parameters; see Rejewski (1981) and Bauer (2007)","license":"CC0","expected_attacks":["bombe attack","index of coincidence","cribs","known plaintext"],"tags":["historical","wwii","german","machine","rotor","bletchley","enigma"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.5","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"synthetic","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"engine_replay","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"Cipher Museum Enigma simulation; Rejewski (1981) Cryptologia","publication_date":"2026-04-27","license":"CC0"},"notes":"Simplified 3-rotor Enigma model with default rotor configuration (I-II-III) and starting position AAA. Historical Enigma also used plugboard (Steckerbrett) settings not modeled here. Ciphertext regenerated 2026-07-17 (corpus v0.5) to match the verified museum engines.","year":"1940","historical_context":"The German Enigma machine was the primary Wehrmacht cipher machine 1930–1945. Bletchley Park's bombe, designed by Gordon Welchman and Alan Turing, exploited crib (known-plaintext) attacks to recover daily settings.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-vic-001","title":"VIC Cipher — Rudolf Abel Training Example","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"vic","plaintext":"MEETAGENTKARENTHURSDAYATTHEPARK","ciphertext":"XJVKRSQOIHJAQHPZLNOQXKMJXHPAIQJ","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"SNOWFALL"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":31,"normalized_text_length":31,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"VIC cipher training example. Key pattern described in David Wise and Thomas Ross, 'The Espionage Establishment' (1967); NSA declassified analysis of Rudolf Abel cipher materials.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["checkerboard recovery","frequency analysis","double transposition analysis"],"tags":["historical","cold-war","soviet","spy-cipher","vic","checkerboard","abel"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"reconstruction","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"NSA declassified materials; Wise & Ross (1967)","publication_date":"1957","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The VIC cipher (straddling checkerboard + double transposition) was used by Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel (William Fisher), arrested 1957. It was the most complex hand cipher ever broken by the NSA.","year":"1957","historical_context":"Rudolf Abel used the VIC cipher to communicate with Moscow from New York. Arrested in 1957, he was later exchanged for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. The NSA analysis of his cipher system revealed the VIC's remarkable complexity for a hand cipher.","known_solution_method":"Straddling checkerboard key recovery via frequency analysis, then double-transposition attack using probable words.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-beale-001","title":"Beale Cipher — Paper No. 2 (Treasure Location) — Excerpt","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"book_cipher","plaintext":"ICOMMENCEATTHEPOINTMARKEDWITHANXINTHEGROUNDANDSHALLFINDACONCEALEDENTRANCETOANUNDERGROUNDCHAMBER","ciphertext":"115 73 24 807 37 52 49 17 31 62 647 22 7 15 140 47 29 107 79 84 56 239 10 26 811 5 196 308 85 52 160 136 59 211 36 9 46 316 554 122 106 95 53 58 2 42 7 35 122 53 31 82 77 250 196 56 96 118 71 140 287 28 353 37 1005 65 147 807 24 3 8 12 47 43 59 807 45 316 101 41 78 154 1005 122 138 191 16 77 49 102 57 72 34 73 85 35 371","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Declaration of Independence (word position → first letter)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":95,"normalized_text_length":95,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Beale Papers, published by J.B. Ward (1885). Paper No. 2 decoded using Declaration of Independence as key. Papers 1 and 3 remain unsolved.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["book identification","word frequency analysis","Declaration of Independence mapping"],"tags":["historical","beale","book-cipher","treasure","unsolved-1-and-3","american"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"noisy","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"Ward, J.B. 'The Beale Papers' (1885), Lynchburg, Virginia","publication_date":"1885","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Beale Ciphers are three encoded texts allegedly describing the location of a buried treasure in Bedford County, Virginia. Only Paper No. 2 has been decoded, using the Declaration of Independence as a book cipher key (number = Nth word, first letter).","year":"1820","historical_context":"The Beale Papers were published in 1885 by J.B. Ward. Paper No. 2 was decoded in 1885 using the Declaration of Independence as a keyword: each number maps to the Nth word, and the first letter of that word gives the plaintext letter. Papers 1 and 3 remain unsolved.","known_solution_method":"Declaration of Independence book cipher mapping (1=W, 2=h, etc.)","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-culper-001","title":"Culper Ring Code — Tallmadge Numerical Code","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"culper_ring","plaintext":"AGENT YANKEE WILL MEET CULPER AT BREWSTER","ciphertext":"998 711 807 582 690 807 174","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Tallmadge 1779 codebook"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":41,"normalized_text_length":35,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Tallmadge codebook for Culper Spy Ring, 1779. Reproduced in Alexander Rose, 'Washington's Spies' (2006). Original codebook preserved at Long Island Museum.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","frequency analysis","numerical pattern analysis"],"tags":["historical","american-revolution","spy-ring","tallmadge","culper","george-washington"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"Alexander Rose 'Washington's Spies' (2006); Long Island Museum Collection","publication_date":"1779","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Benjamin Tallmadge's 1779 codebook assigned three-digit numbers to 763 common words and 26 letters. Agents were known by code numbers: Samuel Culper Sr = 722, Samuel Culper Jr = 723, Robert Townsend = 723, Austin Roe = 724.","year":"1779","historical_context":"The Culper Spy Ring (1778–1783) was Washington's most successful intelligence network. Tallmadge (known as John Bolton, code 721) designed a numerical codebook and invisible-ink system. The ring uncovered Benedict Arnold's treason and the planned British seizure of West Point.","known_solution_method":"Tallmadge codebook: numbers 1–763 map to common English words; numbers above 763 map to letters and proper names.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-babington-001","title":"Babington Plot Cipher — Mary Queen of Scots, 1586","cipher_family":"nomenclator","cipher_type":"babington","plaintext":"PROCEED WITH THE PLAN SIX GENTLEMEN ARE READY TO ACT","ciphertext":"82 61 91 73 44 91 93 32 81 92 42 54 74 31 73 43 81 92 73 33 43 33 91 55 44 21 93 93 51 51 33 54 83 93 22 44 21 33 44","key":{"type":"seed","value":"BABINGTON","label":"Codebook seed"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":52,"normalized_text_length":43,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Babington Plot, 1586. Cipher attributed to Gilbert Gifford; deciphered by Thomas Phelippes for Sir Francis Walsingham. Documented in Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, Vol. VIII.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["nomenclator reconstruction","frequency analysis","Walsingham methods"],"tags":["historical","elizabethan","mary-queen-of-scots","babington","nomenclator","walsingham"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"noisy","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"Calendar of State Papers Scotland Vol VIII; David Kahn 'The Codebreakers' (1967)","publication_date":"1586","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Babington Plot cipher used a nomenclator combining a 23-letter substitute alphabet with code symbols for common words and double-letter indicators. Thomas Phelippes decoded the conspirators' letters, providing evidence for Mary's execution.","year":"1586","historical_context":"The Babington Plot (1586) was a Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. Walsingham's cryptanalyst Thomas Phelippes decoded the correspondence, allowing Walsingham to identify all conspirators. Mary was executed February 8, 1587.","known_solution_method":"Frequency analysis of nomenclator symbols; recovery of high-frequency code groups. Phelippes forged a postscript requesting conspirators' names.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-polybius-001","title":"Polybius Square — Greek Military Signaling Example","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"polybius","plaintext":"SEND TROOPS TO CORINTH","ciphertext":"43 15 33 14 44 42 34 34 35 43 44 34 13 34 42 24 33 44 23","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Standard 5x5 Polybius square (I=J)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":22,"normalized_text_length":19,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Polybius, 'Histories' Book X, Chapter 44 (c. 150 BCE). The signaling system described by Polybius used torches to communicate the row and column of each letter.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["known encoding scheme","bigram frequency analysis"],"tags":["historical","ancient","greek","polybius","signaling","classical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"engine_replay","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"Polybius 'Histories' Book X; Shuckburgh translation (1889)","publication_date":"150 BCE","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Polybius described a fire-signaling system where two groups of torches indicated the row and column of a letter in a 5×5 grid. Each letter required two signal bursts — one for the row (1–5), one for the column (1–5).","year":"150 BCE","historical_context":"Polybius (~200–118 BCE) described this fire-signaling system in his Histories as a practical military communication method. The same grid was later adapted by Trithemius and others as a secret writing system.","known_solution_method":"Standard 5×5 grid with ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (I=J). Each number pair (row, column) maps directly to a letter.","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-navajo-001","title":"Navajo Code Talkers — WWII Pacific Transmission","cipher_family":"code","cipher_type":"navajo_code","plaintext":"ATTACK BEGINS AT DAWN","ciphertext":"WOL-LA-CHEE YEH-HES AH-JAH AH-NAH-HO DIBEH-YAZZIE BE LIN AH-JAH NAH-AS-TSOSI GLOE-IH TSE-NILL","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"USMC Navajo code dictionary"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":21,"normalized_text_length":18,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"mixed","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"USMC Navajo Code Talker Dictionary, declassified 1968. Documented in Doris Paul, 'The Navajo Code Talkers' (1973); Philip Johnston's 1942 proposal to the USMC.","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["reverse dictionary lookup","phonetic analysis","linguistic analysis"],"tags":["historical","wwii","usmc","navajo","code-talkers","pacific","never-broken"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ciphermuseum.com/cipher-corpus.html","archive":"USMC Navajo Code Dictionary (declassified 1968); Doris Paul (1973)","publication_date":"1945","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Navajo Code Talkers used a two-level system: common military terms had specific Navajo words (e.g., 'turtle' = tank), while other words were spelled out using Navajo words for each letter (multiple Navajo words per letter for homophony). Never broken by Japan.","year":"1943","historical_context":"420 Navajo Code Talkers served in the USMC 1942–1945. Their code was the only military code in WWII never broken by the enemy. Major Howard Connor, USMC, stated: 'Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.'","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-caesar-suetonius-001","title":"Caesar's A=D Cipher — Suetonius Account","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"caesar","plaintext":"VENI VIDI VICI","ciphertext":"YHQL YLGL YLFL","key":{"shift":3},"language":"la","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":14,"normalized_text_length":12,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, c. 121 AD","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["brute force","frequency analysis"],"tags":["caesar","roman","classical","military","latin"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"engine_replay","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":null,"archive":"Original source citation unresolved","publication_date":"121 AD","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Julius Caesar used a shift-3 cipher for military correspondence, documented by Suetonius.","historical_context":"Julius Caesar's cipher as described in Suetonius's 'Lives of the Twelve Caesars' (c. 121 AD). Caesar replaced each letter with one three positions later in the alphabet.","year":"c. 50 BCE","citation_erratum":{"status":"link_unavailable","previous_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_the_Twelve_Caesars/Life_of_Julius_Caesar","previous_archive":"Wikisource — Suetonius","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The old link returned HTTP 404 during the 22 October 2026 link audit. This is a teaching reconstruction, not a verified Suetonius ciphertext."},"supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-caesar-augustus-001","title":"Augustus Caesar Cipher — Shift 1","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"caesar","plaintext":"FORTUNA FAVET FORTIBUS","ciphertext":"GPSUVOB GBWFU GPSUJCVT","key":{"shift":1},"language":"la","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":22,"normalized_text_length":20,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars — Augustus","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["brute force","frequency analysis"],"tags":["caesar","roman","augustus","latin","classical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.5","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"reconstruction","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"engine_replay","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_the_Twelve_Caesars","archive":"Wikisource — Suetonius","publication_date":"121 AD","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Augustus Caesar used a shift-1 cipher, wrapping A to AA (not Z), per Suetonius. Ciphertext regenerated 2026-07-17 (corpus v0.5) to match the verified museum engines. The previously stored ciphertext was not a uniform shift-1 encoding; this is a reconstructed example, not a quoted historical ciphertext.","historical_context":"Augustus Caesar used a different cipher from Julius — shifting each letter by 1, documented by Suetonius.","year":"c. 30 BCE","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-polybius-fire-signals-001","title":"Polybius Fire Signal Code — Iphicrates System","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"polybius","plaintext":"ATTACK","ciphertext":"11 44 44 11 13 25","key":{"type":"standard"},"language":"la","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":6,"normalized_text_length":6,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Polybius, Histories, Book X, c. 150 BCE","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["known encoding","frequency analysis"],"tags":["polybius","greek","ancient","military","signals"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"engine_replay","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/10*.html","archive":"Perseus Digital Library","publication_date":"c. 150 BCE","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Polybius described a fire-signal system using pairs of torches to encode letters in his Histories.","historical_context":"Polybius described a telegraph-like signaling system using two sets of torches representing rows and columns of a 5x5 grid. Each letter was signaled by showing the row torches then the column torches.","year":"c. 150 BCE","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-alberti-de-cifris-001","title":"Alberti Disk — De Cifris Example","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"alberti_disk","plaintext":"AMOR VINCIT OMNIA","ciphertext":"LNZC EJBPE ZNEIL","key":{"outer":"ABCDEFGHILMNOPQRSTVXZ1234","inner":"gklnprtvz&xysomqihdba","index":"A"},"language":"la","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":17,"normalized_text_length":15,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"Leon Battista Alberti, De Cifris, 1467","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["disk cryptanalysis","index of coincidence","known plaintext"],"tags":["alberti","disk","renaissance","polyalphabetic","italy","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"reconstruction","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":null,"archive":"Original source citation unresolved","publication_date":"1467","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Alberti's De Cifris (1467) described the first polyalphabetic cipher using a rotating disk. Reconstructed from Alberti's original description.","historical_context":"Leon Battista Alberti invented the cipher disk in 1467, described in De Cifris. It is considered the first polyalphabetic cipher device. The outer ring had the plaintext alphabet and the inner ring the cipher alphabet, rotated periodically.","year":"1467","citation_erratum":{"status":"link_unavailable","previous_url":"https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs6820/2012fa/handouts/alberti.pdf","previous_archive":"Cornell CS — Alberti De Cifris","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The old link returned HTTP 404 during the 22 October 2026 link audit. No replacement has been verified as provenance for this fixture."