Sunday, December 24, 2023

CrypTool 2 Release 2023.2 published

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In December 2023, we released "CrypTool 2 - 2023.2", the second release version this year. The last previous version of CrypTool 2 was released in June 2023.

Since June of this year, we have enriched CrypTool 2 with new components, improved existing templates and fixed various bugs. In the area of modern cryptography, we have integrated the Simplified AES cipher. As the name suggests, this is a simplified version of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). It was primarily developed for educational purposes and offers a simpler implementation and better understanding compared to the full AES.

We have also introduced a new component for encryption machines: the Lorenz SZ 42. This machine was used by the German armed forces during the Second World War and enabled high-level encrypted communication. In addition, the new release contains two classic ciphers: The first is the Affine Cipher, which works with simple mathematical operations. The second is the Grandpré cipher, which was originally described by A. de Grandpré and published in Paris in 1905.

CrypTool 2 has been extended by a new component for cryptanalysis. The M-209 analyzer was developed based on algorithms by George Lasry and enables the cryptanalysis of M-209 messages using ciphertext-only and know-plaintext attacks. We have also replaced all existing CrypTool 2 dictionaries with newly created ones and limited them to 100,000 words each. Otherwise, the cryptanalysis algorithms using these dictionaries would require too much execution time.

We would like to thank the many users who have sent us feedback, requests, praise and criticism. We hope that you enjoy using CT2 as much as we have enjoyed developing it!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2024! Stay healthy!

Yours sincerely, The CrypTool 2 development team, December 2023

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Changelog

You can read the changelog (in English) here: https://github.com/CrypToolProject/CrypTool-2/blob/main/CrypCore/Changelog/changelog.txt