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Added Simple Cipher metadata and exercise dir content
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Bajger committed Sep 18, 2023
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16 changes: 16 additions & 0 deletions config.json
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"lists",
"list-methods"
]
},
{
"slug": "simple-cipher",
"name": "Simple Cipher",
"uuid": "83b2fe48-3b61-4c08-b711-51fe5b654638",
"practices": [],
"prerequisites": [],
"difficulty" : 5,
"topics" : [
"strings",
"string-methods",
"loops",
"numbers",
"lists",
"randomness"
]
}
]
},
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66 changes: 66 additions & 0 deletions exercises/practice/simple-cipher/.docs/instructions.md
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# Instructions

Implement a simple shift cipher like Caesar and a more secure substitution cipher.

## Step 1

"If he had anything confidential to say, he wrote it in cipher, that is, by so changing the order of the letters of the alphabet, that not a word could be made out.
If anyone wishes to decipher these, and get at their meaning, he must substitute the fourth letter of the alphabet, namely D, for A, and so with the others."
—Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar

Ciphers are very straight-forward algorithms that allow us to render text less readable while still allowing easy deciphering.
They are vulnerable to many forms of cryptanalysis, but Caesar was lucky that his enemies were not cryptanalysts.

The Caesar Cipher was used for some messages from Julius Caesar that were sent afield.
Now Caesar knew that the cipher wasn't very good, but he had one ally in that respect: almost nobody could read well.
So even being a couple letters off was sufficient so that people couldn't recognize the few words that they did know.

Your task is to create a simple shift cipher like the Caesar Cipher.
This image is a great example of the Caesar Cipher:

![Caesar Cipher][img-caesar-cipher]

For example:

Giving "iamapandabear" as input to the encode function returns the cipher "ldpdsdqgdehdu".
Obscure enough to keep our message secret in transit.

When "ldpdsdqgdehdu" is put into the decode function it would return the original "iamapandabear" letting your friend read your original message.

## Step 2

Shift ciphers quickly cease to be useful when the opposition commander figures them out.
So instead, let's try using a substitution cipher.
Try amending the code to allow us to specify a key and use that for the shift distance.

Here's an example:

Given the key "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", encoding the string "iamapandabear"
would return the original "iamapandabear".

Given the key "ddddddddddddddddd", encoding our string "iamapandabear"
would return the obscured "ldpdsdqgdehdu"

In the example above, we've set a = 0 for the key value.
So when the plaintext is added to the key, we end up with the same message coming out.
So "aaaa" is not an ideal key.
But if we set the key to "dddd", we would get the same thing as the Caesar Cipher.

## Step 3

The weakest link in any cipher is the human being.
Let's make your substitution cipher a little more fault tolerant by providing a source of randomness and ensuring that the key contains only lowercase letters.

If someone doesn't submit a key at all, generate a truly random key of at least 100 lowercase characters in length.

## Extensions

Shift ciphers work by making the text slightly odd, but are vulnerable to frequency analysis.
Substitution ciphers help that, but are still very vulnerable when the key is short or if spaces are preserved.
Later on you'll see one solution to this problem in the exercise "crypto-square".

If you want to go farther in this field, the questions begin to be about how we can exchange keys in a secure way.
Take a look at [Diffie-Hellman on Wikipedia][dh] for one of the first implementations of this scheme.

[img-caesar-cipher]: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Caesar_cipher_left_shift_of_3.svg/320px-Caesar_cipher_left_shift_of_3.svg.png
[dh]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange
17 changes: 17 additions & 0 deletions exercises/practice/simple-cipher/.meta/config.json
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{
"authors": [],
"files": {
"solution": [
"SimpleCipher.class.st"
],
"test": [
"SimpleCipherTest.class.st"
],
"example": [
".meta/solution/SimpleCipher.class.st"
]
},
"blurb": "Implement a simple shift cipher like Caesar and a more secure substitution cipher.",
"source": "Substitution Cipher at Wikipedia",
"source_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitution_cipher"
}
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"
I represent Simple Cipher, I do simple encoding/decoding based on either supplied or own generated key. I support operations encode, decode with input string parameter. Optionally, key can be passed, based on which encoding/decoding should happen.
"
Class {
#name : #SimpleCipher,
#superclass : #Object,
#instVars : [
'key',
'alphabet'
],
#category : #'Exercise@SimpleCipher'
}