},"supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-vigenere-traicte-001","title":"Vigenère — Traicté des Chiffres Example","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"vigenere","plaintext":"LA COUR DU ROI EST GARDEE","ciphertext":"OD FVXU HY URI HVW JDUGEH","key":{"keyword":"CLE"},"language":"fr","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":25,"normalized_text_length":20,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Blaise de Vigenère, Traicté des Chiffres, 1586","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence"],"tags":["vigenere","french","renaissance","polyalphabetic","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"reconstruction","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k73371g","archive":"Bibliothèque nationale de France — Gallica","publication_date":"1586","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Reconstruction from Vigenère's Traicté des Chiffres (1586), the first published description of the autokey and tableau cipher system bearing his name.","historical_context":"Blaise de Vigenère published the 'Traicté des Chiffres' in 1586, describing multiple cipher systems. The cipher bearing his name was actually invented by Giovan Battista Bellaso in 1553; Vigenère described a stronger autokey variant.","year":"1586","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-playfair-wheatstone-001","title":"Playfair Cipher — Wheatstone's Original Example","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"playfair","plaintext":"HIDE THE GOLD IN THE TREE STUMP","ciphertext":"BM OD ZB XD NA BE KU DM UI XM MO UV IF","key":{"keyword":"PLAYFAIR EXAMPLE"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":31,"normalized_text_length":25,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Charles Wheatstone / Lord Playfair, c. 1854","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["bigram frequency analysis","probable word attack","digraph analysis"],"tags":["playfair","british","wheatstone","historical","intermediate"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.5","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"reconstruction","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"engine_replay","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playfair_cipher","archive":"Wikipedia — Playfair Cipher","publication_date":"1854","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Wheatstone invented this cipher c. 1854; Lord Playfair promoted it to the British government, lending his name to it. Ciphertext regenerated 2026-07-17 (corpus v0.5) to match the verified museum engines.","historical_context":"The Playfair cipher was invented by Charles Wheatstone around 1854 but popularized by his friend Lord Playfair. It encrypts pairs of letters (digraphs) using a 5x5 key square. The British Army used it in the Boer War and WWI.","year":"1854","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-adfgvx-1918-001","title":"ADFGVX Cipher — German Spring Offensive, 1918","cipher_family":"fractionation","cipher_type":"adfgvx","plaintext":"ANGRIFF BEGINNT BEI MORGENDAMMERUNG","ciphertext":"FFDAADVXGFAXDVDXGFGXDVXDAXFADDXFVFX","key":{"keyword":"DEUTSCH","transposition_key":"KAISER"},"language":"de","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":35,"normalized_text_length":32,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"German Army cryptographic service, Spring Offensive 1918","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["Polybius recovery","columnar transposition analysis","Painvin attack"],"tags":["adfgvx","german","wwi","1918","historical","advanced"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADFGVX_cipher","archive":"Wikipedia — ADFGVX","publication_date":"1918","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The ADFGVX cipher was introduced by the German Army in March 1918 for the Spring Offensive. French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin broke it in June 1918, a decisive intelligence victory.","historical_context":"ADFGVX was used by the German Army from March 1918. It combined a Polybius square substitution using only the letters A,D,F,G,V,X with columnar transposition. French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin solved it in 1918, helping the Allies anticipate the German offensive.","year":"1918","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-enigma-barbarossa-001","title":"Enigma Message — Operation Barbarossa Indicator, 1941","cipher_family":"machine","cipher_type":"enigma","plaintext":"WETTER KLARER HIMMEL SICHT GUT","ciphertext":"NCZWVYSXNS VCXFP","key":{"rotors":"I II III","reflector":"B","plugboard":"AV BS CG DL FU HZ IN KM OW RX","ring_settings":"AAA","start_positions":"AAA"},"language":"de","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":30,"normalized_text_length":26,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Cryptomuseum Enigma Training Vector — Reconstructed from Bletchley Park WWII records","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["bombe attack","crib dragging","probable word attack"],"tags":["enigma","german","wwii","bletchley","machine cipher","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"authentic_excerpt","pair_status":"not_a_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/enigma/","archive":"CryptoMuseum — Enigma","publication_date":"2024","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Reconstructed Enigma message format from WWII German Army traffic. The weather report format 'Wetter...' was a classic crib used by Bletchley Park codebreakers.","historical_context":"The Enigma machine was the primary encryption device of Nazi Germany. Bletchley Park codebreakers, including Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, broke Enigma through a combination of cribs (known plaintext), the Bombe electromechanical device, and operator errors.","year":"1941","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-vic-abel-1957-001","title":"VIC Cipher — Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel, 1957","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"vic","plaintext":"MEETING MOVED TO THURSDAY CONFIRM","ciphertext":"71349825061647392810574639","key":{"phrase":"SNOWFALL","date":"19571031"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":33,"normalized_text_length":29,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"FBI Counter-Intelligence — Rudolf Abel Case Files, 1957","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["superimposition","straddling checkerboard analysis","message indicator recovery"],"tags":["vic","soviet","cold-war","abel","1957","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/","archive":"CIA Studies in Intelligence","publication_date":"1957","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The VIC cipher was discovered on a hollow nickel in 1953 and eventually attributed to Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. It was considered the most sophisticated hand cipher of the Cold War era.","historical_context":"The VIC cipher was used by Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (real name Vilyam Fisher). It featured a straddling checkerboard, sequential key generation, and transposition. The FBI discovered it when a hollow nickel containing a microfilm was accidentally spent. Abel was caught in 1957.","year":"1950s","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-beale-paper1-001","title":"Beale Cipher — Paper No. 1 (Location) Unsolved","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"book_cipher","plaintext":"UNKNOWN UNSOLVED SINCE 1885","ciphertext":"71 194 38 1701 89 76 11 83 1629 48 94 63 132 16 111 95 84 341 975 14","key":{"reference":"Declaration of Independence (Paper No. 1 — different reference, unsolved)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":27,"normalized_text_length":24,"spacing":"mixed","punctuation":"mixed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"James B. Ward, 'The Beale Papers', 1885","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","known-plaintext attack","frequency analysis"],"tags":["beale","unsolved","mystery","book-cipher","american","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":null,"archive":"Original source citation unresolved","publication_date":"1885","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Paper No. 1 (treasure location) and Paper No. 3 (names of depositors) remain unsolved. Only Paper No. 2 was decoded using the Declaration of Independence.","historical_context":"The Beale Ciphers consist of three ciphertexts allegedly describing buried treasure in Virginia. Paper No. 2 was solved using the Declaration of Independence as the key. Papers No. 1 and No. 3 remain unsolved and may be a hoax.","year":"c. 1820s (published 1885)","citation_erratum":{"status":"wrong_work","previous_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12994","previous_archive":"Project Gutenberg — Beale Papers","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The cited Project Gutenberg item is George William Erskine Russell, Sydney Smith, not The Beale Papers. The original source for this fixture has not been verified."},"supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-great-cipher-1626-001","title":"Grand/Great Cipher — Antoine Rossignol, France, c. 1626","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"great_cipher","plaintext":"LES TROUPES SONT PRETES A MARCHER","ciphertext":"124 22 548 332 10 548 22 124 93 45 81 7 124 43","key":{"codebook_type":"syllabic","nulls":true,"traps":true},"language":"fr","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":33,"normalized_text_length":28,"spacing":"mixed","punctuation":"mixed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Archives Nationales de France — Rossignol Papers, c. 1626","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","frequency analysis","syllabic analysis"],"tags":["great-cipher","french","rossignol","louis-xiv","historical","codebook"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/","archive":"Project Gutenberg — Cryptography history","publication_date":"1893","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Great Cipher was created by Antoine Rossignol and son Bonaventure for Louis XIII and XIV. It replaced letters with syllable codes and included nulls and traps. Unbroken for 200 years until Étienne Bazeries solved it in 1893.","historical_context":"The Grand Chiffre (Great Cipher) was used by French kings Louis XIII and XIV from c. 1626. It encoded syllables rather than individual letters and included trap codes. It was so secure it remained unbroken for over 200 years until Étienne Bazeries cracked it in 1893, revealing correspondence about the Man in the Iron Mask.","year":"c. 1626","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-babington-mary-1586-001","title":"Babington Plot — Mary Queen of Scots to Babington, July 1586","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"babington","plaintext":"THE ENTERPRISE SHALL GO FORWARD AS PLANNED","ciphertext":"⊕ℜ∂Ξℵ∞≈ ΔΘΩ ∑Π℘","key":{"substitution_alphabet":"Mary's 1586 nomenclator with 23 symbols","nulls":"4th and 5th symbols are nulls"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":42,"normalized_text_length":36,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"mixed","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Public Record Office, London — State Papers Mary Queen of Scots, 1586","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["symbol frequency analysis","probable word attack","known-plaintext attack"],"tags":["babington","mary-queen-of-scots","tudor","1586","historical","nomenclator"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/","archive":"The National Archives UK — State Papers","publication_date":"1586","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Francis Walsingham's spy network intercepted and decoded the Babington Plot letters, leading to Mary Queen of Scots' execution in 1587.","historical_context":"The Babington Plot (1586) was a conspiracy to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. Mary's letters to Anthony Babington were encrypted using a nomenclator (symbol substitution with codewords). Francis Walsingham's codebreaker Thomas Phelippes intercepted and decoded them, leading to Mary's execution in February 1587.","year":"1586","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-zimmermann-full-001","title":"Zimmermann Telegram — Full Decoded Text, 1917","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"zimmermann","plaintext":"WE INTEND TO BEGIN ON THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE WE SHALL ENDEAVOR IN SPITE OF THIS TO KEEP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NEUTRAL","ciphertext":"130 13042 13401 8501 115 3528 416 17214 6491 11310 18147 18222 21560 10247 11518 23677","key":{"codebook":"0075 — German diplomatic code 1917"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":154,"normalized_text_length":128,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"British Naval Intelligence Room 40 — Decoded January 1917; released by President Wilson","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","traffic analysis","diplomatic code breaking"],"tags":["zimmermann","wwi","room-40","1917","historical","diplomatic"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/zimmermann-telegram","archive":"National Archives — Zimmermann Telegram","publication_date":"1917","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Room 40 decoded the Zimmermann Telegram in January 1917. Its release to the US public in March 1917 helped bring the United States into WWI.","historical_context":"The Zimmermann Telegram was a secret diplomatic communication from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador in Mexico, proposing a military alliance against the US. British Naval Intelligence (Room 40) decoded it in January 1917. Its publication accelerated US entry into WWI.","year":"1917","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-navajo-guadalcanal-001","title":"Navajo Code Talkers — Guadalcanal Campaign Message, 1942","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"navajo_code","plaintext":"BEACH RED TAKEN MOVE FORWARD","ciphertext":"TSAH-AH-NEH NAH-TSO-SI TKIN BILH-HE-NEH AH-NAH","key":{"dialect":"Navajo military code","unit":"1st Marine Division"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":28,"normalized_text_length":24,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"USMC — Navajo Code Talker Program, Guadalcanal 1942","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["linguistic analysis (Navajo)","pattern recognition"],"tags":["navajo","wwii","pacific","guadalcanal","1942","historical","code-talkers"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/library/research-guides/navajo-code-talkers.html","archive":"Naval History and Heritage Command","publication_date":"1942","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Navajo Code was developed by Philip Johnston in 1942 and never broken by Japan. The code talkers transmitted over 800 messages during the battle of Iwo Jima alone.","historical_context":"The Navajo Code was a Type 2 code based on the Navajo language — a language that Japan had no knowledge of and no linguists for. Each letter had multiple Navajo words to prevent frequency analysis. Major Howard Connor of the 5th Marine Division said 'Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.'","year":"1942-1945","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-culper-hercules-001","title":"Culper Ring — Agent 355 (Lady) Code, 1780","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"culper_ring","plaintext":"BRITISH TROOPS PLAN SURPRISE ATTACK ON FRENCH FORCES","ciphertext":"723 711 28 52 491 194 38 1 83 17","key":{"codebook":"Tallmadge Numerical Codebook v2","null_key":"agents use numbers above 700"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":52,"normalized_text_length":45,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Washington Papers, Library of Congress — Culper Spy Ring correspondence, 1780","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","frequency analysis","contextual attack"],"tags":["culper","american-revolution","spy-ring","1780","historical","codebook"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://founders.archives.gov/","archive":"Founders Online — Washington Papers","publication_date":"1780","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Culper Ring used a 763-entry codebook. Highly placed female agent '355' provided intelligence about British plans including the Benedict Arnold betrayal.","historical_context":"The Culper Spy Ring operated in New York and Long Island from 1778 to 1783, providing intelligence to General Washington. They used a combination of invisible ink, codebooks, and drop locations. Agent 355 (believed to be a woman of high Loyalist social standing) provided intelligence that helped expose Benedict Arnold's treason.","year":"1779-1783","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-charles-ii-cipher-001","title":"Charles II Royal Cipher — Restoration Correspondence, 1660","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"vigenere","plaintext":"THE KING IS RESTORED TO HIS RIGHTFUL THRONE","ciphertext":"MAX GXAT XU XKUVAXKH ZW LXU DXXZAHFR ZLXWTK","key":{"keyword":"ROYAL"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":43,"normalized_text_length":36,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"British State Papers — Restoration period, 1660","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence"],"tags":["charles-ii","restoration","british","1660s","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/","archive":"The National Archives UK","publication_date":"1660","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Charles II's court used Vigenère-style ciphers for diplomatic correspondence after his restoration. British codebreaker John Wallis was active in this period.","historical_context":"After the English Restoration of 1660, Charles II's court used cipher correspondence for diplomatic communications. Mathematician John Wallis served as a cryptographer for the Crown, breaking numerous foreign ciphers.","year":"1660s","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-washington-invisible-ink-001","title":"Washington Intelligence — Sympathetic Stain Message, 1779","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"null_cipher","plaintext":"MOVE TROOPS ACROSS HUDSON RIVER AT NIGHT","ciphertext":"PLEASE SEND MORE TROOPS MOVE ACROSS THE RIVER AT NIGHT WITH FULL SUPPLIES AND PROVISIONS FOR SIX DAYS","key":{"method":"every_third_word","cover_story":"supply request letter"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":40,"normalized_text_length":34,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"Washington Papers — Culper Ring correspondence","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["word selection pattern","frequency analysis","contextual analysis"],"tags":["null-cipher","american-revolution","washington","1779","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://founders.archives.gov/","archive":"Founders Online — Washington Papers","publication_date":"1779","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Washington's spy network used null ciphers (hiding messages within innocent-looking letters) as well as invisible ink (Agent 711 = Washington, used 'sympathetic stain').","historical_context":"George Washington's spy network used null ciphers (messages hidden in cover text), invisible ink developed by Dr. James Jay, and codebooks. Washington himself was Agent 711 in the Culper Ring codebook.","year":"1779","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-venona-rosenberg-001","title":"VENONA Intercept — Rosenberg Network, 1944","cipher_family":"stream","cipher_type":"venona_pad_reuse","plaintext":"LIBERAL HAS TRANSMITTED DETAILS OF NEW ARTILLERY RANGEFINDER","ciphertext":"USNL JXKNM PQVRT MBYZE WHLAF CDGOI XKSTU RQPNM","key":{"pad_reuse":true,"error":"One-time pad reused — cryptographic failure","project":"VENONA"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":60,"normalized_text_length":53,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"NSA VENONA Project — Declassified 1995","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["superimposition","statistical analysis","crib-based attack"],"tags":["venona","soviet","cold-war","one-time-pad","pad-reuse","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":null,"archive":"Original source citation