Crypt Breaker's README

This is the Read.me file for the ancient Crypt Breaker's Workbench. It lists the steps used in breaking a text file encrypted with the Unix crypt encryption function. It discovers both the text and the key, and thus is also useful for rapidly decrypting files which have been encrypted with the same key.

For the complete source for the Crypt Breaker's Workbench, see https://github.com/AlbertVeli/cbw This is an ancient program (from 1987) and its ability to run on any modern machine is doubtful. Ie, you will need to do some work on the source code to get it working. The following is from a very old version of CBW

README

	This directory contains the source, documentation, and
auxilary files for the Crypt Breakers Workbench (cbw).  CBW is
a multi-window integrated workbench of tools that help a cryptanalist
read files encrypted with the BSD4.2 crypt command.  Anyone
may copy, modify, use, or redistribute this system.  It was
originally written by Robert W. Baldwin at MIT.


GETTING STARTED

	A user's manual is provided in cbw.doc.  The scribe source
for the user's manual is in cbw.mss.  The file Index briefly describes
the various programs in this directory.

	CBW is written in C and distributed with the source code to
encourage people to play with it.  It should run on any display
terminal.  Read the users manual for information on terminal
compatibility.


	
TO COMPILE CBW

	Execute "make" with no arguments.  CBW uses routines from the termcap
and curses libraries, but it does not use the full curses package.


A FEW OTHER NOTES

	Page 2 of the users manual mentions that CBW cannot work
	against files that have been run through compress (1) before
encryption.  Personally, I would prefer to have a DES-based
self-inverse cipher.  Most DES programs need to be told whether they
are in encrypt or decrypt mode.  However, IBM only grants free use of
DES if it is used according to NBS guidelines, and self-inverse is not
one of the accepted operating modes.


TESTING

     The following is a step by step sequence of commands to exercise
the Crypt Breakers Workbench.  It demonstrates how easily crypt files
can be broken.

   1. Edit  stats.slice to set the name of the directory that contains the
      statistics files.  Statistics for scribe documents are included with
      the source files.

      The  stats.slice  file  also  defines the location of the dictionary
      used by the lookup-pattern  command.    The  default  dictionary  is
      /usr/dict/words.    The  dictionary is just a list of words, one per
      line.  Case does not matter.

   2. Execute 'source  stats.slice'  to  initialize  the  necessary  shell
      variables.

   3. If there is a .slice file for your terminal type (e.g., vt100.slice,
      or h19.slice), execute source on that file.   This  initializes  the
      graphics map and key map.

   4. Print  out  cbw.doc,  so you can read it after you have decided that
      you can't figure out how the program works.

   5. Copy test3.perm and .cipher to foo.perm and foo.cipher.    The  .txt
      files contain the original plaintext.

   6. Execute 'cbw foo'.

   7. The  cursor  will  on the command line.  Use the arrow keys (or C-P,
      C-N, C-F, C-B) to move the cursor to the upper lefthand position  of
      the  decryption  window.   Try typing '@Device[Dover]'.  Notice that
      most of the characters you type  deduced  other  characters  in  the
      block.

   8. The  'D'  in  'Dover'  is wrong.  Using the arrow keys, position the
      cursor over the 'D' and type 'd'.

   9. Advance to the position after the ']' and  type  C-T.    A  list  of
      possible  characters  for this position will be displayed.  The list
      is sorted with the most likely character on the left.   Notice  that
      many characters are not possible because they would deduce non-ascii
      characters elsewhere in the  block,  or  they  would  conflict  with
      previously accepted guesses.

      Try  guessing  tab,  comma  and linefeed for the character after the
      ']'.  Use C-G to undo each guess.  Delete and C-D do not restore the
      old  state,  they  just  erase  the  wiring  that  was  deduced by a
      particular character.

  10. Move the cursor down to the command line.  You can use emacs  cursor
      characters  (C-N,  C-P, C-F, C-B) or the arrow keys.  Unfortunately,
      C-U does not work as in emacs.  The C-X key or F4 will jump directly
      to the command line.

  11. Type  'pw  '.    The  space  will  cause  command completion for the
      probable-word guessing command.  Type F2 (or C-S) to advance to  the
      first  argument,  and  enter  the  file name 'mss.words'.  That file
      contains a list of keywords used  by  the  Scribe  (Finalword)  text
      formatter.    Press  F2  to  advance  to  the second argument, which
      specifies a cut-off level for automatically accepting guesses.   The
      level  is the maximum number of standard deviations that the scoring
      function can be away from its expected value.  Enter 1.2, and  press
      return to invoke the command.

