[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-ai-cracks-85-year-old-nazi-enigma-message-in-two-days":10,"sections":34},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":29,"feedback":33,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":33,"total_tokens":33},7972,"ai-cracks-85-year-old-nazi-enigma-message-in-two-days","AI Cracks 85-Year-Old Nazi Enigma Message in Two Days","An AI model built its own Enigma simulator and codebreaking software, then solved a WWII German cipher that stumped human cryptanalysts for two decades.","An AI model just cracked a Nazi Enigma message that had outlasted two decades of amateur cryptanalysis.\n\nThe cipher, known as MVUEH, was sent by the German Army to the SS-Totenkopf Division on July 10, 1941. Crypto Cellar Research posted it online in 2005 as one of several unsolved wartime Enigma transmissions, and it sat unbroken until researchers asked the AI model Astra to try its luck on the site's list of unsolved messages. Astra picked this particular message on its own, guessed it might share plaintext with a related cipher, then wrote its own Python and C++ code to simulate an Enigma machine and run a Bombe-style attack. Two days later it produced a plaintext: a routine request for a march route, with the location Rosenow repeated twice.\n\nThe message itself is mundane, a low-level radio check-in. What stands out is that nobody pointed Astra at this specific puzzle or handed it a crib; it chose the target and built its own cryptanalysis tools from scratch. Crypto Cellar researchers say the same work would take a human cryptanalyst weeks or months, and they are still reviewing logs to understand how Astra moved so fast. This is also the second historical cipher Astra has broken in a week, following a 108-year-old WWI cipher solved using the ADFGVX method.\n\nTwo wins in seven days looks less like a fluke and more like a system methodically working through a backlog of unsolved wartime ciphers, the kind of grinding, trial-and-error task machines tend to handle better than people. Still, the payoff here was an officer asking for directions, not a buried secret. Codebreaking headlines are usually more exciting than codebreaking results.","[\"ai\",\"cryptography\",\"enigma\",\"wwii\"]","2026-09-26T10:00:00.000Z","2026-09-26T11:17:41.508Z","2026-09-26T11:17:47.426Z","published",null,[],"ai",[24,26,27,28],"cryptography","enigma","wwii",[30],{"name":31,"url":32},"Tom's Hardware","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.tomshardware.com\u002Ftech-industry\u002Fartificial-intelligence\u002Fchatgpt-6-astra-cracks-1941-enigma-coded-message-in-two-days-autonomous-ai-coded-its-own-simulator-to-crack-code-that-was-unsolved-since-it-was-shared-online-back-in-2005",0,{"sections":35},[36,40,45,50,55,60,64,69,74,79,84,89,94,99],{"name":37,"slug":24,"count":38,"latest_published_at":39},"AI",4627,"2026-09-26T13:00:00.000Z",{"name":41,"slug":42,"count":43,"latest_published_at":44},"Security","security",750,"2026-09-26T12:00:00.000Z",{"name":46,"slug":47,"count":48,"latest_published_at":49},"Policy","policy",393,"2026-09-26T10:30:00.000Z",{"name":51,"slug":52,"count":53,"latest_published_at":54},"Deals","deals",260,"2026-09-26T09:00:00.000Z",{"name":56,"slug":57,"count":58,"latest_published_at":59},"Hardware","hardware",185,"2026-09-25T15:00:22.000Z",{"name":61,"slug":62,"count":63,"latest_published_at":54},"Science","science",144,{"name":65,"slug":66,"count":67,"latest_published_at":68},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",134,"2026-09-26T13:00:12.000Z",{"name":70,"slug":71,"count":72,"latest_published_at":73},"Software","software",90,"2026-09-25T20:55:00.000Z",{"name":75,"slug":76,"count":77,"latest_published_at":78},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",84,"2026-09-26T04:20:58.000Z",{"name":80,"slug":81,"count":82,"latest_published_at":83},"Startups","startups",76,"2026-09-25T18:33:59.000Z",{"name":85,"slug":86,"count":87,"latest_published_at":88},"Gaming","gaming",48,"2026-09-25T18:35:21.000Z",{"name":90,"slug":91,"count":92,"latest_published_at":93},"General","general",46,"2026-09-25T02:12:57.000Z",{"name":95,"slug":96,"count":97,"latest_published_at":98},"Reviews","reviews",30,"2026-09-24T20:07:31.000Z",{"name":100,"slug":101,"count":102,"latest_published_at":103},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]