[ARC5] Dead Pigeons, Secret Messages, and Random Numbers

[J. Forster]

This is why I posted my question:

Does anyone know how they produced the one-time pads?

If they came from a small set of books, it should be practical to
regenerate the pads, and decrypt the message.

I simply do not believe they were mechanically produced by any computer of
the day.

-John

============



>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Neil" <neilb at ihug.co.nz>
> To: "arc5" <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 5:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARC5] Dead Pigeons, Secret Messages, and
> Random Numbers
>
>
>>> This is a follow-up to the news story of the long-dead
>>> carrier pigeon
>>> found in a chimney in the UK with a 'secret'message
>>> attached.
>>>
>>> News reports say that the message may never be decoded,
>>> because it was
>>> encrypted using a one-time pad.
>>>
>>> Now the question: In WWII, how did they generate the
>>> random data to make
>>> one-time pads? And, how many distinct, different one-time
>>> pads were made?
>>>
>>> If the message were now in machine readable form, it
>>> could be quickly
>>> tested against a library of different one-time pads, but
>>> that would have
>>> been next to impossible 70 years ago.
>>
>>
>> I think it can be done slowly and tediously by both
>> parties agreeing on a
>> commonly available book (eg. the Bible) and using say,
>> every 8th letter.
>> For the next message, use every 9th letter, and so on.
>>
>> Look at this (scroll down to "Making one-time pads by
>> hand":
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_time_pad
>>
>> Also look at this intriguing Australian mystery. The
>> second link contains an
>> extensive mathematical analysis by Professor Abbott of the
>> murdered man's
>> coded message.
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case
>> https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/Critical_design_review_2009:_Who_killed_the_Somerton_man%3F
>>
>> 73 de Neil ZL1ANM
>> ______________________________________________________________
>
>
>      I will now go ga-ga. There is a detective story in
> which our hero decodes a message of this sort. I just can't
> remember if its Sherlock Holmes or Lord Peter Wimsey that
> does the trick. The detective first figures out what book
> both the sender and intended receiver would likely have.  He
> decides that the bible won't do because the pagination
> varies from edition to edition, also problems with other
> very common books. Then decides which one and tries it,
> doesn't work. Then realizes his edition of whatever it was
> is too new so tries an older one which works and voila, the
> message comes out.  My memory will eventually stand and
> deliver the answer but it will bother me until it does.
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
>
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