E-Learning Program for Cryptology |
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| Developer(s) | Prof. Bernhard Esslinger, University of Darmstadt University of Duisburg-Essen University of Siegen |
| Stable release | 1.4.30 / August 4, 2010 |
| Preview release | CT 2.0 Beta 7 (Dec. 2011) JCT 1.0 RC5 (Dec. 2011) |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Cryptology, Privacy, E-Learning |
| License | Apache Licence 2.0 |
| Website | www.cryptool.org |
CrypTool is an open source e-learning tool illustrating cryptographic concepts.
Contents |
The graphical interface, online documentation, analytic tools and algorithms of CrypTool introduce users to the field of cryptography. Classical ciphers are available alongside asymmetric cryptography such as RSA, elliptic curve cryptography, digital signatures and Diffie-Hellman key exchange, many of which are visualized by animations. It also contains an animated tutorial about primes and elementary number theory.
The development of CrypTool started in 1998. Originally developed by German companies and universities, it is now an open source project. More than 50 people worldwide contribute regularly to the project. Its role is to make users aware of how cryptography can help against network security threats and to explain the underlying concepts of cryptology.[1] The software is available in English, German, Polish, Spanish, and Serbian. A project for a Greek version just started.
The current release version, CrypTool 1.4.30 was published in August 2010. It is written in C++ and designed for the Microsoft Windows operating system. A port[2] of CrypTool 1.x to Linux with Qt4 has started.
In 2007, development began on two additional projects, both based on a pure-plugin architecture, to serve as successors to the original CrypTool program. Both successors regularly publish new betas:
CrypTool has received several international awards as an educational program, such as TeleTrusT Special Award 2004, EISA 2004, IT Security Award NRW 2004[6] and Selected Landmark in the Land of Ideas 2008.[7]
CrypTool is used in schools, universities, companies and agencies for education and awareness training. Worldwide, the CrypTool 1.x package is downladed more than 6,000 times per month from the CrypTool website. Just over 50% of the downloads are for the English version.
The CrypTool project also includes the websites CrypTool Online[8] and CrypTool Mobile.[9] These websites allow users to try cryptographic methods directly within a browser or smartphone (using JavaScript), without the need to download and install software. These sites try to present the topic in an easy and attractive way for new users and young people. Advanced tasks still require the offline version of CrypTool.
In 2010 an international cipher contest[10] started which is also part of the CrypTool project. This contest currently offers more than 80 challenges concerning old and modern ciphers designed by authors from different countries. At the MTC3 website a moderated forum (with more than 600 posts), user statistics and a hall-of-fame are available. All challenges are presented in PDF templates in English and German. The challenges are clustered in four levels which range from simple riddles solvable with paper-and-pencil to mathematical challenges from modern cryptanalysis for researchers and experts. More than 2500 registered users are engaged solving these challenges.
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