Rail Fence Cipher - Encryption and Decryption - GeeksforGeeks

22 Mar, 2022
Given a plain-text message and a numeric key, cipher/de-cipher the given text using Rail Fence algorithm. The rail fence cipher (also called a zigzag cipher) is a form of transposition cipher. It derives its name from the way in which it is encoded. Examples:  
Encryption
Input :  "GeeksforGeeks "
Key = 3
Output : GsGsekfrek eoe
Decryption
Input : GsGsekfrek eoe
Key = 3
Output :  "GeeksforGeeks "

Encryption
Input :  "defend the east wall"
Key = 3
Output : dnhaweedtees alf  tl
Decryption
Input : dnhaweedtees alf  tl
Key = 3
Output : defend the east wall

Encryption
Input : "attack at once"
Key = 2 
Output : atc toctaka ne 
Decryption
Input : "atc toctaka ne"
Key = 2
Output : attack at once
 
 
Encryption
In a transposition cipher, the order of the alphabets is re-arranged to obtain the cipher-text.  
In the rail fence cipher, the plain-text is written downwards and diagonally on successive rails of an imaginary fence.
When we reach the bottom rail, we traverse upwards moving diagonally, after reaching the top rail, the direction is changed again. Thus the alphabets of the message are written in a zig-zag manner.
After each alphabet has been written, the individual rows are combined to obtain the cipher-text.
For example, if the message is “GeeksforGeeks” and the number of rails = 3 then cipher is prepared as:  
.’.Its encryption will be done row wise i.e. GSGSEKFREKEOE
 
