-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Earlier somebody (Samuel Pigg?) asked for a D-H key exchange reference. It should be in any modern crypto textbook, and is easy to follow. Alice and Bob want to exchange keys over a hostile channel. They pick a prime p, a random number a, and exchange this information. Alice picks Ra, a random number less than p, and keeps it secret. Bob picks Rb, also a random number less than p. Alice calculates Ya = a^Ra mod p, and sends the result to Bob. Bob calculates Yb = a^Rb mod p, and sends the result to Alice. To recover the common key Alice and Bob will now use with each other, they raise the result the other person sent them to their secret random number, and take the result modulo p. That is, Alice calculates Yb^Ra mod p, and Bob calculates Ya^Rb mod p. Even if an eavesdropper gets a, p, and the intermediate Ya and Yb, the final key cannot be determined (due the difficulty of the discrete logarithm). Example: 1) Alice and Bob pick a = 11, p = 347 2) Alice picks Ra = 240 Bob picks Rb = 39 Alice and Bob keep Ra and Rb secret 3) Alice calculates Ya = a^Ra mod p = 11^240 mod 347 = 49 Bob calculates Yb = a^Rb mod p = 11^39 mod 347 = 285 4) Alice sends Bob Ya = 49 Bob sends Alice Yb = 285 5) Alice calculates Yb^Ra mod p = 285^240 mod 347 = 268 Bob calculates Ya^Rb mod p = 49^39 mod 347 = 268 Now Alice and Bob can communicate using their common key. Even if an enemy intercepts a = 11, p = 347, Ya = 49, and Yb = 285, the common key cannot be calcuated. (Well, they can here since I'm using small numbers, but with large numbers the discrete log problem is intractable). -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLIVzxYOA7OpLWtYzAQGzvQQAltkJR3xd/5YJt1pBt2/fWmCrRGqy0RFW ZZEL5ZHUNO9glaYOA39vUlRbZX8IDwHwKSDXJt98NsHH3WT5JJ0i52hy37mcWLOx 7FbsCo8MMjg2xOye3YLLzXa6a99ad5nV7/rk2pL+9mP0lNZdFcWGnfDvz/F5gqCF qMRAYby1KI8= =6ZSd -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Karl L. Barrus: klbarrus@owlnet.rice.edu keyID: 5AD633 hash: D1 59 9D 48 72 E9 19 D5 3D F3 93 7E 81 B5 CC 32 "One man's mnemonic is another man's cryptography" - my compilers prof discussing file naming in public directories