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Placeholder names - Glossary | MDN 1/3 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Placeholder_names reference web, html, css, javascript, documentation 2026-05-05T05:40:21.212759+00:00 kb-cron

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  1. Glossary
  2. Placeholder names

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." The most commonly used names are:

  • 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 ("man-in-the-middle") who is able to modify their conversation and replay old messages