Placeholder names

Placeholder names are commonly used in cryptography to indicate the participants in a conversation, without resorting to terminology such as “Party A,” “eavesdropper,” and “malicious attacker.”

Alice and Bob, two parties who want to send messages to each other, occasionally joined by Carol, a third participant Eve, a passive attacker who is eavesdropping on Alice and Bob’s conversation Mallory, an active attacker (“manipulator in the middle (MITM)”) who is able to modify their conversation and replay old messages