  12. A  partially filled in block will appear in the guessing window.  To
      accept the result of this command, press F3 (or C-A).

  13. Try the pword guess command again with a level of 3.   To  do  this,
      just  move  to  the  command  line, change the 1.2 to a 3, and press
      return.  Again F3 accepts the guess.  If  some  guesses  look  wrong
      (such  as the 'F' on the second line under the '[Article]'), you can
      correct them using the editor in the decryption block window.

  14. Advance to block  1  of  the  file  by  moving  the  cursor  to  the
      decryption  window and pressing F2 (or C-S).  F1 (or C-R) moves back
      one block, F2 moves ahead one block.

  15. The second block is likely to  be  plain  english  with  few  scribe
      commands.    Move  to the command window, type C-U to erase the line
      and type 'bi ' to  setup  the  bigram  guessing  command.    Try  an
      acceptance  level  of  1.0  and  a minimum probability of 0.6.  Type
      return to invoke the command.

  16. After a short wait (~15  seconds),  a  partial  block  will  appear.
      Accept the guess with the F3 key in the guessing window.

  17. Try  looking  up a pattern in the dictionary.  In the command window
      type 'look ', use F2 to advance to the  pattern,  and  type  in  the
      pattern  '....llit.', and press return.  This will match against the
      word 'satellite' if it is in you site's dictionary.

  18. One could go on like this, but let's skip  ahead  by  loading  in  a
      previously  saved state.  Invoke the load command (it loads the file
      foo.perm, just as save dumps to foo.perm (making this command take a
      filename  is  a  good implementation exercise)).  Type C-U, 'load ',
      and return.  Notice that all the work so  far  is  replaced  by  the
      information in the .perm file.  This can be considered a feature.

  19. Use  the  F1 and F2 keys in the decryption window to view the blocks
      that have been solved.  Notice that a fully solved  block  does  not
      specify  all  the wirings of the block key (permutation).  Typically
      only 105 of the 128 wires are used.

  20. Lets try deducing the inter-block relationship (zee).   Execute  the
      clear-zee command.

  21. Execute  knit  blocks 0 through 3 with a min show count of 20.  This
      means that the program should only show you guesses that  deduce  20
      or more wirings of the zee permutation.  Press return to invoke this
      guessing strategy.  The cursor will move  to  the  guessing  window.
      Press F2 to start the first round of guessing.

      The running time of the knit command is exponential in the number of
      blocks knitted, and it will run for a very long time if any  of  the
      blocks  are  decrypted incorrectly.  This means that it is better to
      leave a position blank than to guess at it.

  22. The program moves to block 4 and shows you the characters in block 4
      that would be deduced from block 3 given the deduced wirings of zee.
      If these look reasonable, press F3 to accept the guess, and press F2
      to try the next guess.  To reject a guess, press F2 without pressing
      F3.

  23. Now that part of zee is known, try propagating the settings of block
      1 into block 0 using zee.  The propagate command will do this.  Also
      try propagating blocks 2, 3, and 4 to zero.

      Notice that the number of known wires can increase without  deducing
      additional characters in the block.

  24. There should be a command that propagates information between groups
      of blocks, but for now you must do this one block at a time.   After
      propagating  block 1 - 4 to block zero, and block zero to blocks 1 -
      4, et cetera, try the knit command again.

  25. Propagate block 4 to 5  to  provide  a  framework  to  evaluate  new
      guesses.

  26. Knit block 0 through 4 with a minimum show level of 2.  You may want
      to skip accepting guesses that do not deduce any characters.  Repeat
      this process with a show level of 1.

  27. The  program  should  now  know  all 256 wirings of zee.  Repeat the
      process of propagating information  between  blocks  until  all  128
      wires of the block zero are known.

  28. Save  your  work  with the save-permutations command (on the command
      line type 'sa ' and press return).  This writes the file foo.perm.

  29. Exit the program with the quit command.

  30. Copy foo.perm to zeecode.perm.

  31. Execute 'zeecode < foo.cipher | more '.  This  program  reads  CBW's
      save  file  to  find  the  permutation  for  block  zero and the Zee
      permutation  that  describes  how  the  remaining  block  keys   are
      generated.    Using  this  information it decodes standard input and
      writes on standard output.

  32. That's all.