CaesarVerschiebung

CaesarVerschiebung, also known as the Caesar cipher or Caesar shift, is a simple substitution cipher where each letter in the plaintext is shifted a certain number of places down or up the alphabet. For example, with a shift of 3, a letter like 'A' would become 'D', 'B' would become 'E', and so on. The alphabet is typically treated cyclically, meaning that if a shift goes beyond 'Z', it wraps around to 'A'.

The cipher is named after Julius Caesar, who is said to have used it to communicate with his generals. Its simplicity makes it very easy to implement and understand, but also extremely vulnerable to cryptanalysis. Because there are only a limited number of possible shifts (25 for the English alphabet), an attacker can simply try every possible shift until the original message becomes legible. This brute-force attack is highly effective.

Despite its weakness, the Caesar cipher is often used as an introductory example in cryptography to illustrate basic encryption concepts. It serves as a foundational step in understanding more complex ciphers. Variations of the Caesar cipher exist, such as using different alphabets or incorporating numbers and symbols, but the core principle of a fixed shift remains the same.