Alice and Bob
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The names Alice and Bob are commonly used placeholders for archetypal characters in fields such as cryptography and physics. The names are used for convenience, since explanations such as "Person A wants to send a message to person B" can become difficult to follow, especially in complex systems involving many steps. Following the alphabet, the specific names have evolved into common parlance within these fields - helping technical topics to be explained in a more understandable fashion.
In cryptography and computer security, there are a number of widely-used names for the participants in discussions and presentations about various protocols. The names are conventional, somewhat self-suggestive, sometimes humorous, and are, more or less, metasyntactic variables.
In typical implementations of these protocols, it is understood that the actions attributed to characters such as Alice or Bob would not normally be carried out by human parties directly, but rather by a trusted automated agent (such as a computer program) on their behalf.
Contents
List of characters
This list is drawn mostly from the book Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier. Alice and Bob are archetypes in cryptography; the names further down the alphabet not quite as much so.
- Alice and Bob. Generally Alice wants to send a message to Bob. These names were used by Ron Rivest in the 1978 Communications of the ACM article presenting the RSA cryptosystem. (The 1977 technical report on RSA did not use these names.) Rivest denies that these names have any relation with the 1969 movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice as occasionally suggested by others.
- Carol or Charlie, as a third participant in communications. Thereafter, we often have Dave, a fourth participant, and so on alphabetically.
- Eve, an eavesdropper, is usually a passive attacker. While she can listen in on messages between Alice and Bob, she cannot modify them. In quantum cryptography, Eve may also represent the environment.
- Isaac, an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- Ivan, an issuer (as in financial cryptography).
- Justin, from the justice system.
- Mallory, a malicious attacker; unlike Eve, Mallory can modify messages, substitute her own messages, replay old messages, and so on. The problem of securing a system against Mallory is much greater than against Eve. The names Marvin and Mallet can also be used for this role.
- Matilda, a merchant (as in ecommerce or financial cryptography).
- Oscar, an opponent, is usually taken as equivalent to Mallory.
- Pat, see Peggy.
- Peggy, a prover, and Victor, a verifier, often must interact in some way to show that the intended transaction has actually taken place. They are often found in zero-knowledge proofs. Another name pair sometimes used is Pat and Vanna (after the host and hostess on the Wheel of Fortune television show).
- Plod, a law enforcement officer (P for police, also "Officer Plod" from the children's TV show Noddy).
- Steve, sometimes used in reference to Steganography.
- Trudy, an intruder: another alternative to Mallory.
- Trent, a trusted arbitrator, is some kind of neutral third party, whose exact role varies with the protocol under discussion.
- Walter, a warden, may be needed to guard Alice and Bob in some respect, depending on the protocol being discussed.
- Zoe, often the last party to be involved in a cryptographic protocol.
- Arthur and Merlin: In IPSs, the prover has unbounded computational ability and is hence associated with Merlin, the powerful wizard. He claims the truth of a statement, and Arthur, the wise king, questions him to verify the claim. These two characters also give the name for two complexity classes, namely MA and AM.
Some articles using Alice and Bob explanations
- In physics:
- *Bell state
- *EPR paradox
- *Quantum teleportation
- In cryptography:
- *One-time pad
- *Quantum cryptography
- *RSA
- *Diffie-Hellman key exchange
- In communication:
- *Communication complexity
- In Law:
- *Lawburrows
See also
References
- C.H. Lindsey, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill: Some Scenarios, 2000, [link].
External links
- [The Story of Alice and Bob]
- [Alice and Bob jokes] (mainly Quantum Computing-related)
- [Alice and Bob, Algorhythms], 2005.(NerdCore HipHop song about Alice and Bob.)
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