What are the three most important types of cryptographic attacks, ranked from weakest to strongest attacker model?

Ciphertext-only (weakest), known-plaintext, and chosen-plaintext (strongest) — each gives the attacker progressively more information.

* The three attacker models in increasing power — each grants strictly more information than the last. *

I) Ciphertext-Only Attack:

• Known: Only the ciphertext (intercepted from the channel)
• Goal: Find the plaintext and/or the key
• Weakest attacker model — the minimum any eavesdropper has

II) Known-Plaintext Attack:

• Known: Pairs of plaintext and corresponding ciphertext $(M_i, C_i)$
• Goal: Find the key (and decrypt other messages)
• Example: Exploiting known headers like "Dear Sir/Madam" or "Sincerely" in encrypted emails

III) Chosen-Plaintext Attack:

• Known: The attacker can choose any plaintext and get its ciphertext (access to the encryption device)
• Goal: Find the key (knowing the plaintext is no longer the goal — the attacker already chooses it)
• Strongest attacker model for symmetric ciphers

Critical insight: A chosen-plaintext attack is always possible against public-key encryption, because anyone can encrypt any message using the public key. This is why public-key systems must be designed to resist this attack by default.

Go deeper:

• Chosen-plaintext attack (Wikipedia) — the strongest standard model, and why public-key crypto always faces it.
• Known-plaintext attack (Wikipedia) — cribs at Bletchley Park and beyond.