Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

Diffie-Hellman solves an impossible-sounding problem: two parties who have never met can establish a shared secret over a public channel, even if an attacker is watching every message.

Ready Click Next Step to watch the Diffie-Hellman key exchange.
DH Parameters
Public g -
Public p -
Alice private a -
Alice public A -
Bob private b -
Bob public B -
Shared Secret s -
Party States
Alice
IDLE
Eve
WATCHING
Bob
IDLE
Security Note
Eve sees: g, p, A, B (all public values).
To break DH, Eve must solve: 2^a mod 23 = 18
This is the Discrete Logarithm Problem - no efficient algorithm exists for large primes. Real DH uses 2048-bit primes.
Event Log