Alice and Bob

The names Alice (A) and Bob (B) are used synonymously in communication technology for two communication partners who exchange confidential information with each other. The names are used exclusively for the exemplary description of communication processes and as metasyntactic and gender-correct placeholders.

The female name Alice is usually used for the sending entity that wants to know something from Bob, the male communication partner. If there are other people involved in the communication, they are referred to by the following letters of the alphabet: Carol (C) or Charles (C) and Dave (D).

Alice and Bob are mainly used as users in cryptography. Other names are Eve, from Eavesdropper, which stands for eavesdropper, and the attacker Mallory (M), which is derived from Malicious.