
Alice and Bob: A History of the World’s Most Famous Cryptographic Couple (2017) - nkurz
http://cryptocouple.com
======
jgrahamc
When I met Bob Morris
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(cryptographer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_\(cryptographer\)))
in the 1990s accompanied by his wife I was disappointed that she was Anne and
not Alice.

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gervase
If you're interested, you can find a more comprehensive cast of cryptographic
characters on Wikipedia:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob#Cast_of_characte...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob#Cast_of_characters)

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prvc
>Some people have suggested that the 1969 movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was
the origin of Alice and Bob. While it is possible—even likely—that Rivest,
Shamir, and Adleman might have been familiar with the movie, there is no
evidence to indicate that the movie influenced their naming decision. More
likely, since Alice and Bob are common English names that start with A and B,
the names were chosen without much forethought.

If their speculation, that the names are arbitrary, is true, why make so much
out of it?

Compare with Smith and Jones, popular in philosophy.

Would also have been nice for the website to have supported https.

~~~
prvc
>there is no evidence to indicate that the movie influenced their naming
decision

I'd like to add that the existence of a popular contemporary movie whose title
is simply a list of names, half of which are the entirety of the names in
question (said movie supposedly being a cultural touchstone for RSA's
generation, the Boomers), makes the latter hypothesis the less likely one by
default, in my view.

~~~
gervase
Carol is also commonly used as the 'C' when a third agent is necessary.

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amelius
I thought Charlie was the husband, always trying to mitm the conversation to
check if Alice was being dishonest.

~~~
betterunix2
Usually the passive eavesdropper is Eve, while the MITM that actively modifies
messages is Mallory (she can be defended against by non-malleable
cryptography). Also, Charlie is sometimes Catherine, as there is a tendency to
alternate genders (Alice, Bob, Catherine, Dave, Eve, etc.).

~~~
faceplanted
That's a surprisingly comprehensive ruleset, we always used Alice, Bob, and
Carol, possibly continuing with the alternating genders for people in the
conversation and Eve for the attacker. Never heard of Mallory.

Also reminds me of this: [https://xkcd.com/1323/](https://xkcd.com/1323/)

~~~
Kalium
* Alice, Bob, and Carol are generally parties one, two, and three to the conversation.

* Eve is a malicious eavesdropper.

* Mallory is malicious, and able to participate at will.

* Trent is the trusted third party.

* Victor is an independent verifier.

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anchpop
> In the history of cryptology, women tend to be either systematically
> excluded or reduced to objects.

I would have loved to see some more examples of this, since I wasn't aware it
was an issue. Speaking specifically to exclusion, I thought a lot of the
foundational work in cryptography was done by women. Disappointing to hear
about systematic exclusion and marginalization in this field.

~~~
jp_sc
A probable explanation in the other thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14804399](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14804399)

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cafard
Odd not to mention
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_%26_Carol_%26_Ted_%26_Alic...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_%26_Carol_%26_Ted_%26_Alice)

------
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14801883](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14801883).

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atulatul
Not related to cryptography, but this reminds me of Alyssa P. Hacker from
SICP.

