Comment by ramchip

Comment by ramchip 10 months ago

3 replies

DH + HMAC on its own doesn't give you authentication, anyone can establish a symmetric key. It's possible to build authentication on top but it requires pre-shared data or PKI.

nmadden 10 months ago

The way DH is used typically for encryption (ECIES) or in TLS doesn’t give you authentication. But you can get authentication from DH alone, without PSK or PKI. See https://neilmadden.blog/2021/04/08/from-kems-to-protocols/ for some details on the security properties of various types of DH.

  • ramchip 10 months ago

    I meant that some data still needs to be distributed securely, just it's the sender's public key rather than a PSK. I recon "pre-shared data" was not the best choice of words...

    (Still love the blog post!)