Introduction

Recently, I've been studying Latin squares and their role in classical cryptography including the one-time pad. Latin squares are NxN squares where no element in a row is duplicated in that same row, and no element in a column is duplicated in that column. The popular Sudoku game is a puzzle that requires building a Latin square.

As I delved deeper and deeper into the subject, I realized that there is a rich history here that I would like to introduce you to. Granted, this post is not an expansive nor exhaustive discussion on Latin squares. Rather, it's meant to introduce you to the topic, so you can look into it on your own if this interests you.

In each of the sections below, the "A" and "N" characters are highlighted in the table image to demonstrate that the table is indeed a Latin square. Further, you can click on any table image to enlarge.

Tabula Recta

The Tabula Recta is the table probably most are familiar with, and recognize it as the Vigenère table. However, the table was first used by German author and monk Johannes Trithemius in 1508, which it was used in his Trithemius polyalphabetic cipher. This was a good 15 years before Blaise de Vigenère was even born, 43 years before Giovan Battista Bellaso wrote about his cipher using the table in his 1553 book "La cifra del. Sig. Giovan Battista Bellaso", and 78 years before Blaise de Vigenère improved upon Bellaso's cipher.

Today, we know it as either the "tabula recta" or the "Vigenère table". Regardless, each row shifts the alphabet one character to the left, creating a series of 26 Caesar cipher shifts. This property of the shifted alphabets turns out to be a weakness with the Vigenère cipher, in that if a key repeats, we can take advantage of the Caesar shifts to discover the key length, then the key, then finally breaking the ciphertext.

Jim Sandborn integrated a keyed tabula recta into his Kryptos sculpture in the 2nd and 4th panels. Even though the first 3 passages in the Kryptos sculpture have been cracked, the 4th passage remains a mystery.

Beaufort Table

More than 250 years later, Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort modified the Vigenère cipher by using a reciprocal alphabet and changing the way messages were encrypted. Messages were still encrypted with a repeating key, similar to the Vigenère cipher, but plaintext character was located in the first column and the key in the first row. The intersection was the ciphertext. This became the Beaufort cipher.

His reasoning in why he used a different table and changed the enciphering process isn't clear. It may have been as simple as knowing concepts about the Vigenère cipher without knowing the specific details. He may have had other reasons.

One thing to note, however, is that Vigenère-encrypted ciphertexts cannot be decrypted with a Beaufort table and vice versa. Even though the Beaufort cipher suffers from the same cryptanalysis, the Caesar shifts are different, and the calculation if using numbers instead of letters is also different.

The Beaufort table was integrated into a hardware encryption machine called the Hagelin M-209. The M-209 was used by the United States military during WWII and through the Korean War. The machine itself was small, and compact, coming in about the size of a lunchbox and only weighing 6 pounds, which was remarkable for the time.

One thing to note, is that the Beaufort table has "Z" in the upper-left corner, with the reciprocal alphabet in the first row and first column, as shown in the image above. Any other table that is not exactly as shown above that claims to be the Beaufort table is not correct.

NSA's DIANA Reciprocal Table

Of course, the narcissistic NSA needs their own polyalphabetic table! We can't let everyone else be the only ones who have tables! I'm joking of course, as there is a strong argument for using this reciprocal table rather than the Beaufort.

Everyone is familiar with the one-time pad, a proven theoretically unbreakable cipher if used correctly. There are a few ways in which to use the one-time pad, such as using XOR or modular addition and subtraction. Another approach is to use a lookup table. The biggest problem with the tabula recta is when using the one-time pad by hand, it's easy to lookup the wrong row or column and introduce mistakes into the enciphering process.

However, due to the reciprocal properties of the "DIANA" table (don't you love all the NSA codenames?), encryption and decryption are identical, which means they only require only a single column. A key "row" is no longer needed, and the order of plain, key and cipher letter don't matter (Vigenère vs Beaufort) and may even differ for sender and receiver. Just like with Beaufort, this table is incompatible with Vigenère-encrypted ciphertexts. Further, it's also incompatible with Beaufort-encrypted ciphertexts, especially if it's a one-time pad. The Beaufort table shifts the alphabet to the right, while the DIANA table shifts the alphabet to the left. The tabula recta also shifts left.