unresolved","publication_date":"1995","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The VENONA project ran 1943-1980. Soviet codemakers in Moscow reused one-time pad pages under wartime pressure, giving NSA cryptanalysts the statistical basis to break the theoretically unbreakable cipher.","historical_context":"The VENONA project was a long-running secret collaboration between American and British intelligence to decrypt Soviet intelligence communications. Soviet codemakers in 1942-1943 reused pages from their one-time pads due to wartime pressure, fatally compromising the security. Thousands of messages were eventually decoded, exposing Soviet spies including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.","year":"1944-1980","citation_erratum":{"status":"link_unavailable","previous_url":"https://www.nsa.gov/Portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/venona/","previous_archive":"NSA VENONA Archive","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The old link returned HTTP 404 during the 22 October 2026 link audit. An overview of VENONA is not proof of this plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-arnold-andre-001","title":"Arnold-André Cipher — Benedict Arnold Treason, 1780","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"arnold_andre","plaintext":"WEST POINT GARRISON STRENGTH THREE THOUSAND","ciphertext":"73:1:15 73:2:8 18:3:21 42:1:5 18:2:16 73:3:9","key":{"reference":"Commentaries on the Laws of England, Blackstone, Vol. 1","format":"page:line:word"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":43,"normalized_text_length":38,"spacing":"mixed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"André Papers / Washington Papers — 1780","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","book identification","contextual attack"],"tags":["arnold","andre","american-revolution","treason","1780","book-cipher"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://founders.archives.gov/","archive":"Founders Online — Arnold-André correspondence","publication_date":"1780","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Major John André and Benedict Arnold used book cipher based on Blackstone's Commentaries to plan the surrender of West Point. André was captured with the papers in his boots.","historical_context":"Benedict Arnold and British officer Major John André used a book cipher based on Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England for their treason correspondence. André was captured on September 23, 1780, with the cipher papers hidden in his boot. He was hanged as a spy; Arnold fled to British lines.","year":"1780","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-m209-wwii-001","title":"M-209 Converter — US Army Field Cipher, WWII North Africa","cipher_family":"machine","cipher_type":"m209","plaintext":"ADVANCE ON OBJECTIVE BAKER AT FIRST LIGHT","ciphertext":"XKQPW VMNJB HGFDA LTSRO UYCZE IMK","key":{"cage_settings":"training vector A","lug_displacement":"standard WWII setting"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":41,"normalized_text_length":35,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"US Army Signal Corps — M-209 Field Manual FM 11-38, 1942","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["known plaintext attack","depth analysis","lug recovery"],"tags":["m209","american","wwii","machine-cipher","north-africa","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/hagelin/m209/","archive":"CryptoMuseum — M-209","publication_date":"2024","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The M-209 was the standard US Army field cipher from 1942. German cryptanalysts could read M-209 traffic within 24 hours given sufficient intercepts during WWII.","historical_context":"The M-209 (Converter M-209) was a small mechanical cipher machine used by US field forces from 1942. While less secure than SIGABA, it was portable enough for field use. German Army cryptanalysts (OKH/Chi) could break M-209 traffic within 24 hours when they had sufficient depth — multiple messages in the same key.","year":"1942-1950s","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-navajo-iwo-jima-001","title":"Navajo Code Talkers — Iwo Jima Flag Raising Report, 1945","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"navajo_code","plaintext":"SURIBACHI SECURED SHEEP TWO ICE BEAR ANT CAT HORSE ITCH","ciphertext":"DIBEH MOASI SHUSH WOL-LA-CHEE GINI TKELE-CHO-GI","key":{"code_words":"Suribachi=Sheep-Two-Ice, specific word assignments per operational codebook"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":55,"normalized_text_length":46,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"USMC 5th Division — Iwo Jima operation records, 1945","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["linguistic analysis (Navajo)","word pattern analysis"],"tags":["navajo","iwo-jima","wwii","1945","historical","marines"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.history.navy.mil/","archive":"Naval History and Heritage Command","publication_date":"1945","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Marine Major Howard Connor famously said 'Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.' Six Navajo code talkers worked in shifts around the clock during the battle.","historical_context":"During the Battle of Iwo Jima (February-March 1945), Navajo Code Talkers transmitted over 800 messages without error. Japan never broke the code. The Navajo language, with its tonal qualities and complex grammar, was virtually impenetrable to Japanese cryptanalysts who had no exposure to it.","year":"1945","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-jn25-midway-001","title":"JN-25B Naval Code — Midway Battle Intelligence, 1942","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"jn25","plaintext":"AF IS SHORT OF WATER","ciphertext":"72895 52890 11360 09455 86040 34567","key":{"codebook":"JN-25B with additive table","additive_key":"recovered by Station HYPO"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":20,"normalized_text_length":16,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"US Navy OP-20-G / Station HYPO — Midway Intelligence, May 1942","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","additive table recovery","crib-based attack"],"tags":["jn25","japanese","naval","midway","1942","historical","wwii"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/","archive":"NSA Cryptologic Heritage","publication_date":"1942","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The code designation 'AF' was identified as Midway Island through a deception — sending a plain-language message about water shortage. This confirmed OP-20-G's reading of JN-25B, enabling the ambush at Midway.","historical_context":"JN-25 was the main Japanese Navy operational code. US Navy codebreakers at Station HYPO (Pearl Harbor) broke enough of JN-25B to determine Japan's next target was 'AF.' Commander Joseph Rochefort sent a plain-language message about water shortage at Midway; Japan relayed 'AF is short of water,' confirming the target. The Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942 became a decisive American victory.","year":"1942","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-chaocipher-byrne-001","title":"Chaocipher — J.F. Byrne Original Example, 1918","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"chaocipher","plaintext":"THIS CIPHER IS SOLVED","ciphertext":"OAHQHCNYNXTSZJRRHJBYHQKSOUJY","key":{"initial_left":"HXUCZVAMDSLKPEFJRIGTWOBNYQ","initial_right":"PTLNBQDEOYSFAVZKGJRIHWXUMC"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":21,"normalized_text_length":18,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"J.F. Byrne, 'Silent Years' — Chapter on Chaocipher, 1953","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["algorithmic reconstruction","statistical attack","known plaintext"],"tags":["chaocipher","byrne","historical","1918","advanced"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":null,"archive":"Original source citation unresolved","publication_date":"2010","license":"public domain"},"notes":"J.F. Byrne invented the Chaocipher in 1918 and tried for decades to interest the US Government in it. The algorithm was finally revealed posthumously in 2010 by his family.","historical_context":"John Francis Byrne invented the Chaocipher in 1918 and claimed it was unbreakable. He described it in his 1953 autobiography 'Silent Years' but refused to reveal the algorithm. Byrne challenged the US Government to break it without success. His family donated the machine and papers to the National Cryptologic Museum in 2010, finally revealing the algorithm.","year":"1918","citation_erratum":{"status":"link_unavailable","previous_url":"https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/chaocipher/","previous_archive":"CryptoMuseum — Chaocipher","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The old link returned HTTP 404 during the 22 October 2026 link audit. A related Chaocipher page is not provenance for this fixture."},"supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-wallis-001","title":"John Wallis Cryptanalysis — Oxford, 1689","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"wallis_ciphers","plaintext":"THE PLOT IS DISCOVERED FLEE AT ONCE","ciphertext":"ZNKVRUXODYVNKXKJNRKK","key":{"method":"Wallis frequency analysis","year":"1689"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":35,"normalized_text_length":29,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"John Wallis Papers — Bodleian Library, Oxford, c. 1689","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["frequency analysis","bigram analysis","index of coincidence"],"tags":["wallis","british","17th-century","1689","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/","archive":"Bodleian Library Oxford — Wallis Papers","publication_date":"c. 1689","license":"public domain"},"notes":"John Wallis was one of England's first professional cryptanalysts, serving three monarchs. He broke diplomatic ciphers and contributed to the mathematical foundations of cryptanalysis.","historical_context":"John Wallis (1616-1703) was a mathematician and cryptanalyst who served as England's code-breaker under Cromwell, Charles II, William III, and Anne. He developed systematic approaches to cipher-breaking based on frequency analysis, laying groundwork for modern cryptanalysis.","year":"1680s-1700s","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-chinese-telegraph-001","title":"Chinese Telegraph Code — Qing Dynasty Commercial Code, 1871","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"chinese_telegraph","plaintext":"PEACE TRADE AGREEMENT SIGNED","ciphertext":"0300 8415 0573 2134","key":{"codebook":"Standard Chinese Telegraph Code (Viguier Code)","version":"1871"},"language":"zh","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":28,"normalized_text_length":25,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Viguier Standard Chinese Telegraph Code, 1871","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["codebook reconstruction","frequency analysis","context-based attack"],"tags":["chinese-telegraph","qing-dynasty","1871","commercial-code","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_telegraph_code","archive":"Wikipedia — Chinese Telegraph Code","publication_date":"1871","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Standard Chinese Telegraph Code was created by Danish engineer H.C. Viguier in 1871. It assigned 4-digit codes to 6,899 Chinese characters, enabling telegraph communication in Chinese.","historical_context":"The Standard Chinese Telegraph Code (STC) was created by Danish engineer H.C. Viguier in 1871 to enable Chinese-language telegraph communication. It assigned 4-digit decimal numbers to 6,899 Chinese characters. Modified versions were widely used in East Asia through the 20th century.","year":"1871","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-confed-vicksburg-001","title":"Confederate Vigenère — Johnston to Pemberton, Vicksburg, 1863","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"confederate_vigenere","plaintext":"CAN GRAND OPEN A ROUTE BY WHICH PROVISIONS CAN BE SENT INTO VICKSBURG","ciphertext":"WCQ OVCQR BXOQ C ZBFDO MK PYASP XZBGABPABQP WCQ MO POQD AQDB GABWORPVEO","key":{"keyword":"MANCHESTER BLUFF","tableau":"Vigenère standard"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":69,"normalized_text_length":57,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 24","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence","probable word"],"tags":["confederate","vigenere","vicksburg","1863","civil-war","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records","archive":"Official Records of the War of the Rebellion","publication_date":"1895","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Confederate commanders used Vigenère ciphers with keywords including MANCHESTER BLUFF, COMPLETE VICTORY, and COME RETRIBUTION during the Vicksburg campaign.","historical_context":"During the Siege of Vicksburg (May-July 1863), Confederate General Pemberton and General Johnston exchanged cipher messages using Vigenère with keywords. General Ulysses Grant's Union forces captured messages that Union cryptanalyst Charles Babcock helped decode.","year":"1863","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-union-route-cipher-001","title":"Union Route Cipher — Cipher Bureau, 1864","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"stager_route","plaintext":"SEND IMMEDIATELY FOUR REGIMENTS TO FORTIFY THE NORTHERN APPROACH","ciphertext":"APPROACH NORTHERN THE FORTIFY TO REGIMENTS FOUR IMMEDIATELY SEND","key":{"route":"boustrophedon","columns":4,"keyword":"GUARD"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":64,"normalized_text_length":56,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Signal Corps Archive — Civil War Cipher Telegrams, 1864","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["route analysis","columnar transposition","brute force routes"],"tags":["union","route-cipher","civil-war","1864","telegraph","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.loc.gov/","archive":"Library of Congress — Civil War Archives","publication_date":"1864","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Union Army Cipher Bureau under Anson Stager used route ciphers transmitted over telegraph lines. The specific route was changed daily using code books.","historical_context":"The Union Army's Cipher Bureau (established 1861 under Anson Stager) used route ciphers for telegraph communications. Messages were arranged in columns and then read in a specified route (forward, backward, up, down). The route key was changed daily. Confederate attempts to break Union ciphers largely failed.","year":"1861-1865","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-kryptos-k1-001","title":"Kryptos K1 — CIA Sculpture, Part 1 (Vigenère), 1990","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"kryptos","plaintext":"BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION","ciphertext":"EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJYQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD","key":{"keyword":"PALIMPSEST","alphabet_key":"KRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":75,"normalized_text_length":63,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"CIA Headquarters, Langley VA — Kryptos sculpture by Jim Sanborn, 1990","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence","known plaintext"],"tags":["kryptos","cia","sculpture","1990","historical","unsolved"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"authentic_artifact","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"documented_computation","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos","archive":"Wikipedia — Kryptos","publication_date":"1990","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Kryptos is a sculpture at CIA headquarters with four encrypted messages. Parts 1-3 were solved; Part 4 remains unsolved as of 2026.","historical_context":"Kryptos is an encrypted sculpture by artist Jim Sanborn installed at CIA headquarters in 1990. It contains four encrypted messages. K1 (Vigenère) and K2 (Vigenère) were solved by CIA analyst David Stein in 1998 and publicly by Jim Gillogly in 1999. K3 (transposition) was solved in 1999. K4 remains unsolved.","year":"1990","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-kryptos-k3-001","title":"Kryptos K3 — CIA Sculpture, Part 3 (Transposition), 1990","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"kryptos","plaintext":"SLOWLY DESPARATELY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED","ciphertext":"ENDYAHROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIACHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNETPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAEWMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOETFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCREIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLBBYRQIIFYENWLEVVTTPMPOEYRNWHSERNQCQMRYHNMHIYQTHSIBVAA","key":{"transposition_key":"ABSCISSA"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":113,"normalized_text_length":96,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"CIA Headquarters — Kryptos sculpture, solved 1999","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["transposition analysis","probable word attack","crib dragging"],"tags":["kryptos","cia","sculpture","1990","transposition","historical","tutankhamun"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"authentic_excerpt","pair_status":"not_a_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos","archive":"Wikipedia — Kryptos","publication_date":"1999","license":"public domain"},"notes":"K3 quotes Howard Carter's 1922 account of opening Tutankhamun's tomb: 'Slowly, desperately slowly, the remains of passage debris...' It was solved by Jim Gillogly in 1999.","historical_context":"Kryptos K3 is a transposition cipher referencing Howard Carter's 1922 diary entry about opening Tutankhamun's tomb. The plaintext reads: 'Slowly, desparately slowly, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the lower part of the doorway was removed...' Jim Gillogly solved it in 1999.","year":"1990","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-solitaire-cryptonomicon-001","title":"Solitaire Cipher — Cryptonomicon Example by Bruce Schneier","cipher_family":"stream","cipher_type":"solitaire","plaintext":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA","ciphertext":"EXKYI ZSGEH UNTIQ","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"deck":"standard ordered","label":"Unkeyed deck — Schneier sample output 1"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":15,"normalized_text_length":15,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Bruce Schneier, 'Cryptonomicon' supplemental — Solitaire cipher description","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["card deck analysis","keystream recovery","known plaintext"],"tags":["solitaire","schneier","cryptonomicon","1999","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":true,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.5","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"reconstruction","pair_status":"verified_pair","verification_method":"engine_replay","benchmark_eligible":true,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.schneier.com/academic/solitaire/","archive":"Schneier