Rail Fence Cipher
What is a Rail Fence Cipher?
Rail Fence cipher is a simple transposition cipher that writes the message in a normal pattern on a number of "rails" (horizontal lines), then reads off each rail to create the ciphertext. Despite its simplicity, it can effectively scramble text in a way that's not immediately obvious to read, though it's not considered cryptographically secure by modern standards.
Key Components:
1. Number of rails (key)
2. Message text
3. Normal pattern
4. Reading direction
Key Rules:
1. Write text down
2. Write text vertical
3. Read text horizontally
4. Spaces are usually removed
Example with 3 rails:
Message: "CIPHERBOY"
Read text horizontally
⭢ ⭢ ⭢
⭣ C H B
⭣ I E O
⭣ P R Y
Write the message down
Result: "CIPHERBOY " → "CHBIEOPRY"