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Perhaps surprisingly, the security is usually fairly poor. This is because the [[information entropy|entropy]] per character of both plaintext and running key is low, and the combining operation is easily inverted. This means a [[cryptanalysis|cryptanalyst]] can run guessed probable plaintexts along the ciphertext, subtracting them out from each possible position. When the result is a chunk of something intelligible, there is a high probability that the guessed plain text is correct for that position (as either actual plaintext, or part of the running key). The 'chunk of something intelligible' can then often be extended at either end, thus providing even more probable plaintext - which can in turn be extended, and so on. Eventually it is likely that the running key will be recognised, and the jig is up. This process is sometimes performed as a simple puzzle, for recreation.
There are several ways to improve the security. The first and most obvious is to use a secret mixed alphabet tableau instead of a ''tabula recta''. This does indeed greatly complicate matters but it is not a complete solution. Pairs of plaintext and running key characters are far more likely to be high frequency pairs such as 'EE' rather than, say, 'QQ'.
Another possibility is to use a key text that has more entropy per character than typical English. For this purpose, the [[KGB]] advised agents to use documents like [[almanac]]s and trade reports, which often contain long lists of random-looking numbers.
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