Vigenère Cracking Lab

A long message, enciphered with a keyword you don't know. Guess the key length, look at every N-th letter, and read the keyword out of the peaks.

Ciphertext

Use your own text

Paste a ciphertext whose key you don't know, or paste a plaintext and a key to make a fresh challenge. Letters only are used; everything else is dropped.

Frequency analysis at key length Stream i holds letters i, i+N, i+2N, … Click the bar you think is E.

Evidence for the key length

Average index of coincidence across the N streams. Ticks at 0.038 (random) and 0.066 (English).

When N is right, or a multiple of the right length, every stream is a Caesar cipher and its IC jumps toward English.

Share of repeat distances divisible by N.

Your key

Does it read as English? Statistics of the plaintext above, next to what ordinary English and random letters give.