One time pad, get plaintext using ciphers encoded with the same key

Question

I'm trying to solve a problem:

I have 11 ciphers encoded with the same key. My aim is to decode target cipher.

If I do xor C1, C2 (ciphers encoded with the same key) I do get M1 xor M2 (where M1, M2 are plain text messages).

Please say what to do next. I don't understand how to get plain texts from M1 xor M2

UPD: it's a two time pad (i.e. the same key has been use more than one time)

Answer 1

So I've passed coursera Scala course and deciced to apply my fresh knowledge. Here is my algo:

1. Xor ciphers with each other and collect xor result for each position. As a result I got a Map[Int, List[String]] where Int is a position of char in chiper and List[String] are all xor results for current position.

2. I have an assumption that if xor in List[String] equals to UPPER ASCII alpha, it means that source of this computation was: *space xor lower_alpha = UPPER_alpha*.

3. I can try to guess key value: c1 (char from 1st cipher), c2(char from 2nd cipher), xorRes (c1 xor c2 = xorRes) => c2 xor(c1 xor xorRes) or c1 xor(c2 xor xorRes) = *lower_alpha*.

Here is a part of code:

  /**
   * hex1 is a hex from 1st cipher
   * hex2 is a hex from second cipher
   * xor is ahex1 xor hex2
   * @return List with pos of possible key and possible key value else return empty list
   * */
  def getPossibleKey(hex1: String, hex2: String, xor: String, pos: Int): List[(Int, String)] = {
      if(isUpperAphpa(xor)){
          if( isLowerAphpa(xorHexStrings(xorWithSpace(hex1), hex2)) ){
            List( (pos, xorWithSpace(hex1)) )
          }else if( isLowerAphpa(xorHexStrings(xorWithSpace(hex2), hex1)) ){
            List( (pos, xorWithSpace(hex2)) )
      }else{
        List.empty
      }
  }else{
    List.empty
  }

}

As a result i got: List[Int, String] where String is the most popular lower_alpha got from getPossibleKey function.

Then i just applied collected key to each cipher and started to fix the key. I know that c1 xor m1 = k1 where c1 is a cipher fragment, k1 is a key fragment and m1 is a plain text.