Let's make one thing clear here- this table was created strictly for ease of use, not for increased security. When using the one-time pad, the key is at least the length of the message, which means it doesn't repeat. So it doesn't matter that the table is 26 Caesar-shifted alphabets. That property won't show itself in one-time pad ciphertexts.

E.J. Williams' Balanced Tables

Stepping away from cryptography for a moment, and entering the world of mathematics, and in this case, mathematical models applied to farming, we come across E.J. Williams' balanced tables. Note how the "A" and "N" characters are populated throughout the table compared to what we've seen previously.

The paper is modeling chemical treatments to crops over a span of time, and how to approach the most efficient means of applying those treatments. The effects of the previous treatment, called the "residual effect" is then analyzed. A method based on a "balanced" Latin square is discussed. It is then applied to multiple farming sites and analyzed.

Now, I know what you're thinking- "Let's use this for a cipher table!". Well, if you did, and your key repeated throughout the message, the ciphertext would not exhibit Caesar-shifted characteristics like Vigenère and Beaufort. However, the table is still deterministic, and as such, knowing how the table is built will give cryptanalysts the edge necessary to still break Williams-encrypted ciphertexts.

Michael Damm's Anti-Symmetric Quasigroups of Order 26

Also in the world of mathematics are quasigroups. These are group algebras that must be both totalitive and invertible, but not necessarily associative. Michael Damm researched quasigroups as the basis for an integrity checksum, such as in calculating the last digit of a credit card number. But, not only did he research quasigroups, but anti-symmetric quasigroups. Anti-symmetry is a set algebra concept. If "(c*x)*y = (c*y)*x", then this implies that "x = y", and thus the set is symmetric. An anti-symmetric set means "(c*x)*y != (c*y)*x", and as such, "x != y".

Michael Damm, while researching checksums, introduced us to anti-symmetric quasigroups. One property was required, and that was that the main diagonal was "0", or "A" in our case. The Damm algorithm creates a checksum, such that when verifying the check digit, the result places you on the main diagonal, and thus returns "0". Note that any quasigroup can be represented by a Latin square.

Due to the nature of the Damm algorithm as a checksum, this could be used to verify the integrity of a plaintext message before encrypting using a quasigroup of order 26, as shown above. The sender could calculate the checksum of his plaintext message, and append the final character to the plaintext before encrypting. The recipient, after decrypting the message, could then run the same Damm checksum algorithm against the full plaintext message. If the result is "A", the message wasn't modified.

Notice in my image above, that while "A" rests along the main diagonal, the rest of the alphabets are randomized, or at least shuffled. It really isn't important how the alphabets are created, so long as they meet the requirements of being an anti-symmetric quasigroup.

Random Tables

Finally, we have randomized Latin squares. These are still Latin squares, such that for any element in a row, it is not duplicated in that row, and for any element in a column, it is not duplicated in that column. Other than that, however, there is no relationship between rows, columns, or elements. Their use is interesting in a few areas.

First, suppose I give you a partially filled Latin square as a "public key", with instructions on how to encrypt with it. I could then use my fully filled Latin square "private key", of which the public is a subset of. Using this private key, with some other algorithm, I could then decrypt your message. It turns out, filling in a partially-filled Latin square is NP-complete, meaning that we don't know of any polynomial-time algorithm currently can can complete the task. As such, this builds a good foundation for public key cryptography, as briefly outlined here.

Further, because of the lack of any structure in a randomized Latin square, aside from the requirements of being a Latin square, these make good candidates for symmetric message authentication code (MAC) designs. For example, a question on the cryptography StackExchange asked if there was any humanly-verifiable way to add message authentication to the one-time pad. The best answer suggested using a circular buffer as a signature, which incorporates the key, the plaintext, modular addition, and the Latin square. By having a randomized Latin square as the foundation for a MAC tag, no structure is present in the authenticated signature itself. Note, the table can still be public.

Steve Gibson incorporated Latin squares into a deterministic password manager. Of course, as with all deterministic password managers, there are some fatal flaws in their design. Further, his approach, while "off the grid", is rather cumbersome in execution. But it is creative, and certainly worth mentioning here as a randomized Latin square.

Conclusion

Latin squares have fascinated mathematicians for centuries, and in this post, we have seen their use en cryptography, mathematical modeling, data integrity, message authentication, and even password generation. This only shows briefly their potential.