BMUG Revelations

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ BMUG Revelations / BMUG Revelations.toast / Utilities / Security / CodeMaker 2.0 / Read Me 2.0 < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1993-05-06 | 15.1 KB | 362 lines | [TEXT/CMAK]

C O D E M A K E R 2 . 0 (C) 1 9 9 3 b y R a y m o n d M a r a s a A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . Welcome! CodeMaker is a program designed to produce ciphers. Each version adds a little more. Cryptography is the writing and deciphering of secret messages, and is an important part of every nations history. Governments and their spies have always had the need to send sensitive information in perfect secrecy. Now with CodeMaker you can do the same! - resumes - love letters - nasty notes about the boss - tax information, etc. Sending (encoding) and receiving (decoding) secret messages is fun, and CodeMaker does all the work! CodeMaker can even be used to help break a secret message that someone else may have created. CodeMaker allows anyone to create confidential messages, and to actually see the code. Existing programs today simply act as black boxes, encrypting a file or program with DES. The user can't print out the message and carry it, they also can't view it on screen. CodeMaker contains 13 of the most popular ciphers throughout history, and can be used as a teaching tool. The Hex cipher is one I created to encode/decode the complete range of printable characters. In that sense, it is different from most of the others which historically only represent uppercase and make 5 character blocks. The Computer XOR 1, Computer XOR 255, Text Compression, and Hex all encode the full upper and lowercase alphabets. Each saved file contains information on which cipher was used to produce it, so that it can start up with that information. Just 1 day after completing version 1.0 of this program, I saw an IBM based book at the store offering the same idea. The codes were a smidge less sophisticated, and the program far less. Version 2.0 moves far beyond that. P L U G CodeMaker is shareware. If you use it, please send $10.00 US to: Raymond Marasa 6075 Battison street Vancouver, B.C. V5S 3M7 Canada CodeMaker may be freely distributed, but this file must accompany it, unaltered. C O D E M A K E R M E N U S APPLE MENU - About CodeMaker 2.0 Displays the CodeMaker about box giving copyright information. FILE MENU - Encode Encodes all text in the CodeMaker window. If no text is present, no encoding will happen. All text in the editor is read in line by line, internally encoded, then written back to the editor line by line. - Decode Decodes all text in the CodeMaker window. If no text is present, no decoding will happen. All text in the editor is read in line by line, internally decoded, then written back to the editor line by line. - Open Opens an existing CodeMaker document. If the file was encoded, the proper cipher will be selected in the Cipher menu. Other information as well, such as tab settings, RLE Compression and Invisible Save state. - Save Saves an existing CodeMaker document to disk. All CodeMaker settings will be saved with the file. - Save As Saves a new CodeMaker document for the first time, or a copy of an existing document to disk. - Revert Reverts back to the previously saved version of a file. - Print Prints the active CodeMaker document. A second dialog box comes up after the regular print dialog. This gives you yet another chance to cancel printing if necessary. - Preferences Allows you to set CodeMaker to start up in your code, with or without RLE compression, and with or without invisible file saves. - Transfer Allows you to leave CodeMaker and launch a new application, without first going through the Finder. If you have open files, CodeMaker will prompt you to save them before exiting. - Quit Quits the CodeMaker program. You will be prompted to save any unsaved document before leaving CodeMaker. EDIT MENU - Undo Undo is not supported in version 2.0 of CodeMaker. - Cut Cuts active text selection. - Copy Copies active text selection. - Copy As Table Copies selected text and converts (on the clipboard) each group of spaces to a single tab character. - Paste Pastes active text selection. - Clear Clears active text selection. - Select All Selects all text in the program window. - Clipboard Displays the contents of the clipboard. The clipboard also displays the amount of free heap memory. This number should not fall below 150K. CIPHER MENU - Caesar Makes Caesar cipher active. Named after Julius Caesar, this simple substitution cipher advances the character positions in the alphabet by 4. - Augustus Makes Augustus cipher active. An even simpler cipher named after the Emperor Augustus. Each character position in the alphabet is advanced 1 space. - Reverse Makes Reverse cipher active. The entire alphabet is reversed. i.e. A = Z. - Auto Encipherment Makes Auto Encipherment cipher active. - Keyword Makes Keyword cipher active. When encoding or decoding CodeMaker will prompt you for a keyword. - Rail Fence Makes Rail Fence cipher active. - Simple Transposition Makes Simple Transposition cipher active. - Computer XOR 1 Makes Computer XOR 1 cipher active. This cipher and the one below are based on computer logic. Since we're using a computer right now, these ciphers are perfect. In fact, you'll notice a speed increase with these ciphers over any other. - Computer XOR 255 Makes Computer XOR 255 cipher active. This cipher looks great on the screen. - Text Compression Makes Text Compression cipher active. This is not a true cipher by definition?, but it acts like one. Common patterns of English language text are compacted, along with RLE compression being applied. Certain patterns are so prevalent that almost every word is affected. You can expect savings of between 30 - 70%. - Hex Makes Hex cipher active. - Bacon Makes Bacon cipher active. Named after Sir Francis Bacon, this cipher uses groups of 3 letters ranging from A - C. - Nihilist Number Makes Nihilist Number cipher active. When encoding or decoding CodeMaker will prompt you for a keyword. This cipher was used by the Nihilists. A group dedicated to the overthrow of the Tsar of Russia. (They bombed him) - Vigenere Square Makes Vigenere Square cipher active. When encoding or decoding CodeMaker will prompt you for a keyword. Both this cipher and the similar Beaufort are very