Re: [skex] Definition of the term "Key Exchange"

[Melchior Aelmans <[e-mail]>]

Agreed, "Key Establishment" appears to be a more precise term.



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From: skex <[e-mail]> on behalf of Manfred von Willich <[e-mail]>
Date: Thursday, 11 April 2024 at 19:27
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Cc: [e-mail] <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: [skex] Definition of the term "Key Exchange"
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On Thu, Apr 11, 2024 at 9:30 AM Panwei (William) <william.panwei=[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:

As this mailing list and the potential BoF is named Symmetric Key Exchange, I think my following problem may be related to this list.

I've got a little bit confused by the term "Key Exchange" after some search for related terms.
 ...
Then, in the definition of "key establishment", it says key establishment is a procedure that combines the key-generation and key-distribution, and the two basic techniques for key establishment are "key agreement" and "key transport".
In the definition of "key agreement", you can find out that it recognizes key agreement as the asymmetric cryptographic algorithms like DH.

Should I think of key exchange in a broad sense as key establishment, and in a narrow sense as (asymmetric) key agreement?

The term "key exchange" will cause ongoing confusion, as it is almost universally used to mean a (typically asymmetric) DH-like process.  We definitely intend the broader concept of "key establishment" in this context.  The BoF and WG should be named with this in mind.  Is there a reasonable way to rename this email thread?  Maybe to "SKE" for symmetric key establishment?

Manfred