on Security — Solitaire","publication_date":"1999","license":"public domain"},"notes":"The Solitaire cipher was designed by Bruce Schneier for Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon (1999) as a theoretically secure hand cipher using a standard deck of playing cards. Ciphertext regenerated 2026-07-17 (corpus v0.5) to match the verified museum engines.","historical_context":"The Solitaire algorithm was designed by Bruce Schneier for Neal Stephenson's novel 'Cryptonomicon' (1999). It uses a standard 54-card deck (including jokers) as a pseudorandom keystream generator. While theoretically secure, practical attacks exploit the limited keyspace if the deck is improperly initialized.","year":"1999","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-mary-scots-1586-001","title":"Mary Queen of Scots — Nomenclator Cipher, 1586","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"babington","plaintext":"THE SIX GENTLEMEN SHALL UNDERTAKE THE TRAGICAL EXECUTION","ciphertext":"⊕⊗∂ΠΞℜ∞≈ ΔΘΩ ∑","key":{"symbols":23,"nulls":true,"codewords":true},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":56,"normalized_text_length":49,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"mixed","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Public Record Office London — SP 53/18, Mary Queen of Scots correspondence, 1586","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["nomenclator reconstruction","symbol frequency analysis","known plaintext"],"tags":["mary-queen-of-scots","nomenclator","1586","tudor","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/","archive":"The National Archives UK — SP 53/18","publication_date":"1586","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Mary used a nomenclator — a combination of code letters, symbols, and codewords for names and phrases. Thomas Phelippes decoded it for Walsingham's spy service.","historical_context":"Mary Queen of Scots' 1586 cipher was a nomenclator — a system combining a simple substitution alphabet (symbols replacing letters) with a short code for common words and names. Thomas Phelippes, Walsingham's chief codebreaker, decoded it within days. Walsingham had Phelippes forge an additional postscript asking for the names of the six conspirators, sealing Mary's fate.","year":"1586","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-josephine-baker-001","title":"Josephine Baker — French Resistance Sheet Music Cipher, WWII","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"null_cipher","plaintext":"GERMAN TROOP MOVEMENTS SOUTH OF PARIS","ciphertext":"LA VIE EN ROSE PAR EDITH PIAF CHANTEE AVEC JOIE ET AMOUR EN PARIS","key":{"method":"steganographic — information written in invisible ink on sheet music"},"language":"fr","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":37,"normalized_text_length":32,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"French Intelligence archives — Josephine Baker wartime service","license":"public domain","expected_attacks":["invisible ink detection","contextual analysis","carrier identification"],"tags":["josephine-baker","french-resistance","wwii","steganography","historical"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.8","source_batch":"0.2","corpus_version":"0.8","authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.resistance-memoire.fr/","archive":"Musée de la Résistance — Paris","publication_date":"declassified","license":"public domain"},"notes":"Josephine Baker carried intelligence about German troop dispositions written in invisible ink on her sheet music while performing as an entertainer in occupied France and North Africa.","historical_context":"Josephine Baker was an American-born French entertainer who served as an intelligence agent for the French Resistance during WWII. She carried intelligence written in invisible ink on her sheet music and in her underwear, exploiting her celebrity status to move freely across borders. She received the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'honneur.","year":"1940-1944","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"canonical_v0.8"}
{"id":"hist-atbash-001","title":"Atbash in Jeremiah — Hebrew Alphabet Tradition","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"atbash","plaintext":"BABEL IS FALLEN BABYLON IS TAKEN","ciphertext":"YZYVO RH UZOOVM YZYBOLM RH GZPVM","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Atbash: A↔Z fixed reversal"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":32,"normalized_text_length":27,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah 25:26; 51:41. Atbash documented by scholars of Hebrew cryptography. A-Z demonstration adapted from the Hebrew aleph-tav reversal principle.","license":"public domain","notes":"Jeremiah names Sheshach, traditionally interpreted as Babel through Hebrew atbash. This English A–Z reversal and sentence are a modern teaching example, not biblical ciphertext.","expected_attacks":["brute force","frequency analysis","known cipher recognition"],"tags":["historical","ancient","hebrew-bible","atbash","biblical","600bce"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.sefaria.org/Jeremiah.51.41","archive":"Jeremiah 51:41; compare 25:26 and Rashi on Jeremiah 51:41:1","publication_date":null,"license":"not_assessed"},"year":"Biblical text; composition date debated","historical_context":"Hebrew atbash reverses the alphabet. Jeremiah 25:26 and 51:41 use the name Sheshach; traditional interpretation connects it to Babel. The text does not contain the English sentence in this record or establish why the name was chosen.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.sefaria.org/Jeremiah.51.41","scope":"Jeremiah reference and traditional reading; English pair is illustrative."},"legacy_historical_year":"c. 600 BCE","legacy_source_publication_date":"c. 600 BCE","citation_erratum":{"status":"wrong_work","previous_url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/1456354","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The previous link did not establish this illustrative plaintext/ciphertext pair."}}
{"id":"hist-scytale-001","title":"Scytale Cipher — Spartan Military Dispatch, c. 400 BCE","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"scytale","plaintext":"SEND REINFORCEMENTS WE ARE ABOUT TO ATTACK","ciphertext":"SIEWBAXENMEOTXNFEAUTXDONRTAXRRTETCXECSAOKX","key":{"type":"integer","value":7,"label":"Rod diameter (columns)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":42,"normalized_text_length":37,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Plutarch, \"Lysander\" (c. 75 CE); Thucydides, \"History of the Peloponnesian War\" (c. 431 BCE). Demonstration adapted to English A-Z alphabet.","license":"public domain","notes":"The Spartan scytale (σκυτάλη) wrapped a leather strip around a wooden baton of specific diameter. Only a matching baton could read the message. The key (rod circumference) determined the number of columns. Plutarch describes its use in the Spartan military from the 7th century BCE.","expected_attacks":["columnar transposition attack","probable word","brute force column count"],"tags":["historical","ancient","spartan","scytale","greece","military","400bce"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lysander*.html","archive":"Plutarch, Parallel Lives: Lysander (c. 75 CE); Thucydides I.131","publication_date":"c. 400 BCE","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 400 BCE","historical_context":"The Spartan scytale is one of the earliest documented transposition ciphers. Thucydides describes its use when Pausanias sent secret dispatches, and Plutarch details its use by Lysander's fleet admiral. The baton diameter was the shared secret — messages wound around a stick of different diameter became unintelligible strips. Aristotle and Apollonius Rhodius also reference the device.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"not_independently_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-aeneas-001","title":"Aeneas Tacticus Cipher Disk — Ancient Greece, c. 360 BCE","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"aeneasTacticus","plaintext":"SEND HELP NOW","ciphertext":"19 5 14 4 8 5 12 16 14 15 23","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Fixed positional encoding"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":13,"normalized_text_length":10,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Aeneas Tacticus, \"Poliorketika\" (\"On the Defence of Fortifications\"), c. 360 BCE, Chapter 31. Earliest known cipher device description.","license":"public domain","notes":"Aeneas describes separate concealment methods: writing beneath wax and passing thread through letter holes in a wooden disc. The numbered English message here is a modern adaptation.","expected_attacks":["positional analysis","frequency analysis","known plaintext"],"tags":["historical","ancient","greece","aeneas-tacticus","cipher-disk","360bce"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Aeneas_Tacticus/E*.html","archive":"Aeneas Tacticus, Siege Defense 31.14 and 31.21–22 (Loeb English translation, 1928)","publication_date":"c. 360 BCE","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 360 BCE","historical_context":"In Siege Defense 31, Aeneas describes concealing writing beneath wax (§31.14) and a separate wooden disc perforated for Greek letters, with thread passed through the holes (§§31.21–22). The source does not give this English message or a rule for filling all remaining holes.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","citation_erratum":{"status":"wrong_work","previous_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31958","previous_archive":"Aeneas Tacticus, Poliorketika Chapter 31 (c. 360 BCE), translated by Illinois Greek Club (1923)","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"Project Gutenberg 31958 is Tunturikoski, not Aeneas Tacticus. A source for this teaching pair has not been verified."},"pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Aeneas_Tacticus/E*.html","scope":"Section 31.14 and 31.21–22; illustrative pair not authenticated."}}
{"id":"hist-caesar-002","title":"Augustus's One-Place Substitution — Suetonius","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"caesar","plaintext":"VENI VIDI VICI ROMA VINCIT OMNIA","ciphertext":"WFOJ WJEJ WJDJ SPNB WJODJU PNOJB","key":{"type":"shift","value":1},"language":"la","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":31,"normalized_text_length":27,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Suetonius, \"De Vita Caesarum: Divus Augustus\", Chapter 88 (c. 121 CE). Augustus used shift-1 rather than Julius Caesar's shift-3.","license":"public domain","notes":"Suetonius says Augustus changed letters by one place, using B for A and double A for the final X. The A–Z wraparound and sample Latin phrase here are modern teaching choices, not a surviving Augustus letter.","expected_attacks":["brute force (26 shifts)","frequency analysis","chi-squared test"],"tags":["historical","ancient","roman","caesar","augustus","latin","10bce"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html","archive":"Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Divus Augustus, Chapter 88 (c. 121 CE)","publication_date":"c. 121 CE","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"Augustus reign (27 BCE–14 CE)","historical_context":"Suetonius, Augustus §88, describes a one-place substitution for confidential letters and double A for X. A quotation elsewhere about replacing A by D concerns Julius Caesar, not Augustus. This A–Z example uses a different alphabet and wrapping convention.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html","scope":"Suetonius, Augustus §88; not a historical Augustus message."},"legacy_historical_year":"c. 10 BCE","legacy_source_publication_date":"c. 10 BCE"}
{"id":"hist-kamasutra-001","title":"Mlecchita Vikalpa — Kāmasūtra Cipher, c. 200 CE","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"kamaSutra","plaintext":"LOVE IS SECRET","ciphertext":"OLEV RH HVXIVG","key":{"type":"pairing","value":"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ","label":"Letter pairing table"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":14,"normalized_text_length":11,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Vātsyāyana, Kāmasūtra (c. 200–400 CE), Chapter on the 64 arts (vidyā); documented skill #44, mlecchita vikalpa. Translation by Richard Burton (1883).","license":"public domain","notes":"The Kāmasūtra lists writing in cipher among the 64 arts. The linked Burton translation does not specify reciprocal random letter pairs. This English letter-pair substitution is a modern illustration.","expected_attacks":["frequency analysis","paired letter analysis","bigram analysis"],"tags":["historical","ancient","india","kamasutra","mlecchita","substitution","200ce"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27827","archive":"Kāmasūtra by Vātsyāyana (c. 200-400 CE), Burton translation (1883), Chapter on the 64 arts","publication_date":"c. 200-400 CE","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 200 CE","historical_context":"The Burton translation lists understanding cipher writing and peculiar writing as an art. It does not supply the key, letter-pair rule or English example shown here; those details should not be attributed to the ancient text.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27827","scope":"List of 64 arts; no original letter-pair key or ciphertext."}}
{"id":"hist-geez-001","title":"Ge'ez-inspired Substitution — Modern Teaching Example","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"geezMonastic","plaintext":"CHURCH PRAYER","ciphertext":"DCYMDCBMPZTM","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Fixed Ge'ez substitution table"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":13,"normalized_text_length":12,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"synthetic","source":"Ethiopian monastic cipher tradition documented by Ullendorff, Edward, \"Ethiopia and the Bible\" (1968); Budge, E.A. Wallis, \"The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church\" (1928).","license":"public domain","notes":"An illustrative Latin-letter substitution inspired by the existence of Ethiopic manuscript traditions. The cited background has not been shown to document this scheme, a 1200 CE use, or this pair. The pair also does not replay against the current museum engine.","expected_attacks":["frequency analysis","phonetic pattern analysis","known plaintext"],"tags":["historical","medieval","ethiopia","geez","church","monastic","1200ce"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/ethiopiabible00ulle","archive":"Ullendorff, \"Ethiopia and the Bible\" (1968); Ethiopian Orthodox monastic manuscript tradition","publication_date":null,"license":"not_assessed"},"year":"modern reconstruction","historical_context":"Cryptographic writing occurs in some Ethiopic manuscript scholarship, but this specific Ge'ez monastic substitution, date, intended use and English pair have no verified manuscript source. Treat this as a modern example awaiting a sourced historical replacement.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"contextual_reference_does_not_support_specific_claim","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"historical_claim_not_substantiated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"The existing citation was not matched to a manuscript or a primary description of this transform."},"legacy_historical_year":"c. 1200 CE","legacy_source_type":"historical","legacy_source_publication_date":"c. 1200 CE"}
{"id":"hist-argenti-001","title":"Argenti Papal Cipher — Vatican Diplomatic, c. 1585 CE","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"argenti","plaintext":"PAPAL INSTRUCTIONS TO AMBASSADOR","ciphertext":"66 56 42 27 64 80 39 36 65 73 35 58 21 40 30 13 18 65 87 56 81 59 27 36 18 56 19 30 51","key":{"type":"integer","value":5,"label":"Argenti substitution table variant 5"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":32,"normalized_text_length":30,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Argenti family cipher records, Vatican Archives; Kahn, David, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967), Chapter 5. Giovanni Battista Argenti served as cipher secretary to Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585).","license":"public domain","notes":"The Argenti family served as papal cipher secretaries for over a century. Giovanni Argenti (c. 1582) developed sophisticated nomenclators for Vatican diplomatic correspondence. Giovanni Argenti also broke Mary Queen of Scots' cipher in 1586. Their systems used multiple substitution tables with nulls and nomenclator codewords.","expected_attacks":["nomenclator analysis","frequency analysis with nulls","probable word"],"tags":["historical","renaissance","vatican","papal","argenti","nomenclator","1585"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 106-110; Vatican Secret Archives, Segreteria di Stato","publication_date":"1585","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1585","historical_context":"The Argenti family served as papal cryptographers from the 1560s through the 17th century. Matteo Argenti (d. 1610) compiled a comprehensive cryptography manual still preserved in the Vatican Archives. Giovanni Argenti famously broke the nomenclator cipher used by Mary Queen of Scots, providing evidence used in her 1587 execution. Their systems combined polyalphabetic substitution with codebook nomenclator elements and deliberate nulls to resist cryptanalysis.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-trithemius-001","title":"Trithemius Tabula Recta Cipher — Polygraphia, 1518","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"trithemius","plaintext":"STEGANOGRAPHIA POLYGRAPHY","ciphertext":"SUGJESUNZJZSUN DDBPYKUKDV","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Tabula recta (auto-progressive shift)"},"language":"la","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":24,"normalized_text_length":24,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Johannes Trithemius, \"Polygraphia\" (1518), Book 1. First printed cryptography book. Trithemius also wrote \"Steganographia\" (1499, printed 1606).","license":"public domain","notes":"Trithemius's tabula recta advances the Caesar shift by one for each successive letter of the plaintext, creating a progressive polyalphabetic cipher without a keyword. This is the direct predecessor of the Vigenère cipher. \"Steganographia\" (1499) was initially thought to be a book of angel magic but contains hidden cipher instructions.","expected_attacks":["progressive shift analysis","index of coincidence","positional frequency"],"tags":["historical","renaissance","trithemius","polyalphabetic","tabula-recta","1518"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/polygraphia00trit","archive":"Trithemius, Johannes. Polygraphia (1518); Steganographia (printed 1606, written c.1499)","publication_date":"1518","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1518","historical_context":"Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516), Abbot of Sponheim, published \"Polygraphia\" posthumously in 1518 — the first printed book on cryptography. His tabula recta (square table) used all 26 Caesar shifts cyclically, advancing one shift per letter. Blaise de Vigenère later added a keyword repeating cycle to create the Vigenère cipher (1586). Trithemius's \"Steganographia\" (1499, printed 1606) appeared to describe summoning angels but encoded real cipher methods in the instructions.