Cipher 101 Tutorials
Baconian Cipher Tutorial
What is the Baconian Cipher?
The Baconian cipher is a method of steganography (hiding a message) created by Francis Bacon. It uses a binary encoding (two distinct values, traditionally 'A' and 'B') to represent letters of the alphabet.
The Baconian Alphabet
Each letter is represented by a sequence of five 'A's and 'B's. Here is the standard mapping:
A: AAAAA, B: AAAAB, C: AAABA, D: AAABB, E: AABAA, F: AABAB, G: AABBA, H: AABBB, I/J: ABAAA, K: ABAAB, L: ABABA, M: ABABB, N: ABBAA, O: ABBAB, P: ABBBA, Q: ABBBB, R: BAAAA, S: BAAAB, T: BAABA, U/V: BAABB, W: BABAA, X: BABAB, Y: BABBA, Z: BABBB
Practice Time!
Let's encrypt "HELLO" using the Baconian cipher.
H -> AABBB
E -> AABAA
L -> ABABA
L -> ABABA
O -> ABBAB
So, "HELLO" becomes "AABBBAABAAABABABABB".