Alice and Bob

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Alice and Bob, also just A and B, are the standard example users in writing on cryptography and coding theory. Carol and Dave sometimes join them for protocols which require more players. Bruce Schneier extends these [1] with others such as Eve the Eavesdropper, Victor the Verifier, and Trent the Trusted third party. His extensions seem to be in the process of becoming standard as well.

Alice and Bob have an amusing biography on the web.

References

  1. Schneier, Bruce (2nd edition, 1996,), Applied Cryptography, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-11709-9 page 23