[2986] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Turing Bombe story
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Bellovin)
Fri Jul 17 13:26:58 1998
To: Carl Ellison <cme@acm.org>
cc: Steve Reid <sreid@alpha.sea-to-sky.net>,
Marcus Leech <Marcus.Leech.mleech@nt.com>, cryptography@c2.net
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 01:14:19 -0400
From: Steve Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
In message <3.0.3.32.19980716174533.032b5358@pop3.clark.net>, Carl Ellison writ
>
> Enigma's message key was 3 letters -- so 26^3 = 17576 --
> but the key of the (part-)day included the plugboard wiring that had
> C(26,6)*19*17*15*13*11*9*7*5*3 possibilities and the wheel order
> that had P(5,3).
There were many different elements that entered into an Enigma key
setting. First, there was the choice of three rotors, from a set
that was (I think) as high as seven. On some machines, there was
a choice of reflectors. On each of the rotors, there was the
ring setting. Then there was the 3-letter per-message setting,
and the plugboard.
