Alice and Bob

Alice and Bob are fictional characters commonly used as placeholders in discussions about cryptographic systems and protocols,[1] and in other science and engineering literature where there are several participants in a thought experiment.The Alice and Bob characters were created by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman in their 1978 paper "A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-key Cryptosystems"."[2] is believed to be easier to describe and understand than if the hypothetical people were simply named A and B as in "How can B send a private message M to A in a public-key cryptosystem?"The first mention of Alice and Bob in the context of cryptography was in Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman's 1978 article "A method for obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryptosystems.Eve was invented in 1988 by Charles Bennet, Gilles Brassard, and Jean-Marc Robert, in their paper, "Privacy Amplification by Public Discussion.
Example scenario where communication between Alice and Bob is intercepted by Mallory
An example of an "Alice and Bob" used in cryptography
cryptographicprotocolsthought experimentRon RivestAdi ShamirLeonard Adlemanarchetypesquantum cryptographygame theoryphysicsalliterativemnemonicRivestShamirAdlemanRSA cryptosystemBob & Carol & Ted & AliceMichael RabinManuel BlumBruce Schneierpassword crackereavesdropperadvisorRicardian contractsJudge Judyman-in-the-middle attacksmicrophoneoracleblack boxrandom oraclezero-knowledge proofsnon-repudiationpseudonymousreputation systemSybil attackarbitratorneutral third partywardenwhistleblowerinteractive proof systemsMerlinKing ArthurTwenty QuestionsPaul Erdősanagramcombinatorial gamescombinatorial gamequantum roboticsDiffie–Hellman key exchangeMartin GardnerPublic-key cryptographySecurity protocol notationRivest, Ron L.Shamir, AdiAdleman, LenCiteSeerXRabin, Michael O.Blum, ManuelSchneier, BruceBibcodePearson Prentice HallHeninger, NadiaSzabo, NickPerkins, Charles L.LaMacchia, BrianDolev, ShlomiStallings, WilliamLund, CarstenJournal of Computer and System SciencesSpencer, JoelWinkler, PeterMuthukrishnan, S.David Mermin, N.Wayback MachineQuantum Computing