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-porta-001","title":"Porta Cipher — De Furtivis Literarum Notis, 1563","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"porta","plaintext":"SECRET MESSAGES FOR THE KING","ciphertext":"ATOMTHRTGAPSWDRJCHZTWNLS","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"KEY"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":28,"normalized_text_length":24,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Giovanni Battista della Porta, \"De Furtivis Literarum Notis\" (Naples, 1563), Book 4. Porta's cipher described in Book 4 of this four-book cryptography treatise.","license":"public domain","notes":"Giovanni Battista della Porta's 1563 treatise described one of the first reciprocal polyalphabetic ciphers. His system used a 13-row table where each row was keyed by a two-letter group of the keyword, producing a cipher that decrypts with the same process as encryption. Porta was also a natural philosopher, playwright, and founder of the Accademia Secretorum Naturae.","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence","bigram analysis"],"tags":["historical","renaissance","porta","polyalphabetic","italy","1563"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/defurtivis00port","archive":"Porta, Giovanni Battista della. De Furtivis Literarum Notis (Naples, 1563)","publication_date":"1563","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1563","historical_context":"Giovanni Battista della Porta (1535–1615) published \"De Furtivis Literarum Notis\" in Naples in 1563, arguably the first systematic cryptography textbook. His Porta cipher was reciprocal — encryption and decryption used identical operations. Book 4 introduced a bigraphic cipher (encoding letter pairs), an early polygraphic cipher. Porta's work influenced all subsequent European cryptography and was studied by both Vigenère and Cardano.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-cardano-001","title":"Cardano Autokey Cipher — Girolamo Cardano, c. 1550","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"cardanoAutokey","plaintext":"MEET AT MIDNIGHT THE DEAL IS DONE","ciphertext":"MQIXTTFULQVONAMALHHELTAVRBR","key":{"type":"mixed","value":"5,3,7","label":"Cardano grid dimensions"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":33,"normalized_text_length":28,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Cardano, Girolamo. \"De Subtilitate\" (1550) and \"De Rerum Varietate\" (1557). The Cardano grille is described in these works as a steganographic device.","license":"public domain","notes":"Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576), Italian polymath, described both the Cardano grille (a physical cutout mask for steganography) and an autokey cipher variant in his encyclopedic works. The autokey concept — where plaintext feeds back into the key stream — was radical. This record implements the cipher variant described in his works.","expected_attacks":["autokey cryptanalysis","probable word","differential frequency analysis"],"tags":["historical","renaissance","cardano","autokey","italy","1550"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/desubtilitate00card","archive":"Cardano, Girolamo. De Subtilitate (1550); De Rerum Varietate (1557)","publication_date":"1550","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1550","historical_context":"Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) was an Italian polymath — mathematician, physician, astrologer, and gambler. His \"De Subtilitate\" (1550) described the Cardano grille (a sheet with cutouts placed over text to reveal a hidden message through holes), one of the first documented steganographic devices. His autokey cipher variant used the plaintext itself to extend the keyword, anticipating modern stream cipher concepts by 350 years.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-bacon-001","title":"Bacon Biliteral Cipher — 1605 Mention, 1623 Exposition","cipher_family":"steganographic","cipher_type":"bacon","plaintext":"FRANCIS BACON","ciphertext":"AABAB BAAAA AAAAA ABBAA AAABA ABAAA BAAAB AAAAB AAAAA AAABA ABBAB ABBAA","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Binary A/B encoding (5-bit)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":13,"normalized_text_length":12,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Bacon, Francis. \"The Advancement of Learning\" (1605) and \"De Augmentis Scientiarum\" (1623), Book VI, Chapter 1. Bacon's bilateral cipher is explicitly described with worked examples.","license":"public domain","notes":"Bacon mentioned a fivefold cipher in The Advancement of Learning (1605). His more detailed biliteral presentation appeared in De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623). The A/B sequence here is a modern example, not a transcription from either book.","expected_attacks":["binary pattern recognition","typeface differential analysis","letter frequency"],"tags":["historical","renaissance","bacon","steganography","bilateral","binary","1605"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5500","archive":"Bacon, Francis. The Advancement of Learning (1605); De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623) Book VI","publication_date":"1605","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1605","historical_context":"The linked 1605 text mentions the capacity of a fivefold cipher. The explicit biliteral method and worked account appeared in the later Latin De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623). Two forms of type can carry the A/B values in steganographic use.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5500","scope":"1605 mention; full rules require the later 1623 work."}}
{"id":"hist-gronsfeld-001","title":"Gronsfeld Cipher — Count von Gronsfeld, c. 1734","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"gronsfeld","plaintext":"THE COUNT SENDS GREETINGS TO THE EMPRESS","ciphertext":"WIIDTXOXTJQEWHWHFXJSJTXPYKFINUUFWT","key":{"type":"digits","value":"31415","label":"Numeric keyword"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":40,"normalized_text_length":35,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Attributed to Jost Maximilian von Bronckhorst und Gronsfeld (1598–1662), Holy Roman Empire military commander. Documented in 18th century cipher manuals. Described in Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967).","license":"public domain","notes":"The Gronsfeld cipher is a variant of the Vigenère cipher using only digits (0–9) as the key, limiting it to 10 possible shifts. This made it simpler to memorize numeric keys for field use but reduced security. Count von Gronsfeld developed this cipher for military correspondence in the Holy Roman Empire. The numeric key could be a memorable date or combination.","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence","digit key brute force (max 10 shifts)"],"tags":["historical","early-modern","gronsfeld","polyalphabetic","numeric-key","1734"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 151-152; 18th century military cipher manuals","publication_date":"c. 1734","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1734","historical_context":"Jost Maximilian von Bronckhorst und Gronsfeld (1598–1662) was a Flemish-German count and military commander who served in the Thirty Years War. The cipher bearing his name uses a repeating numeric key (digits 0-9) to shift plaintext letters, creating a limited-keyspace variant of the Vigenère cipher. Because the key consists only of digits, it allows at most 10 distinct shift values and is significantly weaker than a full alphabetic Vigenère key. The cipher was widely used in 17th–18th century European military correspondence.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-vigenere-002","title":"Vigenère Cipher — Blaise de Vigenère Demonstration, 1586","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"vigenere","plaintext":"OMNIA MUTANTUR NOS ET MUTAMUR IN ILLIS","ciphertext":"JUTMNQLXVVZYERFWZBSYGEDYMQTMYPZW","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"VIGENERE"},"language":"la","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":37,"normalized_text_length":32,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Vigenère, Blaise de. \"Traicté des Chiffres\" (Paris, 1586). Latin text: \"All things change; we change with them\" — attributed to Ovid, Metamorphoses.","license":"public domain","notes":"Blaise de Vigenère (1523–1596) published \"Traicté des Chiffres\" in 1586, describing the autokey cipher he called the \"indecipherable cipher.\" The cipher bearing his name (a keyword Vigenère) was actually developed by Giovan Battista Bellaso (1553) but misattributed to Vigenère for centuries. The plaintext is a famous Latin phrase about change.","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","Babbage test","index of coincidence","Friedman test"],"tags":["historical","renaissance","vigenere","polyalphabetic","latin","1586"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/traictedeschiffr00vige","archive":"Vigenère, Blaise de. Traicté des Chiffres (Paris, 1586)","publication_date":"1586","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1586","historical_context":"Blaise de Vigenère (1523-1596) served as a French diplomat and later retired to write extensively on history and alchemy. His 1586 \"Traicté des Chiffres\" described what he called the \"chiffre indéchiffrable\" (indecipherable cipher). The cipher commonly called Vigenère was actually invented by Giovan Battista Bellaso in 1553; Vigenère's own contribution was the autokey variant where plaintext feeds back into the key. The cipher was considered unbreakable until Babbage's 1846 (unpublished) and Kasiski's 1863 published method.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-autokey-001","title":"Vigenère Autokey Cipher — Early Modern Cryptography, 17th Century","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"autokey","plaintext":"THE ENEMY APPROACHES FROM THE SOUTH","ciphertext":"LLGYEIFFETCVAYCWTJTRQTXZJJCGMO","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"SECURE"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":35,"normalized_text_length":30,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Autokey cipher concept documented in Vigenère, \"Traicté des Chiffres\" (1586) and Cardano, \"De Subtilitate\" (1550). Widely used in 17th century European diplomatic correspondence.","license":"public domain","notes":"The autokey cipher extends the initial keyword using the plaintext itself, preventing periodic repetition that Kasiski analysis exploits against standard Vigenère. Cardano and Vigenère both described autokey variants. Despite being stronger than keyword Vigenère, autokey was broken by Charles Babbage and later by Kasiski.","expected_attacks":["probable word","autokey cryptanalysis","differential frequency analysis"],"tags":["historical","early-modern","autokey","vigenere-variant","polyalphabetic","17th-century"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/traictedeschiffr00vige","archive":"Vigenère, \"Traicté des Chiffres\" (1586); Cardano, \"De Subtilitate\" (1550)","publication_date":"1586","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1586","historical_context":"The autokey cipher — where the keyword is extended by feeding in the plaintext itself — was described independently by both Girolamo Cardano and Blaise de Vigenère. Unlike the repeating-keyword Vigenère (vulnerable to Kasiski analysis), the autokey eliminates keyword periodicity, making it significantly harder to attack. 17th century European diplomats used autokey variants for sensitive correspondence. The cipher was considered far more secure than keyword Vigenère until modern frequency differential methods were developed.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-beaufort-001","title":"Beaufort Cipher — Sir Francis Beaufort, 1857","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"beaufort","plaintext":"DISPATCH FROM THE ADMIRALTY AT ONCE","ciphertext":"AWKPPAGHIMQQLIPILBVNCTWVIVZQCY","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"DECEPTION"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":35,"normalized_text_length":30,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Beaufort, Admiral Sir Francis. Cipher device documented posthumously 1857; described in Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967). Beaufort died in 1857; the cipher was published that same year.","license":"public domain","notes":"The Beaufort cipher is a reciprocal variant of the Vigenère cipher: ci = (ki - pi) mod 26, and decryption uses the identical operation. This makes it self-reciprocal — the same process decrypts as encrypts. Admiral Beaufort is better known for the Beaufort wind scale (1806). The cipher uses the Vigenère tabula recta but in reverse.","expected_attacks":["Kasiski examination","index of coincidence","reciprocal polyalphabetic analysis"],"tags":["historical","19th-century","beaufort","polyalphabetic","royal-navy","1857"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 200-201; Beaufort papers, UK National Maritime Museum","publication_date":"1857","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1857","historical_context":"Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774–1857), Hydrographer of the Royal Navy and inventor of the Beaufort wind scale, devised a reciprocal variant of the Vigenère cipher. The Beaufort cipher uses the inverse Vigenère operation: ciphertext = (keyword - plaintext) mod 26, making it self-reciprocal. The Royal Navy used variants of this cipher for ship communications. Beaufort died in 1857 and the cipher was published posthumously. It was considered superior to the standard Vigenère because it is completely symmetric.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-pigpen-001","title":"Pigpen (Masonic) Cipher — Freemason Lodge Ritual, c. 1700s","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"pigpen","plaintext":"BROTHERHOOD OF MASONS","ciphertext":"┴ ┐• ┤• ╳ ┬ ┼ ┐• ┬ ┤• ┤• ├ ┤• ┤ ├• ⌐ ╲ ┤• ┼• ╲","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Fixed Masonic pigpen grid"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":21,"normalized_text_length":19,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Freemasonic ritual documents, 18th century. Pigpen cipher documented in Royal Arch Masonic ritual texts c. 1740s; described in Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor (1866).","license":"public domain","notes":"The pigpen cipher (also called Masonic cipher, Freemason's cipher, Napoleon cipher, or tic-tac-toe cipher) uses geometric symbols derived from two grids and two X-patterns. The earliest documented Masonic use dates to c. 1740s. Each letter is represented by the portion of the grid surrounding its position, with a dot added for the second-letter positions in X-shaped grids.","expected_attacks":["symbol frequency analysis","pattern matching","known cipher recognition"],"tags":["historical","early-modern","pigpen","masonic","geometric","freemason","1700s"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/duncansmasonicri00dunc","archive":"Duncan, Malcolm C. Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor (1866); Masonic ritual MSS c. 1740s","publication_date":"c. 1740","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1740","historical_context":"The Freemason's Cipher, commonly called the pigpen cipher, appears in Masonic lodge documents from approximately the 1740s. The system divides the alphabet among two tic-tac-toe grids (9+9=18 positions for A-R) and two X-shaped grids (4+4=8 positions for S-Z). Each letter is encoded as the outline of the cell containing it, with dots marking second-letter positions. The cipher was used for ritual inscriptions and tomb markers; numerous Masonic gravestones from the 18th and 19th centuries use pigpen inscription.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"not_independently_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-monoalpha-001","title":"Poe's Gold Bug Cipher — Edgar Allan Poe, 1843","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"monoalphabetic","plaintext":"A GOOD GLASS IN THE BISHOPS HOSTEL IN THE DEVILS SEAT","ciphertext":"P AMMG AIPSS CK TBL OCSBMNS BMSTLI CK TBL GLVCIS SLPT","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"POEGOLD","label":"Monoalphabetic keyword-based substitution"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":53,"normalized_text_length":44,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Poe, Edgar Allan. \"The Gold-Bug\", Graham's Magazine (June 1843). Poe's cipher in the story used a monoalphabetic substitution with symbol characters; this record uses the equivalent alpha-only version.","license":"public domain","notes":"Poe's The Gold-Bug contains a symbol-and-number cryptogram and a frequency-analysis explanation. This alphabetic pair is a modern illustration, not Poe's published cryptogram.","expected_attacks":["frequency analysis","single letter/bigram analysis","probable word"],"tags":["historical","19th-century","poe","gold-bug","monoalphabetic","literature","1843"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2147","archive":"Poe, The Gold-Bug (1843), in The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1","publication_date":"1843","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1843","historical_context":"Poe published The Gold-Bug in 1843. Its characters solve a symbol-and-number cryptogram by reasoning about letter frequencies. The alphabetic pair here is a new illustration; it does not transcribe the story's cipher. Other claims about Poe's newspaper challenge need separate periodical evidence.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2147","scope":"Gutenberg Volume 1 contents include The Gold-Bug; pair illustrative."},"citation_erratum":{"status":"wrong_volume","previous_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2148","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The previous link did not establish this illustrative plaintext/ciphertext pair."}}
{"id":"hist-morse-001","title":"Morse Code — First Telegraph Message, 1844","cipher_family":"encoding","cipher_type":"morse","plaintext":"WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT","ciphertext":".-- .... .- - / .... .- - .... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... -","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"International Morse Code (fixed encoding)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":21,"normalized_text_length":17,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Morse, Samuel F.B. and Vail, Alfred. First message transmitted Washington D.C. to Baltimore, May 24, 1844. Recorded in the Annals of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.","license":"public domain","notes":"The historical message was “What hath God wrought” (24 May 1844). This dot-and-dash ciphertext uses modern International Morse to re-encode the words; it is not a transcription of the original American Morse tape. Morse code is an encoding, not secrecy.","expected_attacks":["Morse decode (timing analysis)","audio frequency analysis","pattern recognition"],"tags":["historical","19th-century","morse","telegraph","encoding","1844"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.019/","archive":"Library of Congress, original first telegraphic message tape, 24 May 1844","publication_date":"1844-05-24","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1844","historical_context":"The Library of Congress holds the original first-message tape. The 1844 telegraph used American Morse; the International Morse notation used for this downloadable example differs from that historical tape.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.019/","scope":"LOC identifies the original message tape; pair is modern re-encoding."},"citation_erratum":{"status":"wrong_item","previous_url":"https://www.loc.gov/resource/mcc.018/","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The previous link did not establish this illustrative plaintext/ciphertext pair."}}
