Overview
EnigmaZone is a simulation of the Enigma machine, an encryption device used heavily by the German army, air force and navy in WWII. There were different versions of the Enigma and this simulation caters for the Enigma I, M3 and M4 models.
As well as a simulation, EnigmaZone offers an automatic facility to crack encrypted messages. You can try this out on authentic German messages from WWII that you can find online, or you can try breaking English-language messages instead.
The left side of the display allows the encryption and decryption of typed or pasted messages and in effect simulates the machine itself. There are settings for the device version, reflector, rotors, wheel positions, ring positions and plug board.
Download
EnigmaZone is completely free and works on Windows 10 and later. Download it from the Microsoft Store via the link below:
Background
The actual Enigma machine utilised a keyboard, a plug board (the Steckerbrett), a set of rotors (Walzen) and a reflector (Umkehrwalze or UKW). All of this is simulated in EnigmaZone. The operator would type a key on the keyboard and an electric current would travel through a plug board (which transposed individual letters) and into a set of rotors which could rotate after each key was pressed. Each rotor would perform its own letter substitution. After exiting the rotors the current would pass into a reflector which would again transpose the incoming letter and this time reflect the current back through the rotors and back into the plug board where it was switched again with another letter, and finally into a lamp board which would light up the final encrypted letter. The operator would write this down and continue typing the next letter of the message.
All of this required the machine to be set up in a particular way. The plug board was usually configured with ten letters connected by cables to another ten letters. The rotors could be selected from a box of rotors, five for the Enigma I, eight for the M3 and M4. The M4 had a fourth rotor, which could be the “beta” rotor or the “gamma” rotor – this particular rotor did not rotate during the encryption. All rotors could be rotated manually to a starting position and there was also a “ring” setting for each rotor which adjusted the position of the rotor wiring. The reflectors themselves could be chosen from a limited set.
The Enigma I was used by the Wehrmacht (army) and also the Luftwaffe (air force). The M3 model was used in the early part of the war by the navy – the Kriegsmarine. In 1942 the M4 model was ushered in specifically for U-boat communication.
In our EnigmaZone program we have three main areas of the display which can be adjusted by dragging the vertical bars between the sections. From left to right we have the Simulation panel, the Display panel and the Decryption panel.
Final Note
Hopefully EnigmaZone provides something of interest and an inspiration for further reading on this fascinating subject. If you have any comments, please add them below. Thanks!
Acknowledgements
Enigma machine photos courtesy of © Andy Hollingworth Archive and Simon Singh
Enigma insignia courtesy of cryptomuseum.com
Breaking German Army Ciphers (Geoff Sullivan and Frode Weierud)
Modern Breaking of Enigma Ciphertexts (Olaf Ostwald and Frode Weierud)
This is really educational, thank you!
Thanks!
Hello can you add rotors, wheels, rings, plugboard in the decryption, as it will make easier for computer and the time will be reduced and will work more faster!!!
Hi, thanks for the comment. I guess what you’re asking for is a way of restricting the decryption so that it targets certain ranges of settings, which would make decryption faster if the cipher text is known to fall into those ranges. I did consider doing this when I wrote it, and using a crib text too, since they used cribs in the 1940s. I might get around to it one day, but probably not soon! I know there’s at least one other piece of software that does this, if you’re willing to search around. In the meantime, best wishes to you.
Steve.
Yes, you’re right. By the way I have searched through it for any Enigma decryption software for all these years and I affirmatively say there are no other Enigma decryption software than yours. Till then I did brute force method by myself using Simulation panel for decryption as my PC (laptop) is to old and thus very much time consuming for using Enigma decryption software. It’s showing ETA in days. I even tried putting short crypts, still it takes time, sometimes days. So I hope you may make one software by restricting it in certain ranges of setting inputs.