ASCIIWeb is a moderately secure program to take plaintext and convert it into ciphertext. The main purpose of this program is to provide a small, compatible encryption algorithm that will run on virtually any modern computer and web browser, so that if you are away from your main computer (traveling/at a computer lab/at work) and need to securely send email, you can do so regardless of the encryption software present on your current computer. Keep in mind that while ASCIIWeb uses a fairly secure algorithm to encrypt messages, it is unclear how well it stands up to determined cryptanalysis. That being said, if you do not label your correspondence with links to this algorithm, it should be very difficult to decipher the raw text. Also, this cipher is only as strong as your passphrase - be sure to use a lengthy phrase that is hard to guess but easy to remember (RLPassWeb or DiceWare may help you with this). This program contains the first RLPassWeb algorithm for direct short-password use - for the full version, use the link above.
As of this writing, ASCIIWeb is fairly secure - that is, no one has, to my knowledge, successfully cracked any messages encrypted by it. For more information on this, take a look at the ASCIIWeb Test Challenge page. Go ahead and take a crack at some of the test messages if you like, and examine for yourself the security level that ASCIIWeb provides.
ASCIIWeb is based off of the Theta Encryption System for the TI-83 calculator. This is the sixth iteration of the algorithm. The algorithm used is loosely based on the Vignere cipher method, with a number of enhancements made possible by computerization. Using the "code block" option, you can also use this cipher to encrypt your plaintext to a very secure one-time pad.
New features in 1.0.3 are: "session key" functionality for increased security, easier operation, optimized algorithm for decreased encryption time, added ident option, updated contacts, asciicode dropped in this version: too many unresolved bugs. NOTE: This version of ASCIIWeb is not backward-compatible with previous versions - text encoded with earlier versions CAN NOT be decrypted using this version! If you need to decrypt such text, previous versions are still available on the Products page. Also note that unlike previous versions of the algorithm, plaintext can no longer be "decrypted."
Looking for the more aptly named ASCIIWeb project? There is another asciiweb project on the net, a text-to-HTML formatting program that allows you to create low-bandwidth yet innovative pages using ASCII art. This project is also Free Software, and I've approved its use of the name. If you're looking for that project, simply click on the link above to check out the site.
©2001-2004 Theta Pi Software
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.