Dissertation Project: Creating Enigma Simulators and Improving Key Flaws
“Does making improvements to serious security flaws in the Enigma machine using modern computers ensure security against the bombe machine, and how does this Enigma stand up to Modern Encryption methods? “
This project was undertaken to enhance the developer’s knowledge of cryptography and to demonstrably attempt to remedy the core flaw in the WW2 Enigma machine that directly led to its breaking by the Turing Bombe. The principal objective was to explore methods of improving the Enigma using modern computing, specifically to establish whether it is possible to secure the Enigma against the Bombe. A secondary objective was pursued to undertake an objective comparison against modern encryption. The scope of the project was to resolve the inherent self-encipherment security flaw to ensure protection from the Bombe, and undertake a comparison of the capabilities of the Enigma to modern day methods, focussing on Symmetrical Encryption. Options to improve the Enigma are discussed and a binary switchboard was chosen and added to the Enigma. Due to later conclusion, an Enigma block cipher had the potential to be a more reliably successful solution. A set of encryption methods was developed specifically for this project, the Enigma machine, improved Enigma, AES, SHA-256 and MD5. JavaScript was the chosen development language whilst management was governed by the use of a considered selection of tools such as GitHub and Trello. It was concluded that it is possible to fix Enigma’s self-encipherment, however, due to the solution chosen, fixing the issue by the chosen method caused significant data integrity issues. Extensive research into areas encompassed by this project was undertaken into symmetric encryption of the Enigma and modern methods including the DES family and AES, whilst also including key areas of modern cryptography such as hashing and Asymmetric Encryption
- HTML Code for UIs of all methods (Launch index.html)
- Javascript Code for the M1 Enigma Machine, Krieigsmarine Enigma Machine, AES, Morse Code, Cribbing, Improved Enigma, MD5 and SHA-256 Hashing
- Web Demo file (Also avalible on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqmc8Gppdyk&feature=youtu.be)
- Dissertation PDF file
- User Guide PDF
- Codebook (500 Encrypted passwords)
- CSS & Font Files