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Diffie-Hellman

Introduction

The Diffie–Hellman key exchange method allows two parties that have no prior knowledge of each other to jointly establish a shared secret key over an insecure channel. This key can then be used to encrypt subsequent communications using a symmetric-key cipher.

Variables

Public elements :

  • p : multiplicative group of integers modulo p, where p is prime.
  • g : a primitive root modulo p
  • A & B : Public calculation

Private elements :

  • a & b : Two random big numbers.
  • s : Final shared secret.

Maths

$$ A \equiv g^a [p] $$ $$ B \equiv g^b [p] $$ $$ s \equiv A^{b} \equiv B^{a} \equiv g^{a^{b}} \equiv g^{b^{a}} \equiv g^{a+b} [p] $$ $$ a \equiv \text{discrete_log}(p, B, g) $$ $$ b \equiv \text{discrete_log}(p, A, g) $$

Exchange

K is the final secret :

Exchange protocol