Probing the Genetic Algorithm Assisted Vigenère Cipher Cryptanalysis

The recent quest for automated decryption in different domains such as military, espionage, etc. has piqued the interest of the scientific community in developing computationally efficient frameworks for the same. In this regard, the current study demonstrates the successful application of a genetic algorithm (GA) for performing Vigenère cipher cryptanalysis under the constraint of a fixed key length. The presented framework conducts a comprehensive performance evaluation by investigating the convergence analysis of the GA under varying lengths of characters (with and without the use of an elitist selection method). Here, GA is utilized to search the prospective solution to the Vigenère cipher. Additionally, the evolution of the fitness landscape is analyzed across generations, providing a holistic understanding of the algorithm's effectiveness. The proposed computationally efficient approach enables us to understand the capabilities of GA in Vigenère cipher cryptanalysis. The scientific findings of this study will pave the way for the use of genetic algorithms indeciphering different cryptographic systems.