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CAM NSA Hagelin
Hagelin C-38 codebreaking device · 1948
- this page is a stub
HECATE (codename), also known as AFSAF-91, CXDD or HAGELIN CRIBDRAGGER,
was a special purpose device for solving messages
encrypted with
Hagelin C-38
and similar 1 cipher machines,
developed shortly after WWII for the
Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) [1].
It was made by
Engineering Research Associates (ERA) 2
(later: Remington Rand) in St. Paul (Minesota, US),
with help from former OP-20-G engineers like John Howard,
and combined old and new technology.
The device works by doing an exhaustive search for a given crib 3
at a speed of 75,000 trails 4 per second — each window setting being tested
in approx. 14 µs. As soon as the machine finds a possible combination
– also known as a hit or stop –
its stops to allow the window settings to be recorded manually. The
machine would then resume to find the next possible combination (hit).
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HECATE Model CXDD with serial number 1
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Development of the machine was started shortly after WWII had ended,
and took more than two years. The anticipated budget of US$ 80,000 was
seriously overrun, with a final cost close to US$ 250,000 — comparable
to the cost of five wartime US Bombes —
but was justified by the results.
The first machine (S/N 1) was delivered by ERA on 1 April 1948, followed by
a second one (S/N 2) on 16 May 1950. By May 1943, both machines were in
daily use at Room 20103 of the Naval Security Station in Washington DC
and produced a steady output of C-38 traffic decrypts.
Each machine consisted
of two devices: a tape unit and an analytic unit [1].
The device was commonly used in combination with one or more
SATYR units
— the electrical analog of the Hagelin
C-38,
CSP-1500
and M-209.
The SATYR analog was later succeeded by the improved SATYR II [1].
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This includes C-38, CSP-1500,
M-209
and compatible machines.
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Engineering Research Associates (ERA)
in St. Paul (Minesota, US) was a pioneering
computer firm, founded in 1946. Acquired by Remington Rand in 1952,
they were merged into their UNIVAC department.
➤ Wikipedia
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In cryptography, a CRIB is a known piece of plaintext.
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In some documents, the speed is even specified as 100,000 test per second
[2].
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Partly declassified by NSA persuant to Executive Order 13526
(24 January 2014 — 16 June 2014).
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This document contains many scanning errors and distorted images.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Friday 12 March 2021. Last changed: Monday, 15 March 2021 - 16:49 CET.
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![Poor quality photograph of HECATE device with S/N 1, extracted from [1]](img/hecate_bw.png)
