First public-key type scheme proposed

by Diffie & Hellman in 1976 along with the

exposition of public key concepts
note: now know that James Ellis (UK CESG)
secretly proposed the concept in 1970
is a practical method for public exchange of a secret
key
used in a number of commercial products

 a public-key distribution scheme

cannot be used to exchange an arbitrary message
rather it can establish a common key
known only to the two participants

value of key depends on the participants (and their

private and public key information)
based on exponentiation in a finite (Galois) field
(modulo a prime or a polynomial) - easy
security relies on the difficulty of computing discrete
logarithms (similar to factoring) hard
8/16/2016

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

8/16/2016

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

 all users agree on global parameters:

prime number q
Integer - primitive root mod q
User A and B wish to exchange a key,
User A Selects a random Integer xA < q &
xA
Calculate yA = mod q Compute Key
xA
K = (yB) mod q
User B Selects a random Integer xB < q &
xB
Calculate yB = mod q - Compute Key
xB
K = (yA) mod q
Each side keep X value as private and Y value as public
8/16/2016

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

Two calculation produce identical Result

We know that
K = (yB)
xB

= (

xA

= (

8/16/2016

xA

xB

mod q = (

xA

xB xA

mod q =

mod q)

mod q )

xB

xA

mod q
xA

mod q = (

mod q = (yA)

xB

xB

mod q

mod q

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

users Alice & Bob who wish to swap keys

Choose the prime q=353 and = 3
select random secret keys:
A chooses xA=97, B chooses xB=233
compute public keys
97
yA=3 mod 353 = 40
(Alice)
233
yB=3 mod 353 = 248 (Bob)
compute shared session key as
xA
97
KAB= yB mod 353 = 248 = 160 (Alice)
xB
233
KAB= yA mod 353 = 40 = 160 (Bob)
8/16/2016

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

8/16/2016

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

8/16/2016

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

8/16/2016

A.Aruna, Assistant Professor, Department

of Information Technology

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