Software Tools

This is a list of useful tools that can help the community attack the Zodiac ciphers.
 * zkdecrypto - This program's original purpose was to attempt to solve the California Zodiac Killer's unsolved 340-length cipher from November 9, 1969.The program has since been advanced to being able to solve general-case homophonic and monophonic ciphers. It should now be considered an open-source workbench for use in solving general classical-crypto style ciphers
 * How to run zkdecrypto on a Mac
 * Zodiac Cipher Webtoy - A simple web-based cipher tool for exploring different keys to the 340 and 408 ciphers
 * CryptoScope - A tool for computing statistics and searching for patterns in substitution cipher texts.
 * CryptoScope Help - Documentation for CryptoScope
 * Zodiac Decoder - Zodiac cipher solver software created by a student team at the University of North Texas, as part of a computer science course taught by Dr. Ryan Garlick (course page)
 * CrypTool - "A free, open-source e-learning application, used worldwide in the implementation and analysis of cryptographic algorithms."
 * Zodiac Xpress - "Goal of this team project is to create software for automatic deciphering currently uncracked classic ciphers. Among these ciphers is for example Beal cipher, or more famous Zodiac killer cipher."
 * CryptoCrack - CryptoCrack is freeware that can solve over 45 different classical cipher types and in many cases without knowing any plaintext or the key length.

Which tools can successfully crack the Zodiac's 408 cipher?
This list is meant to give an idea of which publicly available software programs can automatically solve the 408 cipher without much human intervention.


 * zkdecrypto - Usually obtains most of the correct solution. A few symbols might be off, but the overall solution is correct.
 * TODO: evaluate the other cipher cracking programs