The Atbash cipher is a substitution cipher where each letter
in the plaintext
is replaced by its counterpart at the opposite end of the alphabet. Essentially, it flips the
alphabet so that "A" becomes "Z," "B" becomes "Y," "C" becomes "X," and so on.
The Atbash Cipher, one of the oldest known ciphers, dates back to at least 500 BCE. Initially used
by Hebrew scribes to encode biblical and other texts, it was later adopted by the Greeks and Romans
for encrypting messages in their languages. Although simple and straightforward, modern
cryptographic techniques can easily decipher it.
How it works: Encryption
The Atbash Cipher is straightforward: replace each plaintext letter with its
counterpart from the reversed alphabet. For example, "atbash" encrypts to "ZGYZHS" where "a" becomes
"Z", "t" becomes "G", and so forth.!
How it works: Decryption
Decryption mirrors encryption due to the cipher's symmetric nature. Using the
same reversed alphabet, "XRKSVI" decrypts back to "cipher". Both processes utilize the same
ciphertext alphabet, ensuring simplicity and consistency.