[Cryptography] Alice, Bob, Eve, Mallory, Maxwell ???

Ray Dillinger bear at sonic.net
Sat Jan 2 18:04:50 EST 2016



On 01/01/2016 12:01 PM, Kent Borg wrote:
> On 12/31/2015 08:36 PM, Henry Baker wrote:
>> Is there a personification of random *noise* ?  I was considering
>> "Maxwell" (for Maxwell's Demon); are there any other names in normal
>> use for an attacker that simply injects random noise?
> 
> I kind of Like Maxwell, though his Demon (if I understand it) is smarter
> than noise, maybe suggests backdoored noise...save him for bad RNGs.
> 
> How about Claude? As in Shannon, in some sense the source of all noise.
> (Before him we still hoped it could go away.)
> 
>> Is there a standard name for a MITM attacker?
> 
> If there isn't, there needs to be.
> 

The name 'Mallory' is traditional for an MITM attacker.
(Because the data in flight is 'Malleable' if it can
be changed by an attacker, IIRC).

We know

Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave, Esther, Fred, Gina, Harold....
... Walter, Yolanda, Zebulon,

in alternating genders and increasing alphabetical
order for the honest participants.

The roster of bad guys, from various sources, are:

Betty, the Botnet Operator (often works for Daisy or Sam)
Daisy, the Denial-of-service attacker(wants the system unavailable)
Eve, the Eavesdropper (wants to snoop)
Ike, the Impersonator (tries to subvert signing)
Mallory, who can change data in flight (for virtually any purpose)
Trudy, the Intruder* (tries to suvert authentication)
Trent, the Trusted Authority (can screw you over by defecting)
Sam, the Spammer (wants to send spam)

I would call someone who can inject noise either 'Daisy' or
'Mallory' depending on their goal; probably 'Mallory' since
'Mallory' is traditionally involved in protocol attacks and
'Daisy' usually implies trying to overwhelm available resources
with excessive volume.

But sure, if you need a different name 'Maxwell' would work.

If I were to ask for additional bad-guy names, I think I'd
want one for providers of "legitimate" hardware/software
who make backdoored hardware/software instead.  'Baker'
maybe?

*Mark Bitman's book uses 'Trudy' for every kind of attacker;
elsewhere it's been used specifically for 'Intruder' meaning
someone who tries to gain illicit access.


			Bear

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