Tool to decrypt / encrypt with Félix Marie Delastelle's Trifid cipher having 3 grids of 9 characters.
Delastelle Trifid Cipher - dCode
Tag(s) : Poly-Alphabetic Cipher, GRID_CIPHER
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Delastelle Trifid Cipher
Trifid Decoder
Delastelle's Trifid Encoder
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is Delastelle Trifid cipher? (Definition)
Delatelle trifid cipher is a polyalphabetic cipher using a three-dimensional grid (or 3 grids) and triplets (grid, row, column).
How to encrypt using Delastelle Trifid cipher?
The Delastelle trifid cipher uses three 9-character grids (for 27 distinct characters in total) and an integer N (usually 5 or 7).
Example: Encrypt the message SECRET, with N = 5 and grids
| Grid 1 | Grid 2 | Grid 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Often, a keyword is used to generate a disordered alphabet with 27 characters (the Latin alphabet accompanied by another symbol like _ replacing any non-alphabetic character)
Step 1: For each character, search for it in grids and note are triplet of 3 corresponding digits (grid, row, column)
Example: S is in grid 3, row 1, column 1, its triplet is 311
Step 2: Write the triplets in columns, in groups of N columns next to each other and read each group in rows.
Example:
| S | E | C | R | E | | | T |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
Reading group 1: 31121,12132,12332, group 2: 312
Step 3: Cut out each sequence of digits read in triplet (group of 3 digits) corresponding to [grid, row, column]and note the corresponding letter. These letters constitute the encrypted message.
Example: 311,211,213,212,332,312 corresponds to SJLKZT
How to decrypt Delastelle Trifid cipher?
Decryption is very similar to encryption, the difference is in step 2.
Example: Decrypt the message SJLKZT, with N = 5 and grids
| Grid 1 | Grid 2 | Grid 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Step 1: identical to encryption
Step 2: Take the triplets in groups of N and write them in N-length rows below each other then read each group in columns.
Example: 311,211,213,212,332,312 is written
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | | | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | | | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | | |
Reading group 1: 311,122,113,233,123, group 2: 3,1,2
Step 3: Identical to encryption
Example: 311,122,113,233,123,312 corresponds to the plain message SECRET
How to recognize a Trifid ciphertext?
The message is theoretically composed of not more than 27 distinct characters.
What are the variants of the Trifid cipher?
The N number quickly changes the encrypted message, for better encryption, it is advisable to take a value of N coprime with 3.
When was Trifid invented?
Félix Marie Delastelle described this encryption in 1902 in his book Traité Élémentaire de Cryptographie
Source code
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Delastelle Trifid Cipher on dCode.fr [online website], retrieved on 2024-05-01,