{ #category : #accessing }
SimpleCipher >> alphabet [

"lowercase alphabet, it is cached since we do not want to create copies for every loop iteration"
^ alphabet ifNil: [ alphabet := Character alphabet ]
]

{ #category : #exercism }
SimpleCipher >> decode: aString [

^ aString withIndexCollect: [: char :idx|
self alphabet at: (self decodedIndexOf: char atKeyPosition: idx )
]
]

{ #category : #exercism }
SimpleCipher >> decodedIndexOf: aChar atKeyPosition: keyPos [

|idx|
idx := (self alphabet indexOf: aChar) - (self keyDistanceAt: keyPos).
idx < 1 ifTrue: [ ^ self alphabet size + idx ].
^ idx
]

{ #category : #exercism }
SimpleCipher >> encode: aString [

^ aString withIndexCollect: [: char :idx|
self alphabet at: (self encodedIndexOf: char atKeyPosition: idx )
]
]

{ #category : #exercism }
SimpleCipher >> encodedIndexOf: aChar atKeyPosition: keyPos [

|idx|
idx := (self alphabet indexOf: aChar) + (self keyDistanceAt: keyPos).
idx > self alphabet size ifTrue: [ ^ idx \\ self alphabet size ].
^ idx
]

{ #category : #private }
SimpleCipher >> generateRandomKey [

| aKey |
aKey := String new: 100.
1 to: 100 do: [:idx | aKey at: idx put: self alphabet atRandom ].
^ aKey
]

{ #category : #accessing }
SimpleCipher >> key [

^ key ifNil: [ key := self generateRandomKey ]
]

{ #category : #accessing }
SimpleCipher >> key: lowerCaseString [

key := lowerCaseString
]

{ #category : #exercism }
SimpleCipher >> keyDistanceAt: keyPos [
|aPos|
"use modulo to wrap index to size of key"
aPos := keyPos \\ self key size.

"when current index of encoded/decoded letter is equal to size of key"
aPos isZero ifTrue: [ aPos := self key size ].

"returns for how many letters target letter should be shifted"
^ (self alphabet indexOf: (self key at: aPos)) - 1

]
46 changes: 46 additions & 0 deletions exercises/practice/simple-cipher/.meta/tests.toml
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# This is an auto-generated file.
#
# Regenerating this file via `configlet sync` will:
# - Recreate every `description` key/value pair
# - Recreate every `reimplements` key/value pair, where they exist in problem-specifications
# - Remove any `include = true` key/value pair (an omitted `include` key implies inclusion)
# - Preserve any other key/value pair
#
# As user-added comments (using the # character) will be removed when this file
# is regenerated, comments can be added via a `comment` key.

[b8bdfbe1-bea3-41bb-a999-b41403f2b15d]
description = "Random key cipher -> Can encode"

[3dff7f36-75db-46b4-ab70-644b3f38b81c]
description = "Random key cipher -> Can decode"

[8143c684-6df6-46ba-bd1f-dea8fcb5d265]
description = "Random key cipher -> Is reversible. I.e., if you apply decode in a encoded result, you must see the same plaintext encode parameter as a result of the decode method"

[defc0050-e87d-4840-85e4-51a1ab9dd6aa]
description = "Random key cipher -> Key is made only of lowercase letters"

[565e5158-5b3b-41dd-b99d-33b9f413c39f]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Can encode"

[d44e4f6a-b8af-4e90-9d08-fd407e31e67b]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Can decode"

[70a16473-7339-43df-902d-93408c69e9d1]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Is reversible. I.e., if you apply decode in a encoded result, you must see the same plaintext encode parameter as a result of the decode method"

[69a1458b-92a6-433a-a02d-7beac3ea91f9]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Can double shift encode"

[21d207c1-98de-40aa-994f-86197ae230fb]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Can wrap on encode"

[a3d7a4d7-24a9-4de6-bdc4-a6614ced0cb3]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Can wrap on decode"

[e31c9b8c-8eb6-45c9-a4b5-8344a36b9641]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Can encode messages longer than the key"

[93cfaae0-17da-4627-9a04-d6d1e1be52e3]
description = "Substitution cipher -> Can decode messages longer than the key"
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