Decryption
As we’ve seen earlier, the number of columns in rail fence cipher remains equal to the length of plain-text message. And the key corresponds to the number of rails. 
Hence, rail matrix can be constructed accordingly. Once we’ve got the matrix we can figure-out the spots where texts should be placed (using the same way of moving diagonally up and down alternatively ).
Then, we fill the cipher-text row wise. After filling it, we traverse the matrix in zig-zag manner to obtain the original text.
Implementation: Let cipher-text = “GsGsekfrek eoe” , and Key = 3  
Number of columns in matrix = len(cipher-text) = 13
Number of rows = key = 3
Hence original matrix will be of 3*13 , now marking places with text as ‘*’ we get  
* _ _ _ * _ _ _ * _ _ _ *
_ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ * 
_ _ * _ _ _ *  _ _ _ * _ 
Below is a program to encrypt/decrypt the message using the above algorithm.  
C++
Python3
// C++ program to illustrate Rail Fence Cipher// Encryption and Decryption#include <bits/stdc++.h>using namespace std; // function to encrypt a messagestring encryptRailFence(string text, int key){    // create the matrix to cipher plain text    // key = rows , length(text) = columns    char rail[key][(text.length())];     // filling the rail matrix to distinguish filled    // spaces from blank ones    for (int i=0; i < key; i++)        for (int j = 0; j < text.length(); j++)            rail[i][j] = '\n';     // to find the direction    bool dir_down = false;    int row = 0, col = 0;     for (int i=0; i < text.length(); i++)    {        // check the direction of flow        // reverse the direction if we've just        // filled the top or bottom rail        if (row == 0 || row == key-1)            dir_down = !dir_down;         // fill the corresponding alphabet        rail[row][col++] = text[i];         // find the next row using direction flag        dir_down?row++ : row--;    }     //now we can construct the cipher using the rail matrix    string result;    for (int i=0; i < key; i++)        for (int j=0; j < text.length(); j++)            if (rail[i][j]!='\n')                result.push_back(rail[i][j]);     return result;} // This function receives cipher-text and key// and returns the original text after decryptionstring decryptRailFence(string cipher, int key){    // create the matrix to cipher plain text    // key = rows , length(text) = columns    char rail[key][cipher.length()];     // filling the rail matrix to distinguish filled    // spaces from blank ones    for (int i=0; i < key; i++)        for (int j=0; j < cipher.length(); j++)            rail[i][j] = '\n';     // to find the direction    bool dir_down;     int row = 0, col = 0;     // mark the places with '*'    for (int i=0; i < cipher.length(); i++)    {        // check the direction of flow        if (row == 0)            dir_down = true;        if (row == key-1)            dir_down = false;         // place the marker        rail[row][col++] = '*';         // find the next row using direction flag        dir_down?row++ : row--;    }     // now we can construct the fill the rail matrix    int index = 0;    for (int i=0; i<key; i++)        for (int j=0; j<cipher.length(); j++)            if (rail[i][j] == '*' && index<cipher.length())                rail[i][j] = cipher[index++];      // now read the matrix in zig-zag manner to construct    // the resultant text    string result;     row = 0, col = 0;    for (int i=0; i< cipher.length(); i++)    {        // check the direction of flow        if (row == 0)            dir_down = true;        if (row == key-1)            dir_down = false;         // place the marker        if (rail[row][col] != '*')            result.push_back(rail[row][col++]);         // find the next row using direction flag        dir_down?row++: row--;    }    return result;} //driver program to check the above functionsint main(){    cout << encryptRailFence("attack at once", 2) << endl;    cout << encryptRailFence("GeeksforGeeks ", 3) << endl;    cout << encryptRailFence("defend the east wall", 3) << endl;     //Now decryption of the same cipher-text    cout << decryptRailFence("GsGsekfrek eoe",3) << endl;    cout << decryptRailFence("atc toctaka ne",2) << endl;    cout << decryptRailFence("dnhaweedtees alf tl",3) << endl;     return 0;}
# Python3 program to illustrate# Rail Fence Cipher Encryption# and Decryption # function to encrypt a messagedef encryptRailFence(text, key):     # create the matrix to cipher    # plain text key = rows ,    # length(text) = columns    # filling the rail matrix    # to distinguish filled    # spaces from blank ones    rail = [['\n' for i in range(len(text))]                  for j in range(key)]         # to find the direction    dir_down = False    row, col = 0, 0         for i in range(len(text)):                 # check the direction of flow        # reverse the direction if we've just        # filled the top or bottom rail        if (row == 0) or (row == key - 1):            dir_down = not dir_down                 # fill the corresponding alphabet        rail[row][col] = text[i]        col += 1                 # find the next row using        # direction flag        if dir_down:            row += 1        else:            row -= 1    # now we can construct the cipher    # using the rail matrix    result = []    for i in range(key):        for j in range(len(text)):            if rail[i][j] != '\n':                result.append(rail[i][j])    return("" . join(result))     # This function receives cipher-text# and key and returns the original# text after decryptiondef decryptRailFence(cipher, key):     # create the matrix to cipher    # plain text key = rows ,    # length(text) = columns    # filling the rail matrix to    # distinguish filled spaces    # from blank ones    rail = [['\n' for i in range(len(cipher))]                  for j in range(key)]         # to find the direction    dir_down = None    row, col = 0, 0         # mark the places with '*'    for i in range(len(cipher)):        if row == 0:            dir_down = True        if row == key - 1:            dir_down = False                 # place the marker        rail[row][col] = '*'        col += 1                 # find the next row        # using direction flag        if dir_down:            row += 1        else:            row -= 1                 # now we can construct the    # fill the rail matrix    index = 0    for i in range(key):        for j in range(len(cipher)):            if ((rail[i][j] == '*') and               (index < len(cipher))):                rail[i][j] = cipher[index]                index += 1             # now read the matrix in    # zig-zag manner to construct    # the resultant text    result = []    row, col = 0, 0    for i in range(len(cipher)):                 # check the direction of flow        if row == 0:            dir_down = True        if row == key-1:            dir_down = False                     # place the marker        if (rail[row][col] != '*'):            result.append(rail[row][col])            col += 1                     # find the next row using        # direction flag        if dir_down:            row += 1        else:            row -= 1    return("".join(result)) # Driver codeif __name__ == "__main__":    print(encryptRailFence("attack at once", 2))    print(encryptRailFence("GeeksforGeeks ", 3))    print(encryptRailFence("defend the east wall", 3))         # Now decryption of the    # same cipher-text    print(decryptRailFence("GsGsekfrek eoe", 3))    print(decryptRailFence("atc toctaka ne", 2))    print(decryptRailFence("dnhaweedtees alf tl", 3)) # This code is contributed# by Pratik Somwanshi
Output:  
atc toctaka ne
GsGsekfrek eoe
dnhaweedtees alf  tl
GeeksforGeeks 
attack at once
delendfthe east wal
Time Complexity: O(row * col)Auxiliary Space: O(row * col) References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_fence_cipherThis article is contributed by Ashutosh Kumar If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using write.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to review-team@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above. 
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