The operator of a Vigenere encryption machine is bored and encrypts a plaintext consisting of the same letter of the alphabet repeated several hundred times. The key is a seven-letter English word. Eve knows that the key is a word but does not yet know its length. What property of the ciphertext will make Eve suspect that the plaintext is one repeated letter and will allow her to guess that the key length is seven? What will the number of matches be for the different displacements?

Database System Concepts
7th Edition
ISBN:9780078022159
Author:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Publisher:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Chapter1: Introduction
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The operator of a Vigenere encryption machine is bored and encrypts a plaintext consisting of the same letter of the alphabet repeated several hundred times. The key is a seven-letter English word. Eve knows that the key is a word but does not yet know its length.

What property of the ciphertext will make Eve suspect that the plaintext is one repeated letter and will allow her to guess that the key length is seven?

What will the number of matches be for the different displacements?

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