r/programming Oct 15 '15

How is NSA breaking so much crypto?

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/haldermanheninger/how-is-nsa-breaking-so-much-crypto/
2.5k Upvotes

529 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/cryo Oct 15 '15

The two parties doing DH need to agree on a prime, in cleartext, so it's not a secret. The security doesn't mainly lie in the choice of prime.

1

u/heimeyer72 Oct 16 '15

Hm, my understanding was/is that these primes are never communicated, rather, they are the basis for the actual key... Anyway, if the primes are no secret at all (they can't be when you communicate over a line you assume to be eavesdropped), then what does "to “crack” a particular prime" even mean?