hi, In Diffie Hellman key exchange we choose a large prime in Fp. The prime is publicly known,so is g,preferably a generator in Fp*.
The reason that you might need to change the prime frequently is only if you donot choose g(element of)Fp to be a generator in Fp or the prime field be too small. If the attacker knows the prime factorization of p-1, where p-1=q_1*q_2*...*q_n,he can compute which of g^((p-1)/q_i)== 1 mod p and determine the order of g. If it has a lower order, the attack is easier. If you choose g of maximum order in Fp, then you will have maximum security. > physical retrieval of the DH prime (and the rest of > the certificate) allow > him to decode the captured log? The diffie-hellman key exchange works under the assumption that knowing only g^a and g^b, it is computationaly infeasible for the attacker to calculate g^(ab) and breaking it is conjenctured to be as hard as the discrete log problem. Sarath. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price. http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/