On Sat, 9 Dec 1995 00:23:41 -0800, Jerry Whiting wrote:

More on The Elevator Problem:

I'll confess that we're working on a new private key encryption product. Free and clear of existing claims on intellectual property, I'd like a protocol that answers the elevator problem: how can Alice and Bob agree on a private key via a compromised channel? I don't want them to meet under a street lamp and whisper in each other's ears _before_ trying to establish a secret on a crowded elevator.

[..]

Something that I neglected to mention before is that Alice and Bob do have a unique ID within this system, not that they necessarily know each others. If one assumes that they do, they then share a secret: the knowledge of each other's unique ID. [..]

Wait... are unique IDs secret from others? Can they share theirs with ea. other without compromising something? Maybe using a hash of their combined secret ideas (adding them, or mixing the bits... how long is the unique ID?) can be used to generate a "key" to exchange other information....

Jerry Whiting jwhiting@azalea.com