Useless [hacker|cracker|computer-criminal|*] Movie Trivia: Enigma

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This page (like others in the Useless Trivia space) exist to provide analysis and review of computer security in films. Reviews of usernames and passwords used in these films will be mentioned as they can be found and identified.

Enigma: Conspiracy, War/Spy, Espionage, Cryptography

Key points in movie

Depiction of an Enigma coding machine having its rotors being selected and joined.
Depiction of offset for the wheels starting positions and each rotor's offset selected.
In the movie, the letters that line up to the "B" line for the three wheels chosen: Q, W, Q
Once the rotos are covered, the three letters in the display are: X, A, T

Crib sheet of double letter combinations is offered:

               PN ZC WT R?
JT NW DU EO KV BY FS HQ IN
RW OQ GI AZ EJ MS CU DH FY
NP JV LY IX KQ AO DZ CR FT
NC BJ RU YE ?? QM PK TG XD
JP DY QS K? ?? NW CU ?K
JS LW ?? ?? ??

Enigma Keyboard layout:

   Q W E R T Z U I O
    A S D F G H J K
   P Y X C V B N M L

Key pressed on Enigma coding machine: (format: "letter pressed" [letter lit up]) H [W?], H [X] (and one more off screen by sound, but we dont see anything light up.)
Key press: (format: "letter pressed" [letter lit up]) W [C]
There is mention of utilizing a weather report from a German weather station that used Enigma, but they did not detail the fact the weather report was often the same each time helping make it possible to find a key with each generation of key changes.
It appears they reference some credit to Polish Mathematicians (who broke early Enigma codes) by including them at Blechley Park as code breakers.
In the sequence when Jerico and Hester are in the barn we hear the dialog for decoding the messages we hear her mention the "Kestral settings" for the first message from the Germans in the Ukraine:
- Rotor order: 354 (Rotors 3, 5 and 4)
- Ring locations and orientation with respect to rotors (on the display): RXO
- Plugboard: AOEM
During his demonstration of the Enigma Coding Machine: B [H], H [S], H [E], H [J], H [L]
After returning from the car, we see [T] lit up on the Enigma, but do not see what key was pressed.
She states KEU and the key is set to XAT
An extra key sequence includes some key being pressed with [T] appearing on the unit.
As they start the decoding process, we see the part of the encoded version: (Note how what is spoken vs what is written (in the barn on the encoded and "decoded" message) are different.)
```
     ??? ???4?  2355   7?
     TGD DE ADU  (2330)
     YEWUM  VQIGC ZTHOK J
     ????M  BZQPQ BDWSY *
```
First attempt to decode (what was spoken): Y [K], E [A], W [C], U [Z], M [O], V [?], Q [X], K [Z], E [R], O [A], F [D]
- ?- We do not hear or see the results of this from the machine.
We see she has this written on the "Decoded" paper (in the barn)
```
      XAT
     KACZO RXGRZ
      XRAD
```
You should note some differences from the letters that should have been stated from the encoded message and some of the letters stated as the decoded version versus what letters were written down as the decoded letters.
To add further complication, when she gets home, she pulls out what we are lead to believe is the same sheet of paper with the "decoded message, but we find it has differences with the first paper with the "Decoded message":
```
      XAT
     KACZO RXGRZ EGAR
```

Sheet with encoded data:

     ??? ???4?  2355   7?
     TGD DE ADU  (2330)
     YEWUM  VQIGC ZTHOK J
     ????M  BZQPQ BDWSY *
(* Probably "R" or "B")
(? Not in frame)

She later decodes a segment on her own. We only see one key pressed (R [I]), but the list of known key-presses and deocded values: (We later return to her and find she also pressed: (Q [X], ? [A],
```
     ANOKH  XDRRIN
```
In the decoding room, they seem to need to use the location of the U-Boats to aide their key processing. (From a map's coordinates, Grid location "BD1491")
Key strokes from the U-Boat: Y [K], W [C]
Scenes come up where they are trying to create new "crib" sheets for the change in "shark":
```
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

 QGMIVVEESERQYGBWIAHKHW
 CKSAKAFVMWZJQKDXQRZA??
```
- * Probably "R" or "Q"
- ?? Was actually a "??"
Letters in bold were circuled vertically (paired with letter immediately below/above)
```
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

 QGMIVVEESERQYGBWIAHKHW
 CKSAKAFVMWZJQKDXQRZA??
```
Then a triangle is drawn with the letters "V", "A", and "K" found at each points of the triangle. (One letter at each point.)
Then "M" and "S" and "S" and "M" combinations are circled on another sheet.

As morning returns, SHE (Hester) has a sheet of hand-written data (encoded? decoded? Should be decoded since all hand-written data has been decoded while encoded data was typed.):

     EXJMR OWEIC XHENR YKXMR
     OWEIC XLEOP OLOXM ROWEI
     CXPAV ELXMR OWEIC XSTAN
     ISLAW XOLEJ NIKXG RZEGA
     ?ZXOL EJNIK XJOZE FXOLE
     #NIKX MARIA N

     ##### LAXJF RZYXD IEKAR
     ##### ##### PIETR ASZAK
     ##### ##### ##### ANUSZ

     (? Probably "P" but maybe "R")
     (# Unknown)

Back at Blechley they are still working on the latest code and have what looks a bit like a Finite State Machine: (They call this a "menu" in the film.)

                  FT         RT
               A----------U--------D
               |                  /
               | FV              /
               |                /
               V               / DU
               |              /
         ??    | ZV          /
       ________|     RE     /
      G________K------------F
                            |
         ??                 |??
                     ??     |     DV
                Y-----------S-----------X

(Where the "?" are unknown letters -- letters I could not read on the DVD.)

More to be done. This DVD appears to have problems. Will need to rent another later.

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Useless Trivia: Movie reviews with respect to computer security.