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Playfair Cipher

The Playfair cipher is a digraph substitution cipher that encrypts pairs of letters (digraphs). It uses a 5x5 grid generated from the encryption key, with each letter occupying one cell. To encrypt a digraph, the rules are: if letters are in the same row, replace them with the letters to their right (wrapping to the left if on the far right); if in the same column, replace them with the letters below (wrapping to the top if on the bottom row); otherwise replace them with the letters in the other diagonal positions of the rectangle formed by the two letters. Decryption follows the same process in reverse order.

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125 views8 pages

Playfair Cipher

The Playfair cipher is a digraph substitution cipher that encrypts pairs of letters (digraphs). It uses a 5x5 grid generated from the encryption key, with each letter occupying one cell. To encrypt a digraph, the rules are: if letters are in the same row, replace them with the letters to their right (wrapping to the left if on the far right); if in the same column, replace them with the letters below (wrapping to the top if on the bottom row); otherwise replace them with the letters in the other diagonal positions of the rectangle formed by the two letters. Decryption follows the same process in reverse order.

Uploaded by

Shivansh Yashasvi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Playfair Cipher

 The Playfair cipher was the first practical digraph substitution cipher.
 In Playfair cipher, we encrypt a pair of alphabets (digraphs) instead of a
single alphabet.

Encryption Technique
For the encryption process let us consider the following example:

The Playfair Cipher Encryption Algorithm consists of 2 steps:

1. Generate the key Square (5×5):


 The key square is a 5×5 grid of alphabets that acts as the key for
encrypting the plaintext.
 Each of the 25 alphabets must be unique and one letter of the
alphabet (usually J) is omitted from the table (as the table can hold
only 25 alphabets). If the plaintext contains J, then it is replaced by I.
(OR) cell with ‘I’ can be represented as ‘I/J’.
 The initial alphabets in the key square are the unique alphabets of the
key in the order in which they appear followed by the remaining
letters of the alphabet in order.

For example: The key is "monarchy".


Thus, the initial entries are 'm', 'o', 'n', 'a', 'r', 'c', 'h', 'y'
followed by remaining characters of a-z (except 'j') in that order.
2. Algorithm to encrypt the plain text:
 The plaintext is split into pairs of two letters (digraphs).
 If there is an odd number of letters, Z is added to the last letter.
For example:
PlainText: "instruments"
After Split: 'in' 'st' 'ru' 'me' 'nt' 'sz'

Rules for Encryption:


 If both the letters are in the same column: Take the letter below
each one (going back to the top if at the bottom).
For example:
Diagraph: "me"
Encrypted Text: cl
Encryption: m -> c e -> l
 If both the letters are in the same row: Take the letter to the right
of each one (going back to the leftmost if at the rightmost position).
For example:
Diagraph: "st"
Encrypted Text: tl
Encryption: s -> t t -> l

 If neither of the above rules is true: Form a rectangle with the two
letters and take the letters on the horizontal opposite corner of the
rectangle.
For example:
Diagraph: "nt"
Encrypted Text: rq
Encryption: n -> r t -> q
For example:
Plain Text: "instrumentsz"
Encrypted Text: gatlmzclrqtx
Encryption: (Green -> Red)
i -> g
n -> a
s -> t
t -> l
r -> m
u -> z
m -> c
e -> l
n -> r
t -> q
s -> t
z -> x
Decryption Technique
 Decrypting the Playfair cipher is the same process in reverse.
 The receiver has the same key and can create the same key table, and
then decrypt any messages made using that key.

The Playfair Cipher Decryption Algorithm consists of 2 steps:

1. Generate the key Square (5×5) at the receiver’s end:


 The key square is a 5×5 grid of alphabets that acts as the key for
encrypting the plaintext. Each of the 25 alphabets must be unique
and one letter of the alphabet (usually J) is omitted from the table
(as the table can hold only 25 alphabets). If the plaintext contains
J, then it is replaced by I.
 The initial alphabets in the key square are the unique alphabets of
the key in the order in which they appear followed by the
remaining letters of the alphabet in order.
Note: For both encryption and decryption, the same key is to be
used.
For example:
The key is "monarchy"
Thus, the initial entries are 'm', 'o', 'n', 'a', 'r', 'c', 'h', 'y'
followed by remaining characters of a-z (except 'j') in that order.
2. Algorithm to decrypt the ciphertext:
 The ciphertext is split into pairs of two letters (digraphs).
 Note: The ciphertext always have even number of characters.
For example:
CipherText: "gatlmzclrqtx"
After Split: 'ga' 'tl' 'mz' 'cl' 'rq' 'tx'

Rules for Decryption:


 If both the letters are in the same column: Take the letter above
each one (going back to the bottom if at the top).
For example:
Diagraph: "cl"
Decrypted Text: me
Decryption: c -> m l -> e
 If both the letters are in the same row: Take the letter to the left
of each one (going back to the rightmost if at the leftmost
position).
For example:
Diagraph: "tl"
Decrypted Text: st
Decryption: t -> s l -> t

 If neither of the above rules is true: Form a rectangle with the


two letters and take the letters on the horizontal opposite corner
of the rectangle.
For example:
Diagraph: "rq"
Decrypted Text: nt
Decryption: r -> n q -> t
For example:
Cipher Text: "gatlmzclrqtx"
Decrypted Text: instrumentsz
Decryption: (Red -> Green
ga -> in
tl -> st
mz -> ru
cl -> me
rq -> nt
tx -> sz

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