Talk:Dictionary attack
|
|
Was it the German word eins or the string eins that the Enigma researchers fixed on? The word means "one" or "one thing", but the string is in many many German words. Ortolan88
The impression I received from British accounts was that the word was most important. GABaker
Yes, it was the word eins that was so very important. This is because the Enigma machine didn't have numerals on the keyboard, so all numbers had to be spelled out. Throbbing_Monster_Cock
I've just noticed the claim about eins as a crib used at BP against Enigma traffic. While every credible reference I've seen on BP/Enigma has mentioned this and so it's certainly worth mentioning, I have another thought altogether. Is this an instance of a dictionary attack at all?
At first thought (subject to revision on second thought), a dictionary attack is the repeated trying of possibilities by running through some previously prepared list (unreleated except accidentally by the choice of some user (a password, etc)) against some needed access value (eg, an encrypted password). Thus, with origninal Unix password files, the encrypted password+salt is stored in clear, and 'everyone' knows the encryption technique, so all depends (in accordance with Shannon's Maxim that the enemy knows the system) on the secrecy of the password. If that word is in some list (eg, a dictionary), then each item in the list can be tried in turn.
That's not what's happening in the eins case. Is this a dictionary attack? ww 14:37, 1 May 2004 (UTC)