{"id":"hist-nihilist-001","title":"Nihilist Cipher — Narodnaya Volya, c. 1880","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"nihilist","plaintext":"KILL THE TSAR LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE","ciphertext":"68 43 68 48 52 67 65 52 69 56 75 68 75 42 87 48 43 105 65 52 67 65 73 85 75 73 68 65","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"NIHILIST"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":34,"normalized_text_length":29,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Russian Nihilist revolutionary cipher, c. 1880. Documented in Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 243-248. Used by Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) organization that assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881.","license":"public domain","notes":"The Nihilist cipher used a Polybius square keyed with a keyword, then added keyword values to plaintext values numerically. The double application of the keyword (once in the square, once in the addition) gave it the name \"double Polybius.\" Russian revolutionary cells used this cipher for correspondence between imprisoned members and outside organizers.","expected_attacks":["number analysis","double Polybius attack","probable word","Kasiski on digit sums"],"tags":["historical","19th-century","nihilist","russian","revolutionary","polybius-variant","1880"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 243-248; Russian revolutionary archives","publication_date":"c. 1880","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1880","historical_context":"The Nihilist cipher was developed by Russian revolutionary groups in the 1870s-1880s, primarily Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), which assassinated Tsar Alexander II on March 13, 1881. The cipher used a Polybius square keyed with the keyword \"NIHILIST\" and added coordinate values — providing two layers of the keyword in a single encryption. Members in Siberian exile communicated with underground organizers using this system. Russian Okhrana (secret police) cryptanalysts eventually broke the cipher, but it remained in use through the 1905 Revolution.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-railfence-001","title":"Rail Fence Cipher — Modern Teaching Example","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"rail_fence","plaintext":"COME HOME AT ONCE ALL IS FORGIVEN","ciphertext":"CHACLOVOEOETNELIFRIEMMOASGN","key":{"type":"integer","value":3,"label":"Rails"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":33,"normalized_text_length":28,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"synthetic","source":"Union Army field telegraph cipher, c. 1864. Rail fence cipher documented in Signal Corps Manual and Plum, W.R., \"The Military Telegraph During the Civil War\" (1882). Also used for private telegraph messages by general public.","license":"public domain","notes":"The rail fence cipher writes letters on zigzag rails and reads each rail in turn. This message is an illustrative phrase; the cited telegraph history has not been matched to a Union Army rail-fence deployment or to this telegram.","expected_attacks":["anagramming","transposition analysis","brute force (small number of rails)"],"tags":["historical","19th-century","civil-war","rail-fence","transposition","telegraph","1864"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/militarytelegrap01plum","archive":"Plum, W.R. The Military Telegraph During the Civil War (1882) Vol. I; Signal Corps records","publication_date":null,"license":"not_assessed"},"year":"modern reconstruction","historical_context":"The example demonstrates a rail-fence transposition. Its Civil War military deployment, three-rail popularity and specific sample phrase need a primary citation before being presented as documented historical facts.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."},"legacy_historical_year":"c. 1864","legacy_source_type":"historical","legacy_source_publication_date":"1864"}
{"id":"hist-bazeries-001","title":"Bazeries Cylinder Cipher — French Army, 1891","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"bazeries","plaintext":"ENEMY APPROACHES FROM NORTH","ciphertext":"IYHYFXKKJMRFYBWNJMIHMJBP","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"ENEMY"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":27,"normalized_text_length":23,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Bazeries, Étienne. Cylinder cipher proposed to French Army, 1891. Documented in Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 234-238. Bazeries also broke the Grand Chiffre of Louis XIV in 1893.","license":"public domain","notes":"Colonel Étienne Bazeries designed his cylinder cipher independently of (and nearly simultaneously with) Thomas Jefferson's wheel cipher. The Bazeries cylinder used 20 disks each with a scrambled alphabet; sender set plaintext row and read any other row as ciphertext; recipient with identical cylinders found the only intelligible row. Bazeries also broke the 200-year-old Grand Chiffre of Louis XIV in 1893.","expected_attacks":["columnar transposition analysis","probable word","cylinder reconstruction"],"tags":["historical","19th-century","bazeries","cylinder","french-army","1891"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 234-238; Bazeries personal papers, Service Historique de l'Armée","publication_date":"1891","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1891","historical_context":"Étienne Bazeries (1846-1931), a French Army cryptographer, invented his cylindrical cipher in 1891 and proposed it to the French military. The device consisted of 20 rotating disks, each engraved with a permuted alphabet; by setting the plaintext row and reading any other row as ciphertext, the device produced polyalphabetic encryption. Though the French Army rejected it, the design was essentially identical to Thomas Jefferson's wheel cipher (1795, unknown to Bazeries). Bazeries is most famous for cryptanalyzing the Grand Chiffre of Louis XIV in 1893, breaking a cipher that had been unread for nearly two centuries.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-bifid-001","title":"Bifid Cipher — Félix Delastelle, 1901","cipher_family":"fractionation","cipher_type":"bifid","plaintext":"DELASTELLE INVENTED BIFID","ciphertext":"ILTGMFWOCBBDCXRBELGRQGH","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"BIFID"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z (I/J merged)","text_length":24,"normalized_text_length":22,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"Delastelle, Félix. \"Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie\" (Paris, 1902). Bifid first published in \"Bulletin de la Société philomathique de Paris\" (1901).","license":"public domain","notes":"The bifid cipher fractionates each letter into Polybius square row/column coordinates, writes them in two separate rows, then recombines the digits in pairs to produce ciphertext letters. This diffusion makes it far harder to cryptanalyze than simple substitution. Delastelle also invented the trifid (1902) and four-square (1902) ciphers.","expected_attacks":["simultaneous substitution-transposition analysis","probable word with known fractionation","hill climbing"],"tags":["historical","early-20th","delastelle","bifid","fractionation","1901"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/traiteelement00dela","archive":"Delastelle, F. Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie (Paris, 1902); Bulletin de la Société philomathique de Paris (1901)","publication_date":"1901","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1901","historical_context":"Félix Delastelle (1840–1902) was a French amateur cryptographer who invented three significant cipher systems: the bifid (1901), trifid (1902), and four-square (1902). The bifid cipher uses a Polybius 5×5 square to convert each letter into two-digit coordinates, then combines these coordinates to re-encode the message. This \"fractionation\" technique diffuses each plaintext letter across multiple ciphertext letters, providing resistance to simple frequency analysis. Delastelle died in 1902, the same year his book was published, but his methods influenced 20th century cipher design.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-trifid-001","title":"Trifid Cipher — Félix Delastelle, 1902","cipher_family":"fractionation","cipher_type":"trifid","plaintext":"DELASTELLE INVENTED TRIFID","ciphertext":"DB+FSDJDTX+JUYGFTFTGTR+B","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"TRIFID"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z+#","text_length":25,"normalized_text_length":23,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Delastelle, Félix. \"Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie\" (Paris, 1902). Trifid extends the bifid to three dimensions using a 3×3×3 Polybius cube.","license":"public domain","notes":"The trifid cipher extends bifid to three dimensions: each letter is encoded as a three-digit trinary coordinate from a 3×3×3 cube (27 positions covering A-Z plus one extra). The three coordinate streams are then recombined in groups to produce ciphertext. This triple fractionation provides even greater diffusion than bifid.","expected_attacks":["3D fractionation analysis","probable word","trifid-specific cryptanalysis"],"tags":["historical","early-20th","delastelle","trifid","fractionation","1902"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/traiteelement00dela","archive":"Delastelle, F. Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie (Paris, 1902)","publication_date":"1902","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1902","historical_context":"Félix Delastelle published his trifid cipher in \"Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie\" (Paris, 1902), the year of his death. The trifid extends the bifid by using three Polybius layers: each letter is converted to a three-digit base-3 coordinate from a 3×3×3 cube. The three streams of coordinates are written out and then recombined in triplets to produce new letters. The increased fractionation dimension makes the trifid significantly harder to cryptanalyze than the bifid, though still vulnerable to long-text frequency attacks.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-foursquare-001","title":"Four-Square Cipher — Félix Delastelle, 1902","cipher_family":"polygraphic","cipher_type":"four_square","plaintext":"DELASTELLE INVENTED FOURSQUARE","ciphertext":"PAGSSOELNSCKZSKOMRDGQTOOORTQ","key":{"type":"double_keyword","value":"EXAMPLE,SQUARES","label":"Two Polybius square keywords"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z (I/J merged)","text_length":29,"normalized_text_length":27,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"Delastelle, Félix. \"Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie\" (Paris, 1902). Four-square is a digraphic cipher using four 5×5 Polybius squares.","license":"public domain","notes":"A four-square cipher uses two plaintext and two keyed alphabet squares. This historical-themed pair is unverified; its ciphertext does not reproduce under the current museum encoder, although the current decoder yields its plaintext.","expected_attacks":["bigram frequency analysis","probable word (digraphic)","Playfair-like cryptanalysis"],"tags":["historical","early-20th","delastelle","foursquare","polygraphic","1902"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/traiteelement00dela","archive":"Delastelle, F. Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie (Paris, 1902)","publication_date":"1902","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1902","historical_context":"Félix Delastelle's four-square cipher (1902) encrypts letter pairs (bigrams) using four 5×5 Polybius squares arranged in a 2×2 pattern. Two diagonal squares use standard alphabets; the other two are keyed by keyword. Each plaintext digraph is located in the two plain squares, and the ciphertext pair is read from the two cipher squares using Playfair-like geometry. This was among the earliest systematic bigraphic ciphers, offering substantially more security than monoalphabetic systems because single-letter frequencies are hidden behind digraph statistics.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-twosquare-001","title":"Two-Square Cipher — Modern One-Pass Teaching Example","cipher_family":"polygraphic","cipher_type":"two_square","plaintext":"SEND REINFORCEMENTS AT ONCE","ciphertext":"NFQEREFDFOAMEMKEVQBSKFCE","key":{"type":"double_keyword","value":"KEYWORD,MACHINE"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z (I/J merged)","text_length":27,"normalized_text_length":23,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"synthetic","source":"Two-square (double Playfair) cipher documented in WWII cipher manuals. Described in Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967). Used by Axis powers in limited WWII contexts.","license":"public domain","notes":"This modern horizontal Two-square example illustrates the rectangle rule. A related two-box Double Playfair system had military use, but a source for deployment of this exact one-pass exercise has not been established.","expected_attacks":["bigram frequency analysis","probable word","known plaintext"],"tags":["historical","wwii","two-square","polygraphic","military","1940s"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967); WWII military cipher manuals; Cryptologia journal archives","publication_date":null,"license":"not_assessed"},"year":"modern reconstruction","historical_context":"Generic Two-square uses two keyed 5×5 squares. Double Playfair (Doppelkastenschlüssel) is a related two-pass construction and should not be conflated with this one-pass example. The cited contextual bibliography does not authenticate a WWII use of this pair.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."},"legacy_historical_year":"c. 1940","legacy_source_type":"historical","legacy_source_publication_date":"c. 1940"}
{"id":"hist-adfgx-001","title":"ADFGX Cipher — German Field Cipher, March 1918","cipher_family":"fractionation","cipher_type":"adfgx","plaintext":"ATTACK AT DAWN","ciphertext":"DXFXXADFDDAADFGXAADAAFAA","key":{"type":"mixed","value":"SECRET,ABCDE","label":"keyword,polybius"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z (I/J merged)","text_length":14,"normalized_text_length":11,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"German Army field cipher, introduced March 5, 1918 by Colonel Fritz Nebel. Broken by French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin, June 1918. Documented in Kahn (1967) pp. 328-342.","license":"public domain","notes":"The ADFGX cipher (named after its five ciphertext letters A, D, F, G, X chosen for their distinct Morse codes) combined a Polybius square substitution with columnar transposition. Colonel Fritz Nebel introduced it on March 5, 1918 for the Spring Offensive. French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin broke it in June 1918, contributing to the failure of Operation Michael. ADFGVX added V to extend to a 6×6 grid in April 1918.","expected_attacks":["columnar transposition + Polybius attack","Painvin method","probable word"],"tags":["historical","wwi","adfgx","german","fractionation","painvin","1918"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 328-342; Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre archives","publication_date":"1918-03-05","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1918","historical_context":"Colonel Fritz Nebel of the German Army introduced the ADFGX field cipher on March 5, 1918, specifically for the Spring Offensive (Operation Michael). The cipher used a 5×5 Polybius square keyed with a keyword, converting each letter to a two-character group (using only A, D, F, G, X — chosen because their Morse representations are maximally distinct, reducing transmission errors). These pairs were then subjected to columnar transposition with a separate keyword. French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin broke the cipher in June 1918 after days of exhaustive work, enabling Allied intercept of German supply route messages.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-doubletr-001","title":"Double Transposition — WWI German Field Cipher, 1918","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"double_transposition","plaintext":"ATTACK SOUTHWEST AT MIDNIGHT STOP AWAIT ORDERS","ciphertext":"EHTTEIASCASATHTGISUKITAOTRRADOTSNMWPODTW","key":{"type":"double_keyword","value":"CIPHER,SECRET","label":"Two transposition keywords"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":46,"normalized_text_length":40,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Double transposition cipher used by German military in WWI and widely adopted by WWII resistance networks. Documented in Kahn (1967) pp. 284-290 and SOE training manuals.","license":"public domain","notes":"Double transposition applies columnar transposition twice with two different keywords. The result thoroughly scrambles the message while remaining reversible with the keys. It was the most secure hand cipher widely used in WWII, employed by SOE agents, resistance networks, and military field units. When correctly applied with sufficiently long random keys, it remains unbroken by known classical methods.","expected_attacks":["multiple anagramming","transposition reconstruction","known plaintext attack"],"tags":["historical","wwi","wwii","double-transposition","german","soe","1918"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 284-290; SOE training manual HS 7/28, National Archives UK","publication_date":"1918","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1918","historical_context":"Double transposition was the gold standard of hand ciphers in both World Wars. The message is written into a rectangle and columns are read out in keyword-alphabetical order, then the result is subjected to a second columnar transposition with a different keyword. German Army units used it extensively in WWI and WWII. The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) trained agents in double transposition as their primary field cipher. Leo Marks, SOE's chief cryptographer, eventually replaced it with one-time pads after discovering that agents under stress made errors that allowed Germans to reconstruct both keys.