buttcrack. Cipher Wiki

Binary ASCII

From the Buttcrack Cipher Wiki — the free field guide to classical ciphers

Binary ASCII — Eight bits per byte, usually space-separated.

Each byte as 8 bits, separated by spaces (or run together).

A worked example§

Encrypting a sample with the cipher itself, at build time:

MEET ME BY THE OLD CLOCK TOWER AT DAWN

No key — the transformation is fixed.

produces the ciphertext

01001101 01000101 01000101 01010100 00100000 01001101 01000101 00100000 01000010 01011001 00100000 01010100 01001000 01000101 00100000 01001111 01001100 01000100 00100000 01000011 01001100 01001111 01000011 01001011 00100000 01010100 010...

This example is generated by running the cipher when the page is built, and the round trip is checked, so it always matches what the solver does.

How it is broken§

Decode it.

History and context§

The most recognisable encoding on earth, and therefore the most common outer layer in a beginner puzzle.

See also§

Base64 · Base32 · Hex / base16 · Base58 · ASCII85 / base85 · URL encoding

Browse every cipher in the Encodings family, read the history of codebreaking, or return to the wiki main page.

Frequently asked questions§

How is the Binary ASCII broken?

Decode it.

What key does the Binary ASCII use?

none. There are 1 possible keys.

How much ciphertext do I need?

At least 8 characters for this solver to attempt it; short messages can be readable and still not be proof.

Can I break a Binary ASCII on this page?

Yes — the browser solver on this page handles it directly. Paste the ciphertext into the solver and press the button.

Categories: Encodings | Breakable in the browser | Cipher wiki
The facts in this article are generated from buttcrack's cipher registry when the site is built, so they describe the implementation you can run on this page. Registry-generated content is checked against the code; the history is editorial.

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What this browser solver can—and cannot—do

It tries: Caesar, Atbash, ROT13, affine, Trithemius, rail fence, single-byte XOR, periodic Vigenère-family ciphers, autokey, selected encoding layers (such as Base64, hex, binary, decimal ASCII, Morse, and reverse), and—only with 60+ A–Z letters—statistical substitution.

It does not: prove a decryption, cover every classical cipher, or break modern encryption such as AES or RSA. Its ranking model is tuned for English, so a high score is a lead to verify with the method, key, and source context—not a guarantee.

Short text, non-English plaintext, non-Latin or symbol alphabets, missing keys, and unsupported formats can all leave no high-confidence answer. When that happens, the result includes input-specific observations and suggested next checks; those observations are not a claim to know the exact cause.

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