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Trifid Cipher

Félix Delastelle’s three-dimensional fractionating cipher extending the Bifid concept to three dimensions for enhanced security.

Properties

Property	Value
Category	Classical Ciphers
Sub-category	Fractionating Cipher
Security status	🎓 Educational Only
Complexity	Advanced
Inventor	Félix Marie Delastelle
Year	1901
Origin	🇫🇷 France
Source	algorithms/classical/trifid.js

Security

Status: 🎓 Educational Only

No vulnerabilities are recorded for this implementation.

Documentation

• Trifid Cipher Wikipedia
• Delastelle Ciphers

References

• CrypTool 2 Trifid Cipher Plugin (open-source reference implementation)

Test vectors

3 vectors ship with this algorithm and run in the test suite. Byte values are hexadecimal.

Vector 1 — Delastelle’s own example as reproduced on Wikipedia - key alphabet from FELIX MARIE DELASTELLE, group size 5

Field	Value
key	46454c49584d4152494544454c415354454c4c452c35
input	41494445544f494c454349454c54414944455241
expected	464d4a46564f4953535546544650554645515143

Vector 2 — Basic Trifid example with period 5

Field	Value
key	35
input	48454c4c4f
expected	424f4a4e2b

Vector 3 — Military message with period 6

Field	Value
key	36
input	41545441434b41544441574e
expected	494241414548474842454445

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