1Cryptoslam v1.2 2by Brian Enigma <enigma@netninja.com> 3 4Cryptoslam is a curses-based tool for solving the simple pencil-and-paper 5cryptograms found in newspapers and puzzle magazines. It is a tool that aids 6in analyzing, examining, and trying possible decodings of simple substitution 7cyphers. 8 9Start the Cryptoslam program with the command "./cryptoslam". If you already 10have a cyphertext file you would like to decode, you can start it with 11"./cryptoslam {filename}". Once running, you will be see a screen with three 12main areas. The top area always shows a menu or an input prompt. The bottom 13area always shows the mapping between a cyphertext alphabet and a plaintext 14alphabet. The central area displays what you are working on (usually, the 15cyphertext and plaintext side-by-side, but sometimes it shows the output 16of different commands, like the statistics of letter distribution). The menu 17gives you the following options: 18 19 S:SetChar Set a cyphertext letter's decoding to a plaintext letter 20 U:UnsetChar Set a cyphertext letter's decoding back to unknown 21 R:ResetChars Set ALL cyphertext letters back to unknown 22 F:File File Menu 23 L:Load Load a file. If the file is a text file, the entire 24 contents will be treated as a cyphertext to decode. If 25 the file is a binary file (see "saveBin" below), the 26 saved state of the system--cyphertext, plaintext, and 27 current alphabet decoding--will be restored. 28 T:saveText Save the cyphertext and current plaintext representation 29 to a text file. 30 B:saveBin Save the current state of the system (the cyphertext and 31 the current alphabet decoding) to a binary data file that 32 can be loaded again later. 33 N:New Launch your text editor ($VISUAL or $EDITOR environmental 34 variable) to create a new cyphertext file. 35 C:Cancle Return to main menu 36 T:Tools Tools Menu. This will show a letter distribution--how many 37 times each letter occurs in the cyphertext. In a normal 38 English language distribution, the top letters on this 39 list are bound to be something like "ERSTLN." 40 R:Random Scramble the cyphertext decoding (useful for creating a 41 new cypher--feed it plaintext, and treat the output as 42 cyphertext) 43 T:Transform If the file you loaded was plaintext, it will generate 44 a random substitution transform. Use this to create 45 a new puzzle from a message of your own. Write your 46 message in a simple text file, load it, then use 47 "Transform" upon it. 48 3:ROT13 Set the decoding to the standard Unix ROT13. Specifically, 49 A decodes to N, B decodes O, C becomes P, D becomes Q, etc. 50 G:Generate If you have the "fortune" command installed on your 51 system, generate a random puzzle. This could take a 52 little while because it has to keep running fortune 53 until a puzzle of sufficient size can be generated 54 (more than about 3 lines and less than about 9). If you 55 really have to give up, the plaintext version is stored 56 in the local directory as "tmp.tmp". 57 C:Cancel Return to main menu 58 59Have fun, and happy decoding! 60 61 Brian Enigma 62 <enigma@netninja.com> 63 64