ENIGMA Daily Key

As with all cipher machines, it was necessary to know how to set up the ENIGMA so that the sender and receiver could read each others messages. To add to the ENIGMA's complexity, each of the theree German armed services used it's own set of keys, often using a different set of keys for each communications network. The key list shown here was used by the German Army to change ENIGMA settings daily for a one month period. Government and commercial keys would be similar.

Source National Cryptologic Museum

 

ENIGMA remains the best known German cryptographic machine of World War II.

 

Some added info (from Wikipedia ENIGMA article)

Walzenlage ( Wheel order )

Each rotor was wired differently and identified with a Roman numeral. Setting up a communications net involved selecting the rotors for the day and placing them in the proper left to right order.

 

Ringstellung ("ring setting").

alphabet ring of rotor relative to the core wiring. The position of the ring is known as the Ringstellung ("ring setting").

 

Steckerverbindungen

plugboard (Steckerbrett) settings (10 of 13 appear to be used)

 

Kenngruppen key identification

 

ENIGMA cipher machine collection

 

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