Astra and Claude Opus Decode Two Unsolved Enigma Messages

Sep 27, 2026
Cryptanalysts used OpenAI's Astra and Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 to decode two Enigma messages that had remained unsolved for decades.

OpenAI's Astra and Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 decoded two previously unsolved Enigma messages, according to TechCrunch. Cryptology researcher Frode Weierud validated the solution produced by Astra.

Developer Carter Leffen instructed Astra to find and decode an unsolved message in a database maintained by Weierud. The model researched archives, identified contextual clues, built an Enigma machine simulator and recovered the plaintext of a message that had resisted researchers since 2005.

Cybersecurity executive Jack Willis used Claude Opus 5 to solve a separate message. Willis gave the model more guidance, including the known signature of a particular officer. Seven Enigma messages remain unsolved, while another has known plaintext but an unbroken code.

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