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Diffie Hellman Writeup

This document outlines an assignment to implement Diffie-Hellman key exchange to understand how it works for encrypting and decrypting messages between two parties. It provides background on Diffie-Hellman key exchange, steps to generate a shared secret key, advantages and disadvantages, applications, and includes sample test cases and code to implement the key exchange. The objective is for students to learn how to encrypt and decrypt messages using Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

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SumitThorat
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237 views3 pages

Diffie Hellman Writeup

This document outlines an assignment to implement Diffie-Hellman key exchange to understand how it works for encrypting and decrypting messages between two parties. It provides background on Diffie-Hellman key exchange, steps to generate a shared secret key, advantages and disadvantages, applications, and includes sample test cases and code to implement the key exchange. The objective is for students to learn how to encrypt and decrypt messages using Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

Uploaded by

SumitThorat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ASSIGNMENT 3

Title: Implementation of Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

Problem Statement: To understand the implementation of Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

Objective: To learn the encryption and decryption of message using Diffie-Hellman key exchange
method.

Outcome: Students will learn the encryption and decryption of message using Diffie-Hellman key
exchange method.

S/W and H/W Requirements: Ubuntu 6.0 OS.

Theory:
Diffie-Hellman key exchange, also called exponential key exchange, is a method of digital encryption
that uses numbers raised to specific powers to produce decryption keys on the basis of components that
are never directly transmitted, making the task of a would-be code breaker mathematically
overwhelming.
To implement Diffie-Hellman, the two end users Alice and Bob, while communicating over a channel
they know to be private, mutually agree on positive whole numbers p and q, such that p is a prime
number and q is a generator of p. The generator q is a number that, when raised to positive whole-
number powers less than p, never produces the same result for any two such whole numbers. The value
of p may be large but the value of q is usually small.
Once Alice and Bob have agreed on p and q in private, they choose positive whole-number personal
keys a and b, both less than the prime-number modulus p. Neither user divulges their personal key to
anyone; ideally they memorize these numbers and do not write them down or store them anywhere.
Next, Alice and Bob compute public keys a* and b* based on their personal keys according to the
formulas
a* = qa mod p
and
b* = qb mod p
The two users can share their public keys a* and b* over a communications medium assumed to be
insecure, such as the internet or a corporate wide area network (WAN). From these public keys, a
number x can be generated by either user on the basis of their own personal keys. Alice computes x
using the formula,
x = (b*)a mod p
Bob computes x using the formula,
x = (a*)b mod p
The value of x turns out to be the same according to either of the above two formulas. However, the
personal keys a and b, which are critical in the calculation of x, have not been transmitted over a public
medium. Because it is a large and apparently random number, a potential hacker has almost no chance
of correctly guessing x, even with the help of a powerful computer to conduct millions of trials. The
two users can therefore, in theory, communicate privately over a public medium with an encryption
method of their choice using the decryption key x.
The most serious limitation of Diffie-Hellman in its basic or "pure" form is the lack of authentication.
Communications using Diffie-Hellman all by itself are vulnerable to man in the middle attacks. Ideally,
Diffie-Hellman should be used in conjunction with a recognized authentication method such as digital
signitures to verify the identities of the users over the public communications medium. Diffie-Hellman
is well suited for use in data communication but is less often used for data stored or archived over long
periods of time.
Step by Step Explanation:
Alice Bob
Public Keys available = P, G Public Keys available = P, G
Private Key Selected = a Private Key Selected = b
Key generated = Key generated =
Exchange of generated keys takes place
Key received = y key received = x
Generated Secret Key = Generated Secret Key =
Algebraically it can be shown that
Users now have a symmetric secret key to encrypt

Algorithm:

Step 1: Alice and Bob get public numbers P = 23, G = 9

Step 2: Alice selected a private key a = 4 and


Bob selected a private key b = 3

Step 3: Alice and Bob compute public values


Alice: x =(9^4 mod 23) = (6561 mod 23) = 6
Bob: y = (9^3 mod 23) = (729 mod 23) = 16

Step 4: Alice and Bob exchange public numbers

Step 5: Alice receives public key y =16 and


Bob receives public key x = 6

Step 6: Alice and Bob compute symmetric keys


Alice: ka = y^a mod p = 65536 mod 23 = 9
Bob: kb = x^b mod p = 216 mod 23 = 9

Step 7: 9 is the shared secret.


Advantages:

1: Sharing of secret key is safe.

2: Sender and reciever have no prior knowledge of each other.

3: Communication can take place through an insecure channel.

Disadvantages:

1: Cannot be used for asymmetric key exchange.

2: Cannot be used for signing digital signitures.

3: Susceptible to man in the middle attack.

Applications:

1: Trap door function.

2: IP security.

3: Secure Shell(SSH).

Test Cases:

Test case Expected output Actual output

Conclusion: Students will learn the encryption and decryption of message using Diffie-Hellman key
exchange method.

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