sophisticated transposition ciphers. - Beaufort Square Makes Beaufort Square cipher active. When encoding or decoding CodeMaker will prompt you for a keyword. This cipher is the reverse of the Vigenere Square. UTILITY MENU - RLE Compression Off Turns off the RLE Compression feature in the ciphers that use it. - RLE Compression On Turns on the RLE Compression feature in the ciphers that use it, otherwise nothing happens. RLE looks for patterns of repeating characters. For example 'AAAAA' in your text would be reduced to 2 characters. RLE is helpful, but not dramatic. Expect savings of about 10%. - Invisible Save Off Turns off the invisible save feature. Encoded files will be saved normally on the desktop or any disk/folder. - Invisible Save On Turns on the invisible save feature. Encoded files will be saved invisibly on the desktop or any disk/folder. This feature is added as a further layer of security for your encoded files. Invisible files can still be seen by CodeMaker. You can freely open and change them. - Make File Visible This feature allows you to make any invisible CodeMaker file visible again. The file does not have to be open. - Count Characters Count Characters will bring up a dialog box showing the number of characters/lines in the CodeMaker editor. This dialog is very fast, and can be used to compare compression savings. SPECIAL MENU - Editor Setup Here you have the option to configure the CodeMaker editor to your liking. - Search For An extremely powerful search and replace dialog with full unix grep capability for pattern searches. On-line help for searching is provided. Search For will also search for non alphanumeric characters. Tough to master, but? - Next Case Allows you to find the next occurrence of the last Search For command. This frees you from keeping the Search For dialog box open. - Tabs-To-Spaces This command is the reverse of the Copy As Table command. Each tab character will be converted to the number of spaces you have set in the Editor Setup. NOTE: It is sometimes a good idea to convert all tabs in your documents to spaces before encoding. U S I N G C O D E M A K E R - A T U T O R I A L ENCODING TEXT Double click the CodeMaker program icon to bring up a blank text window. Type "My 14 year old paper girl Maureen has 16 inch biceps!" (A true story!!!) into the window. The CodeMaker editor works on a line by line basis, so you must press the return key to enter your text into the editor. Select a code to use under the Cipher menu. CodeMaker defaults to Caesar for a new document, but select the Hex cipher from the menu for this example. Choose Encode from the File menu or use the command-E shortcut. CodeMaker will instantly encipher your text. Choose Save As… from the File menu, and save your encoded text to disk. Quit CodeMaker from the File menu or use the command-Q shortcut. DECODING TEXT Double click on your CodeMaker document icon to bring up the text window with your encoded text. Look under the File menu. Notice that the Encode command is not available. This is because CodeMaker recognizes this file as encoded. Therefore, it has highlighted the Decode command for you to use. Also, look under the Cipher menu. CodeMaker has selected the Hex code for you since the file was encoded with that Cipher. Choose Decode from the File menu or use the command-D shortcut. CodeMaker will instantly decipher your text, and you'll learn why I don't complain to Maureen if my papers late!!! PRINTING You may print either encoded or decoded text at any time. This gives you the ability to mail or hand deliver your secret messages. You can also examine the print outs to learn how the ciphers are applied. C O D E H I S T O R I E S CodeMakers ciphers come from history. Most were used for famous messages in history. And all were considered impossible to crack at the time. Today, any of these can be solved on the modern microcomputer. However, most people could not crack the Keyword, Nihilist Number, Vigenere or Beaufort Square ciphers without a detailed background of these ciphers. None of CodeMakers ciphers are foolproof, and you would be wise not to assume so. Keep sensitive matter safely locked away. However, few people will have the time or the skill to crack CodeMakers ciphers. To date, no one has done so. N O T E S You're looking at CodeMaker 2.0. CodeMaker 3.0, will soon be available, and only to registered owners. Some of the new features being considered for implementation are: - more ciphers, including the ultra secure RSA Public Key - increased text compression - locking of files, etc. - cryptanalysis (code breaking) with frequency tables, etc. - users may define custom ciphers - random generation of keys - updates on Maureen's bodybuilding - and much more! Remember, paying the shareware fee is the only way to ensure upgrades. Thanks! *** It is impossible to test software on all computers. CodeMaker 2.0 has been tried on everything from Plus's to Quadra's, System 6.02 to 7.01. However, problems happen. At the moment, you may need to turn off 32-bit addressing in the control panel under System 7. CodeMaker 1.0 files can be read into version 2.0. However, they will not set new features correctly. Read them in, adjust RLE Compression and Invisible Save, then do a Save As. Delete the 1.0 file. G L O S S A R Y - cipher a type of code where letters, or groups of letters are replaced by different letters of groups of letters. The replacement letter groups are usually of a fixed size. i.e. Caesar 1, Hex 2, Bacon 3. - code the replacement of entire words with other words or symbols. Codes require the creation of complete dictionaries, aka codebooks. i.e. S7 = 'Bodybuilder'. - DES Data Encryption Standard. The US government standard for encryption of unclassified documents. This has as a result, become the computer standard. However, the NSA can break this code easily. - keyword a group of characters that modify the substitution or transposition alphabet in the regular cipher. - RSA Public RSA Public Key encryption is the future. CodeMaker will implement it. In fact, Apple is implementing it in the MAC. So secure, the NSA worries. - substitution a type of cipher in which a letter is substituted for another. This is usually the simplest of ciphers to break. - transposition a type of cipher in which the letters are transposed. This makes breaking the cipher complicated due to all the possible transpositions.