Subject: RE: Diffie-Hellman Choices

From: William Whyte <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 18:28:42 +0100

Hi all,

> 3) As Russ points out, the S-S D-H algorithm restricts an originator from
> forming a pairwise key with a user whose public key is formed using
> different p/q/g parameters.  The E-S D-H algorithm allows a user to form a
> pairwise key with any user's D-H public key regardless of the p/q/g values.
> I believe that this is a signifignat advantage of E-S D-H over S-S D-H.

To my mind, this is the killer argument.

William

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From: "Greg Boverman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 14:14:22 -0400

E-S key-establishment would allow anonymous messages to be sent, which might
be a requirement for certain uses. There also would not be a "shared secret"
that is vulnerable to being discovered. I think it is a good thing to keep
the encryption and signing operations separate, exactly as is the case for
RSA.

Greg Boverman