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-runningkey-001","title":"Running Key Cipher — WWI Military Correspondence, 1916","cipher_family":"polyalphabetic","cipher_type":"running_key","plaintext":"TROOPS MOVE AT MIDNIGHT","ciphertext":"MYSEJAOYWVOPZNRKRATI","key":{"type":"phrase","value":"THEQUICKBROWNFOXJUMPSOVERTHELAZYDOG","label":"Running key (book passage)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":22,"normalized_text_length":19,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Running key cipher widely used in WWI military correspondence and diplomatic cables. Documented in Friedman, William F., \"Military Cryptanalysis\" (1938) Part I.","license":"public domain","notes":"The running key cipher uses a long key (typically a passage from a book both parties possess) to produce a non-repeating key stream. Unlike the one-time pad, the key is not random — it's extracted from natural language text, allowing for frequency-based cryptanalysis despite the long key. WWI militaries used Bible passages, military manuals, and poetry as running keys.","expected_attacks":["multiple anagramming","probable word with language statistics","hillclimbing on key text"],"tags":["historical","wwi","running-key","polyalphabetic","book-cipher-variant","1916"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/militarycryptana00frie","archive":"Friedman, William F. Military Cryptanalysis, Part I (1938); NSA FOIA declassification","publication_date":"1916","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1916","historical_context":"The running key cipher uses a long key text (typically a passage from a mutually agreed book) applied as a Vigenère key. In WWI, military correspondents used Bible passages, army regulation texts, or poetry to generate non-repeating keys. Unlike the one-time pad (where the key is truly random), running key ciphers are vulnerable to \"multiple anagramming\" — trying many possible key texts and checking which produces coherent plaintext. William Friedman's analysis of running key ciphers in his 1938 \"Military Cryptanalysis\" describes the attack method that compromised many WWI-era running key messages.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-columnar-001","title":"Columnar Transposition — British Military WWI, 1915","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"columnar_transposition","plaintext":"ATTACK NORTHEAST QUADRANT AT DAWN STOP ALL FORCES","ciphertext":"TRTAAPRTOSRDOOCHUTNLEATQNWACANADTTFKEAASLS","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"SECRET"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":49,"normalized_text_length":43,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Columnar transposition widely used by British Expeditionary Force, WWI, from 1915. Documented in British Army General Staff cipher manuals (War Office) and Kahn (1967) pp. 283-285.","license":"public domain","notes":"Columnar transposition writes the message in rows of a rectangle and reads columns in keyword-sorted order. The British military used it as a primary field cipher before adopting double transposition. Simple columnar transposition is vulnerable to multiple anagramming — a technique where probable word positions are tested by reconstructing columns.","expected_attacks":["multiple anagramming","probable word","frequency analysis of columns"],"tags":["historical","wwi","columnar-transposition","british","military","1915"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 283-285; British War Office cipher manuals 1915, PRO WO 33","publication_date":"1915","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1915","historical_context":"Columnar transposition was the standard British Army field cipher in the early years of WWI (1914-1915). The message was written in rows across a rectangle of width determined by a keyword, and columns were read out in the alphabetical order of the keyword letters. It was superseded by double transposition as German cryptanalysis (particularly by the Section III of German High Command) broke single-columnar ciphers using multiple anagramming. Room 40, the British naval cryptanalysis bureau, also encountered single-columnar transposition ciphers in German naval traffic.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-playfair-002","title":"Playfair Cipher — British Expeditionary Force, WWI 1915","cipher_family":"polygraphic","cipher_type":"playfair","plaintext":"SEND TWO PLATOONS TO YPRES","ciphertext":"LIRYQZHVSMPRNATLNHTOIL","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"MONARCHY"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z (I/J merged)","text_length":26,"normalized_text_length":21,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"British Expeditionary Force field cipher, WWI. Playfair used for tactical communications at Ypres, 1915. Keyword \"MONARCHY\" was the standard British field keyword for training exercises, documented in cipher manuals.","license":"public domain","notes":"The British Army adopted the Playfair cipher (invented 1854 by Charles Wheatstone, promoted by Lyon Playfair) for field use in WWI. The MONARCHY keyword was used in training manuals to demonstrate the cipher. Playfair was used at the Battle of Ypres and in Gallipoli. It was also used by British forces in WWII and by Australians in the Pacific theater.","expected_attacks":["bigram frequency analysis","probable word","Playfair square reconstruction"],"tags":["historical","wwi","playfair","british","ypres","monarchy","1915"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 291-292; British Army Cipher Manual No. 1 (War Office, 1914)","publication_date":"1915","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1915","historical_context":"The Playfair cipher was invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1854 but named after Lord Lyon Playfair who promoted it to the British Foreign Office. The British Army officially adopted Playfair for field use at the start of WWI and used it extensively through the 1940s. The cipher encrypts letter pairs using a 5×5 Polybius-style key square (I/J merged), reading off the paired positions according to whether they share a row, column, or neither. The keyword \"MONARCHY\" appears in period British cipher training documents.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-kryha-001","title":"Kryha Cipher Machine — Alexander von Kryha, 1926","cipher_family":"machine","cipher_type":"kryha","plaintext":"ATTACK AT ONCE DO NOT DELAY","ciphertext":"KMKQXZSYNYUDNGPUMEJKNX","key":{"type":"integer","value":7,"label":"Spring setting / period offset"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":27,"normalized_text_length":23,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Kryha, Alexander von. Kryha Standard cipher machine (Berlin, 1926). Marketed commercially in Germany and US. Broken by William Friedman in 2.5 hours (1933). Documented in Friedman, \"Analysis of the Kryha Machine\" (1933), SRH-366.","license":"public domain","notes":"The Kryha machine advanced an alphabet by an irregular mechanism. NSA recounts the 1933 demonstration in which a team solved a Kryha message in 2 hours 41 minutes of work. This sample pair is a modern toy, not that historical challenge.","expected_attacks":["period analysis","coincidence index","polyalphabetic frequency analysis"],"tags":["historical","interwar","kryha","cipher-machine","germany","1926"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/tech-journals/qed.pdf","archive":"NSA, Lambros D. Callimahos, Q.E.D.—2 Hours, 41 Minutes; 1933 correspondence","publication_date":"1926","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1926","historical_context":"A contemporary letter and later NSA account document a 1933 cryptanalytic demonstration against the Kryha machine. The 2 hours 41 minutes count excludes a lunch break. This teaching ciphertext has not been matched to that material.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/tech-journals/qed.pdf","scope":"NSA account of 1933 demonstration, not pair provenance."},"citation_erratum":{"status":"more_direct_official_source","previous_url":"https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/technical-articles/FOLDER_441/41774040082165.pdf","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The previous link did not establish this illustrative plaintext/ciphertext pair."}}
{"id":"hist-straddling-001","title":"Straddling Checkerboard — VIC-Style Teaching Example","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"straddling_checkerboard","plaintext":"SECRET ORDERS FROM MOSCOW","ciphertext":"01218156822180238670706021675","key":{"type":"mixed","value":"3175,SENATORX","label":"Header row positions, keyword"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":25,"normalized_text_length":22,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"synthetic","source":"Straddling checkerboard used by Soviet intelligence (NKVD/GRU) from the 1920s onward. Documented in Bauer, Friedrich, \"Decrypted Secrets\" (2007) and the VIC cipher case (NSA, 1953-1957).","license":"public domain","notes":"This digit encoding illustrates a straddling checkerboard. The previously cited NSA URL was not accessible in this review, and a source establishing the record’s specific 1920s NKVD/GRU deployment has not been verified.","expected_attacks":["variable-length code analysis","frequency analysis","crib drag"],"tags":["historical","interwar","wwii","cold-war","soviet","nkvd","straddling-checkerboard","1920s"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologic-spectrum/the_vic_cipher.pdf","archive":"NSA Cryptologic Spectrum, \"The VIC Cipher\" (declassified); Bauer, \"Decrypted Secrets\" (2007)","publication_date":null,"license":"not_assessed"},"year":"modern reconstruction","historical_context":"The VIC case involved a 1953 hollow-nickel message and subsequent disclosure after Reino Häyhänen defected. This downloadable mapping is an illustrative reconstruction, not a recovered original key; its particular date and alleged early deployments require further source review.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."},"legacy_historical_year":"c. 1920","legacy_source_type":"historical","legacy_source_publication_date":"c. 1920"}
{"id":"hist-typex-001","title":"TypeX Cipher Machine — British RAF and Army, WWII","cipher_family":"machine","cipher_type":"typex","plaintext":"BERLIN FALLS TONIGHT ALL CLEAR","ciphertext":"YHWTNQIOHPUIURBAUGIEBIEARQ","key":{"type":"rotor_settings","value":"1,2,3,AAA,ABCDE,","label":"Rotor order, ring settings, plugboard"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":30,"normalized_text_length":25,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"TypeX cipher machine, British patent 1926; deployed by RAF and British Army from 1937. GCHQ history documentation; Sales, Jon, \"The TypeX Cipher Machine\" (2012).","license":"public domain","notes":"Typex was a British five-rotor machine developed from commercial Enigma designs. Some Typex machines could be modified to emulate Enigma settings. This exercise is illustrative, not output from a historical Typex setup.","expected_attacks":["rotor analysis","known plaintext (Herivel tip)","crib drag","bombe methods"],"tags":["historical","wwii","typex","british","raf","rotor-machine","1937"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.asd.gov.au/about/history/asd-stories/2022-04-01-typex","archive":"Australian Signals Directorate, Typex historical account (2022)","publication_date":"1937","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1937","historical_context":"The Australian Signals Directorate describes Typex as a British rotor machine and notes that modified Typex could emulate Enigma settings. That capability does not mean all Typex machines were designed for general Enigma compatibility or that this downloadable pair reflects a real setup.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.asd.gov.au/about/history/asd-stories/2022-04-01-typex","scope":"Official historical account; no pair provenance."},"citation_erratum":{"status":"more_direct_institutional_source","previous_url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The previous link did not establish this illustrative plaintext/ciphertext pair."}}
{"id":"hist-doubletr-002","title":"Double Transposition — SOE Agent Cipher, WWII 1942","cipher_family":"transposition","cipher_type":"double_transposition","plaintext":"GERMAN PANZERS ADVANCE ON TOBRUK AWAIT ORDERS","ciphertext":"KATDRVCOORANBUWIRMPNRAAGRNAEOESEAZSDNET","key":{"type":"double_keyword","value":"LONDON,FREEDOM","label":"SOE two-part key"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":46,"normalized_text_length":40,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"SOE (Special Operations Executive) agent cipher, 1942. Documented in Marks, Leo, \"Between Silk and Cyanide\" (1998). SOE trained agents in double transposition; keys were poem-based.","license":"public domain","notes":"SOE agents in the field used double transposition as their primary cipher system until Leo Marks introduced one-time pads. Keys were often memorable phrases or lines from poems. The problem with poem keys was that under interrogation (or duress), agents made predictable key errors that German B-Dienst cryptanalysts exploited. Marks's famous poem \"The Life That I Have\" (written for Violette Szabo) exemplified the poem-key system.","expected_attacks":["multiple anagramming","known plaintext","key recovery under probable word"],"tags":["historical","wwii","soe","double-transposition","resistance","marks","1942"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/betweensilkcyani00mark","archive":"Marks, Leo. Between Silk and Cyanide (1998); SOE records HS 7, UK National Archives","publication_date":"1942","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1942","historical_context":"The Special Operations Executive (SOE), Churchill's wartime sabotage and intelligence agency, trained agents to use double transposition for radio communications from occupied Europe. Leo Marks served as SOE's chief cryptographer; his memoir \"Between Silk and Cyanide\" (1998) details how SOE discovered German signals intelligence (B-Dienst) was breaking double transposition when agents made key errors under stress. Marks replaced poem-based keys with one-time silk pads, then one-time letter pads, dramatically improving security. The poem \"The Life That I Have\" was written as a key for Violette Szabo before her fatal 1944 mission.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-slidex-001","title":"Slidex Card Cipher — British Army, WWII 1942","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"slidex","plaintext":"ENEMY APPROACHING FROM NORTH","ciphertext":"NVNNZXABOJDWPAFTVXWUAPMNRH","key":{"type":"card_setting","value":"SLIDEX,5","label":"Card identifier and row offset"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":28,"normalized_text_length":25,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"British Army Slidex card system, deployed from 1942. Documented in Army Operational Research Group reports 1944 and Bauer (2007) \"Decrypted Secrets\" pp. 149-150.","license":"public domain","notes":"Slidex was a simple card-based cipher system used by British Army field units for low-level tactical communications. Two matching cards with scrambled letter grids were slid relative to each other to produce a substitution alphabet. The offset of one card against the other was the key. While easily broken by signals intelligence, it was faster than other systems for short tactical messages.","expected_attacks":["frequency analysis","brute force (limited key space)","known plaintext"],"tags":["historical","wwii","slidex","british-army","field-cipher","1942"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/decryptedsecrets00baue","archive":"Bauer, F.L. Decrypted Secrets (2007) pp. 149-150; British Army Operational Research Group reports 1944","publication_date":"1942","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1942","historical_context":"The British Army's Slidex system was a low-level field cipher using two identical physical cards printed with scrambled alphabets. Field operators slid one card against the other to set the key offset, then read off substitution letters for encoding. The cards were updated regularly. Slidex was used for company and battalion-level communications where full cipher machine security was impractical. German Army signals intercept units (Horchkompanien) routinely solved Slidex messages, but the cipher remained in use because its speed outweighed its security shortcomings for short tactical messages.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"not_independently_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-redtypea-001","title":"Japanese Red Machine (Type A) — Diplomatic Cipher, 1930","cipher_family":"machine","cipher_type":"red_type_a","plaintext":"TOKYO INSTRUCTIONS FOR WASHINGTON","ciphertext":"TEHUUEWQNROXKYEBNPAGMONTEKGCYK","key":{"type":"alphabet_split","value":"AEIOU,BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYZ,1,2,3","label":"Vowel group, consonant group, sixes settings"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":33,"normalized_text_length":29,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Japanese Foreign Ministry \"Red Machine\" (Type A cipher system), deployed 1930. Broken by US Army Signal Intelligence Service (Herbert Yardley, then Friedman team) 1935. Documented in Kahn (1967) pp. 356-361.","license":"public domain","notes":"The Japanese Red Machine was a cipher machine used by the Foreign Ministry for diplomatic communications from 1930. US Signal Intelligence cryptanalysts broke it in 1935. The machine split the alphabet into six vowels (A,E,I,O,U,Y) and twenty consonants, encrypting them on separate substitution wheels. This design weakness was retained in its successor, Purple.","expected_attacks":["vowel/consonant split analysis","frequency analysis on vowel group","known plaintext"],"tags":["historical","interwar","wwii","japan","red-machine","type-a","sigint","1930"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 356-361; NSA Center for Cryptologic History documents","publication_date":"1930","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1930","historical_context":"The Japanese Foreign Ministry deployed its \"Red Machine\" (Type A machine) in 1930 for encrypted diplomatic communications. The system split the 26-letter alphabet into six vowels (A, E, I, O, U, Y) and 20 consonants, substituting each group on separate rotor-like wheels. US cryptanalysts at the Black Chamber (Herbert Yardley's team) and later the Signal Intelligence Service broke the cipher by 1935, exploiting the vowel/consonant split that preserved English digraph patterns within each group. The Japanese retained this flaw in the successor Purple machine, which was also broken before Pearl Harbor.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-tapcode-001","title":"Tap Code — US POW, Hanoi Hilton, 1965","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"tap_code","plaintext":"TORTURE","ciphertext":".... ....   ... ....   .... ..   .... ....   .... .....   .... ..   . .....","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"5x5 Polybius square (C=K)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z (C=K)","text_length":7,"normalized_text_length":7,"spacing":"grouped","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Prisoner of War communications, Hoa Lo Prison (\"Hanoi Hilton\"), Vietnam, from 1965. Documented in Guarino, Larry, \"A POW's Story\" (1990); Stockdale, James, \"A Vietnam Experience\" (1984).","license":"public domain","notes":"The tap code allowed US POWs at Hoa Lo Prison to communicate by tapping on walls, pipes, and floors. Based on a 5×5 Polybius square with C and K merged (C=K), each letter is encoded as row count, pause, column count. Lt. Commander Smitty Harris learned it from a survival instructor; he spread it through the prison camp beginning in 1965. Rear Admiral James Stockdale (Medal of Honor) described it in his memoirs.","expected_attacks":["rhythm analysis","Polybius square recognition","frequency of pause patterns"],"tags":["historical","cold-war","vietnam","pow","tap-code","polybius","1965"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.pownetwork.org/taps.htm","archive":"Stockdale, James B. A Vietnam Experience (1984); Guarino, Larry. A POW's Story (1990)","publication_date":"1965","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1965","historical_context":"US prisoners of war at Hoa Lo Prison (\"Hanoi Hilton\") in Hanoi, North Vietnam, developed a communications network using the tap code — a simple encoding based on a 5×5 Polybius square with C and K merged. Lt. Commander Smitty Harris (later Rear Admiral) introduced it in 1965 after learning it from a SERE survival instructor. Each letter was tapped as row-count then column-count with a pause between. The code allowed thousands of POWs to organize resistance, resist propaganda, and maintain morale through years of imprisonment. Rear Admiral James Stockdale (Medal of Honor, 1976) specifically credits the tap code with preserving POW cohesion.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-rot13-001","title":"ROT13 — Usenet Spoiler Convention, c. 1982","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"rot13","plaintext":"SPOILER ALERT THE BUTLER DID IT","ciphertext":"FCBVYRE NYREG GUR OHGYRE QVQ VG","key":{"type":"shift","value":13,"label":"Fixed 13-position Caesar shift"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":31,"normalized_text_length":27,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"ROT13 convention established on Usenet newsgroups, c. 1982. Documented in Hauben, Michael and Ronda, \"Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet\" (1997).","license":"public domain","notes":"ROT13 (rotate 13) is a Caesar cipher with shift 13 — the only shift that is its own inverse (because 26/2=13). It became the standard Usenet convention for obscuring spoilers, offensive content, and puzzle answers on newsgroups. Being self-reciprocal, the same operation decodes. ROT13 provides no security but serves as a deliberate obscurity convention.","expected_attacks":["brute force (26 shifts)","frequency analysis","known self-reciprocal property"],"tags":["historical","modern","rot13","usenet","internet","self-reciprocal","1982"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/netizens-on-history-and-impact-of-usenet","archive":"Hauben, Michael and Ronda. Netizens (1997); Usenet newsgroup archives (groups.google.com)","publication_date":"c. 1982","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1982","historical_context":"ROT13 emerged on Usenet newsgroups around 1982 as a social convention for hiding spoilers, offensive jokes, and puzzle answers — not for security, but to require deliberate action to read obscured content. The choice of 13 is mathematically elegant: ROT13 is its own inverse (applying twice returns the original), so encryption and decryption are identical operations. ROT13 is documented in the Jargon File (hacker culture dictionary) from at least 1990 and has been a fixture of internet culture through Unix system utilities, email clients, and programming language demonstrations.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-affine-001","title":"Affine Cipher — Mathematical Letter Substitution, 17th Century","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"affine","plaintext":"THE AFFINE CIPHER IS A MATHEMATICAL CIPHER","ciphertext":"OIN LUUPYN ZPMINA PH L RLOINRLOPZLK ZPMINA","key":{"type":"coefficients","value":"7,11","label":"Multiply-then-shift: a=7, b=11"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":43,"normalized_text_length":37,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"intermediate","source_type":"historical","source":"Affine cipher documented in 17th century mathematical treatises. Described in Singh, Simon, \"The Code Book\" (1999) pp. 12-14 as a generalization of the Caesar cipher.","license":"public domain","notes":"The affine cipher applies the transformation E(x) = (ax + b) mod 26, where a must be coprime to 26. With a=1 it reduces to Caesar; with b=0 it is a multiplicative cipher. The key (a,b) must satisfy gcd(a,26)=1, giving a=1,3,5,7,9,11,15,17,19,21,23,25 as valid multipliers. The affine cipher is a simple monoalphabetic substitution and is easily broken by frequency analysis.","expected_attacks":["frequency analysis","brute force (12 valid a values × 26 shifts = 312 keys)","bigram analysis"],"tags":["historical","early-modern","affine","mathematical","monoalphabetic","17th-century"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebook00sing","archive":"Singh, Simon. The Code Book (1999); mathematical cipher literature 17th-19th century","publication_date":"c. 1600","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1600","historical_context":"The affine cipher is a mathematical generalization of the Caesar cipher, applying a linear function E(x) = (ax + b) mod 26 to each letter. The multiplier a must be coprime to 26 (i.e., share no common factors) to ensure the transformation is invertible. With only 312 possible keys, it is trivially broken by brute force or frequency analysis. The affine cipher demonstrates the mathematical structure underlying all monoalphabetic substitution ciphers and is significant as an early example of applying modular arithmetic to cryptography.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-otp-001","title":"Vernam Teleprinter Cipher and One-Time Pad Conditions","cipher_family":"stream","cipher_type":"one_time_pad","plaintext":"ATTACK AT DAWN","ciphertext":"XJVMMZROCSWV","key":{"type":"random_key","value":"XQCMKPRVZSAIL","label":"True random one-time key (single use)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":14,"normalized_text_length":11,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"expert","source_type":"historical","source":"Vernam, Gilbert S. \"Cipher Printing Telegraph Systems For Secret Wire and Radio Telegraphic Communications.\" Journal of the AIEE, vol. 45, 1926. Patent US1310719, 1919.","license":"public domain","notes":"Vernam’s patent describes combining teleprinter signals with a cipher tape, which may be random or predetermined. Perfect secrecy requires a truly random key at least as long as the message and never reused. The A–Z pair here is a modern teaching example, not a patent specimen.","expected_attacks":["none (provably secure when used correctly)","key reuse exploitation (VENONA attack)","key management attack"],"tags":["historical","modern","vernam","otp","one-time-pad","information-theory","1917"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://patents.google.com/patent/US1310719A/en","archive":"Vernam, US Patent 1,310,719, Secret Signaling System (filed 1918; published 1919)","publication_date":"1919-07-22","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1919 patent","historical_context":"US patent 1,310,719, Secret Signaling System, was filed in 1918 and published 22 July 1919. The patent permits a predetermined as well as a random cipher tape, so the patent does not by itself establish one-time-pad perfect secrecy for every implementation.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://patents.google.com/patent/US1310719A/en","scope":"Patent filing, title, publication and tape options; not pair provenance."},"legacy_historical_year":"1917"}
{"id":"hist-fractionated-morse-001","title":"Fractionated Morse Cipher — WWI/WWII Field Cipher","cipher_family":"fractionation","cipher_type":"fractionated_morse","plaintext":"RETREAT NOW","ciphertext":"TSKFYNUVKJ","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"MILITARY"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":11,"normalized_text_length":10,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"Fractionated Morse cipher used in WWI and early WWII military telegraph communications. Combines Morse code fractional encoding with polyalphabetic substitution. Described in Bauer (2007) and Cipher Journal Vol. 3 (2001).","license":"public domain","notes":"Fractionated Morse converts each letter to its Morse code representation (dots, dashes, and letter separators encoded as three symbols), then applies polyalphabetic substitution to trigrams of these symbols. The combination of Morse fractional encoding and columnar keying creates a complex cipher that was used by some military units for radio telegraph traffic in WWI.","expected_attacks":["Morse fractionation reversal","trigram analysis","probable word"],"tags":["historical","wwi","wwii","fractionated-morse","telegraph","fractionation"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/decryptedsecrets00baue","archive":"Bauer, F.L. Decrypted Secrets (2007); American Cryptogram Association Cipher Journal Vol.3 (2001)","publication_date":"c. 1915","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1915","historical_context":"Fractionated Morse combines the fractional encoding of Morse code with polyalphabetic substitution. Each letter is first converted to its Morse representation using dot, dash, and separator symbols encoded as three distinct characters. These three-symbol groups are then used as indices into a keyed 27-element alphabet for substitution. The resulting cipher combines the statistical properties of Morse encoding with keyword-based substitution, creating a multi-layer cipher used in WWI military telegraph communications as an improvement over simple Vigenère or single transposition.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"not_independently_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-nomenclator-001","title":"Nomenclator Cipher — French Royal Diplomatic, c. 1700","cipher_family":"codebook","cipher_type":"nomenclator","plaintext":"THE KING COMMANDS TOTAL SILENCE","ciphertext":"60 70 03 15 13 13 01 14 04 19 20 15 20 01 12 19 09 12 05 14 03 05","key":{"type":"keyword","value":"ROYAL"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":31,"normalized_text_length":26,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"French Royal nomenclator system, c. 1700. Documented in Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 157-165. Louis XIV's \"Grand Chiffre\" was a sophisticated nomenclator broken by Bazeries in 1893.","license":"public domain","notes":"Nomenclators were the standard diplomatic cipher system of European powers from the 15th through 18th centuries, combining a code (fixed codewords for common terms) with a cipher (letter substitution). The French Grand Chiffre of Louis XIV used over 600 code numbers for syllables, words, and phrases. Bazeries cracked it in 1893 after 200 years of secrecy, revealing messages from the reign of Louis XIV including the identity candidate for the Man in the Iron Mask.","expected_attacks":["codeword frequency analysis","probable word","contextual analysis of code groups"],"tags":["historical","early-modern","nomenclator","french","louis-xiv","diplomatic","1700"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://archive.org/details/codebreakers00kahn","archive":"Kahn, \"The Codebreakers\" (1967) pp. 157-165; French Archives Nationales, Affaires Étrangères","publication_date":"c. 1700","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 1700","historical_context":"Nomenclators — hybrid systems combining a cipher alphabet with a code table — were the primary diplomatic encryption tool of European courts from the Renaissance through the 18th century. Louis XIV's Grand Chiffre, developed by the Rossignol family, used more than 600 numerical codes representing syllables, words, names, and phrases, with hundreds of nulls. Étienne Bazeries cracked it in 1893 after two years of work, revealing the contents of 200-year-old royal dispatches — including correspondence touching on the mysterious \"Man in the Iron Mask.\" The Rossignol family served three French kings as official codebreakers (déchiffreurs du roi).","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"full_text_access_unavailable","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","scope":"Source-link inventory; the cited work is contextual unless a passage is identified."}}
{"id":"hist-polybius-002","title":"Polybius Torch Signaling — Greek Coordinate System","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"polybius","plaintext":"FIRE","ciphertext":"21 24 42 15","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Standard 5x5 Polybius square"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z (I/J merged)","text_length":4,"normalized_text_length":4,"spacing":"removed","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"beginner","source_type":"historical","source":"Polybius, \"Histories\" Book X, Chapter 45-47 (c. 150 BCE). Polybius's signaling system described in detail; used by Roman military for long-distance torch signaling.","license":"public domain","notes":"Polybius describes two groups of torches selecting coordinates from a five-by-five Greek alphabet. FIRE and its I/J-combined Latin coordinates are a modern adaptation, not a transmitted historical message.","expected_attacks":["brute force","pattern recognition","frequency analysis of digit pairs"],"tags":["historical","ancient","roman","greek","polybius","signaling","150bce"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/10*.html","archive":"Polybius, Histories Book 10.45–47, translated by W. R. Paton (Loeb)","publication_date":"c. 150 BCE","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"c. 150 BCE","historical_context":"In Histories 10.45–47 Polybius describes letter-by-letter signaling and credits Cleoxenus and Democleitus for a prior method. The passage does not establish that Roman armies used this exact system across the Mediterranean.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/10*.html","scope":"Greek torch signaling and attribution; no Latin pair or Roman deployment."}}
{"id":"hist-homophonic-001","title":"Homophonic Substitution — Beale-Inspired Teaching Example","cipher_family":"substitution","cipher_type":"homophonic","plaintext":"BURIED TREASURE","ciphertext":"284 193 81 250 96 47 132 229 41 34 199 82 147","key":{"type":"none","value":null,"label":"Multiple ciphertext values per letter (see notes)"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":15,"normalized_text_length":14,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"synthetic","source":"Beale Papers, Bedford County, Virginia, c. 1820-1823. Published by J.B. Ward (1885). Beale Cipher Paper No. 2 decrypted using Declaration of Independence as running key. Papers 1 and 3 remain unsolved.","license":"public domain","notes":"The 1885 Beale pamphlet explains Paper No. 2 using numbered words from the Declaration of Independence. This homophonic-style example is not a Beale ciphertext and does not replay against the current museum engine.","expected_attacks":["book cipher key recovery","frequency analysis on digit frequencies","known document matching"],"tags":["historical","19th-century","beale","homophonic","treasure","unsolved","1820s"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beale_Papers","archive":"The Beale Papers (1885), pamphlet transcription; Paper No. 2","publication_date":"1885","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"modern reconstruction","historical_context":"The Beale treasure narrative is attributed to an 1885 pamphlet; its authenticity remains contested. Paper No. 2 uses first letters of numbered Declaration words, not this modern homophonic mapping. Do not attribute this illustrative pair to Thomas Beale.","legacy_verified_flag":false,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beale_Papers","scope":"Pamphlet transcription identifies the Paper No. 2 method; pair is separate."},"legacy_historical_year":"c. 1820","legacy_source_type":"historical","legacy_source_publication_date":"1820s","citation_erratum":{"status":"unresolved_archive_link_replaced_with_text","previous_url":"https://archive.org/details/bealepapers00ward","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The previous link did not establish this illustrative plaintext/ciphertext pair."}}
{"id":"hist-hill-001","title":"Hill Cipher — Lester S. Hill Polygraphic System, 1929","cipher_family":"polygraphic","cipher_type":"hill","plaintext":"HELP IS ON THE WAY","ciphertext":"LIPTSCQPHVWOSQ","key":{"type":"matrix","value":"3,4,2,5","label":"2×2 encryption matrix [[3,4],[2,5]]"},"language":"en","alphabet":"A-Z","text_length":18,"normalized_text_length":14,"spacing":"preserved","punctuation":"removed","casing":"uppercase","difficulty":"advanced","source_type":"historical","source":"Hill, Lester S. \"Cryptography in an Algebraic Alphabet.\" American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 36 no. 6 (June/July 1929), pp. 306-312.","license":"public domain","notes":"Hill’s 1929 paper describes a mathematical matrix cipher. The downloadable pair is an illustrative example; the linked paper has not been matched to this pair or to the claimed WWII US military deployment.","expected_attacks":["known plaintext (solve system of linear equations mod 26)","bigram frequency analysis","crib-and-drag"],"tags":["historical","modern","hill","polygraphic","matrix","linear-algebra","1929"],"created_by":"Cipher Museum","verified":false,"dataset_version":"0.3","split":"public","transcription_quality":"clean","source_provenance":{"url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/2298294","archive":"Lester S. Hill, Cryptography in an Algebraic Alphabet, American Mathematical Monthly 36(6), 306–312 (1929)","publication_date":"1929","license":"not_assessed"},"year":"1929","historical_context":"Hill presented a polygraphic matrix construction in the American Mathematical Monthly in 1929. This record has no source for the previous claim that the US Army Signal Corps deployed this exact cipher in WWII.","legacy_verified_flag":true,"pair_status":"unverified_pair","verification_method":"none","benchmark_eligible":false,"authenticity":"catalogued_unreviewed","supplement_release":"0.8","supplement_inclusion":"legacy_unreviewed","source_link_status":"context_only_not_pair_provenance","pair_review":{"status":"not_source_authenticated","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"No original document was matched to this exact plaintext/ciphertext pair."},"legacy_source_license_label":"public domain","citation_review":{"status":"context_passage_checked","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/i314580","scope":"1929 volume TOC identifies the correct paper and stable URL; pair not checked against full article."},"citation_erratum":{"status":"wrong_article","previous_url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/2299033","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22","note":"The previous link did not establish this illustrative plaintext/ciphertext pair."}}