Talk:Cryptographic protocol

Name
I would suggest this would be better named "Security protocol" than "Cryptographic protocol", as the latter is about ten times more common in a Google search. Any objections? &mdash; Matt Crypto 17:52, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * Both works fine for me. Although for me "Security protocol" has a wider meaning and might include soft human issues etc. --David Göthberg 21:18, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

I suggest the following definition for a cryptographic protocol. A cryptographic protocol employs cryptographic methods and message passing to allow agreement on values by participants in the presence of an adversary. For example, an authentication protocol allows agreement on the identity of some participants, and a confidentiality protocol allows agreement on a shared secret. Ramsdell (talk) 02:09, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

It is the name used in the literature and publications because it is the field of modern cryptography in conjunction with distributed computing (O. Goldreich, �Cryptography and cryptographic protocols,� Distributed Computing, vol. 16, no. 2-3, pp. 177�199, 2003.) Mohammad Al-Aggan (talk) 02:44, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Relation to cryptographic schema
I have read that a cryptographic scheme is the sum of algorithms to: - create a secret private key (or shared password) and the associated public key - Deliver public keys to involved parties - Encrypt with the secret a payload or sign such payload. - Decrypt the encrypted payload or verify the signature. Isn't in this sense a cryptographic scheme the same that a cryptographic protocol? Or a protocol is the sum of many schemes? (Looks to me this is the correct answer). Does a protocol always refer to something related with two (or more) remote (physically distant) parties or does it applies to maybe a local protocol to encrypt a file and decrypt (locally) later on?