4
votes
1answer
220 views

Why is Diffie-Hellman considered in the context of public key cryptography?

In all textbooks I used the Diffie-Hellman key exchange is under "public key cryptography". As far as I can see it is a method to exchange a key to be used with a symmetric cryptographic algorithm, ...
2
votes
1answer
77 views

What's the strategy for future directions in cryptography? Bigger numbers/faster searching, or new methods, say, of factoring?

I'm taking a course in cryptography, and I would value any comments. This is not too technical a question, but more about directions or strategy in cryptography. My question is, is public key ...
6
votes
2answers
2k views

What's the fundamental difference between Diffie-Hellman and RSA?

What is the difference in the purpose of DH and RSA? Aren't they both public-key encryption?
5
votes
1answer
259 views

How should I check the received ephemeral Diffie-Hellman public keys?

In my application I'm doing a DH key exchange, where both sides generate their own ephemeral key. No static keys are used. I am trying to make my application resistant against an active attack and ...
5
votes
2answers
834 views

Why can't Diffie-Hellman be used for signing?

I understand that signing is often a case of hashing data and then encrypting the hash with the private key. What properties keep Diffie-Hellman from being useful for this?