In this article, we are going to discuss Top 5 Free Online Enigma Simulator Websites. As you may know, Enigma is an electro-mechanical cipher machine which has a history around WWII. It is used to encrypt the plaintext into ciphertext. Enigma machine works on the principle of letter substitution. An enigma machine substitutes the input letter by some other letter and this happens many times at different levels. And, that makes the output encrypted message very hard to decrypt until unless you know the exact settings of Enigma machine.
Talking about encryption, check out these Best Websites For Online Text Encryption Decryption.
Here Are The Top 5 Online Enigma Simulator Websites:
Enigmaco.de
Enigmaco.de is a free enigma simulator where you can simulate enigma to encrypt plaintext. This simulator has 3 rotors, a reflector, and a plugboard. It shows you the mapping of characters with each letter you type.
Features:
All 3 rotors have 5 different configurations. You can choose these configurations for each rotor, although, you cannot choose same rotor configuration for more than one rotor (that’s how enigma works). This simulator also has an option to share ciphertext or key as email to someone. You can see the configuration of your enigma machine via Chosen Key button. It shows you the rotors’ configurations and positions, as well as the Steckers (combinations you choose in the plugboard). It has a random key option which gives you random configurations for the rotors and the plugboard.
SummerSideMakerSpace.ca
Universal Enigma Machine Simulator is one of the enigma simulator projects available on from SummerSideMakerSpace. It can simulate 15 different Enigma machines. Rather than having a side view diagram of the Enigma, this simulator has a plain diagram. This plain diagram approach is very helpful to see and understand the character mapping inside the Enigma machine.
Features:
This Simulator has following Enigma Machines built-in:
- Enigma D
- Enigma I (Army)
- Norway Enigma (Norenigma)
- Enigma M3 (Army / Navy)
- Enigma M4 (Navy)
- Zählwerk (A-865)
- Enigma G (G-31)
- Enigma G (G-111)
- Railway Enigma (Rocket I)
- Enigma G (G-260)
- Enigma G (G-312)
- Swiss-K
- Enigma K
- Enigma KD
- Tirpitz (Enigma T)
After selecting an enigma machine, it can be configured accordingly. Like, the Enigma M4 (Navy) has 3 rotors with 7 different configurations, an extra thin rotor with 2 configurations, and the 3 different reflectors. You can configure it as per your choice.
Encryption of the plaintext is easy. You can encrypt your text letter by letter, and each letter will be mapped on the Enigma. Or, you can cipher the entire text at once; in that case only last letter’s mapping will be shown. Just below the cipher buttons, there is a play button with 2 speed-controls (this is the coolest feature of this simulator). Press this button, and it will cipher letters one by one and play real-time mapping for each letter, just like an actual enigma.
Lysator.Liu.se
The next website in the list is Lysator.liu.se. Rather than having a diagrammatic simulation, this website has a graphical simulation. The rotors are inside the machine covered with a top lid. Opening this lid gives you access to the rotors and the reflector. For the output, it has small lamps for each letter. It has QWERTZU keyboard for plaintext input. To cipher your text, you have to type that plaintext via this keyboard.
Features:
This simulator has two Enigma machines for encryption, Enigma 3 and Enigma 4 (digits after Enigma defines the number of rotors in that machine). By opening the top lid, you can change and configure the rotors and the reflector. This simulator has 6 different rotors and 2 reflectors to choose from.
Just like an actual Enigma machine, you can configure it from its different sides. You can change the reflectors from left-side view and rotors from the front view. From the right-side view, you can also enable/disable chains & carries for individual letters or for the entire row.
Enigma.Louisedada.co.uk
Enigma.louisedada.co.uk is a website that has information for understanding enigma machine. It explains the mechanics of enigma along with Daily Key Generation mechanism. You can simulate two famous Enigma machines here. And, the plugboard can be customized accordingly for both of them.
Features:
This simulator has two type of Enigma machines:
- Enigma M3 (Navy/Army/AirForce)
- Enigma M4 (Navy Only)
Here, you can configure the rotors and can also change the turnover positions for each rotor. It has a Save Settings button, which will generate a URL for this Enigma simulator with the same configurations. And, the plaintext input can be done letter by letter or block of text at a time.
People.Physik.Hu-Berlin.de
The last entry in this list of online enigma simulator websites is People.physik.hu-berlin.de. This is the only website with a secure HTTPS connection in the list. It has a Universal Enigma Simulator which has 12 different enigma machines’ simulations.
Features:
This online Enigma simulator supports following machines:
- I (Army; GAF)
- M3 (Army; Navy)
- M4 “Shark” (U-Boats)
- D (Commercial)
- K (Swiss)
- N “Norenigma” (Norway)
- R “Rocket” (Railway)
- T “Tirpitz” (Japan)
- A-865 “Zählwerk” (1928)
- G-111 (Hungry / Munich)
- G-260 (Abwehr, Argentina)
- G-312 (Abwehr / Bletchley)
It has a customizable plugboard. The plaintext input can be inserted letter by letter with QWERTZU type keyboard or text block as a whole. Apart from the rotors’ position, you can also change the ring setting for each rotor in this simulator.
Wrap Up
All these online Enigma simulator websites deliver what they are built for. The main purpose of these websites is simulation of Enigma machines, and only one of them uses secure HTTPS connection. That makes them doubtful in terms of data privacy. So, just avoid using them for personal use.
