CrypTool

Template:Infobox software

CrypTool is free software and an e-learning tool illustrating cryptographic concepts.

Features[]

The graphical interface, online documentation, analysis tools and algorithms introduce users to the field of cryptography. Classical ciphers, as well as asymmetric cryptography such as RSA, elliptic curve cryptography, digital signatures or Diffie-Hellman key exchange, are available, many of them visualized by animations. It also contains an animated tutorial about primes and elementary number theory.

Development, history and roadmap[]

The development of CrypTool started in 1998. Originally developed by German companies and universities, it is an open source project. More than 40 people are contributing worldwide. Its role is to make users aware how cryptography can help against network security threats and to explain to them the underlying concepts of cryptology.^[1] The software is available in English, German, Polish, Spanish, and Serbian.

The current release version CrypTool 1.x is written in C++, and it runs only on the operating system Microsoft Windows.

A port^[2] of CrypTool 1.x to Linux with Qt4 has started.

In contrast, the two projects which developed since 2007 the newly designed successors in a pure-plugin architecture make very good progress:

• CrypTool 2.0^[3] (build with C#/.NET/WPF) uses the concept of visual programming to clarify cryptographic processes;
• JCrypTool 1.0^[4][5] (built with Java/Eclipse/RCP/SWT) is platform independent and offers both a document-centric and a function-centric perspective.

Awards[]

CrypTool received international awards as an educational software (TeleTrusT Special Award 2004, EISA 2004, IT Security Award NRW 2004^[6], Selected Landmark in the Land of Ideas 2008^[7]).

Use[]

It is used in schools, universities, companies and agencies for education and awareness training.

Worldwide the CrypTool v.1 package is downladed more than 6,000 times per month (from the CrypTool site only). A bit more than 50 % of the downloads get the English version.

The current release version is 1.4.30 which was published in August 2010.

CrypTool Online[]

Additionally the websites CrypTool Online^[8] and CrypTool Mobile^[9] are part of the CrypTool project. Here one can try cryptographic methods directly within a browser or directly within a smartphone (using JavaScript), without the need to download and install software. These sites try to offer the topic in an easy and attractive way for new users and young people. Advanced tasks still need the offline version of CrypTool.

See also[]

Template:Portal box

• Asymmetric key algorithm
• Topics in cryptography
• Cryptosystem

References and notes[]

Template:Refbegin

Template:Refend

External links[]

• The official site
  • CrypTool presentation with more than 100 slides and many screenshots giving an overview over the CrypTool project and CrypTool's features, PDF 6.9 MB.

de:CrypTool es:CrypTool fr:CrypTool it:CrypTool pl:CrypTool sr:CrypTool th:CrypTool