weak Diffie-Hellman key

In the past month or so, Library IT received several reports from users who have received an error message about a weak Diffie-Hellman key when attempting to get to various websites.  As a temporary solution at the time, it was suggested to use an alternate browser.   Bob Rice investigated this more closely and has implemented a fix so this error message shouldn’t surface for us again.

If you’re curious about what it is, a quick summary is the Diffie-Hellman key is a fairly basic tool used in cryptography based off of modular arithmetic.  It allows for the development of a secure key based on two weak keys supplied by either side of an exchange and is used to secure a variety of Internet services.  For those who are really interested in learning more about modern cryptography, feel free to view this informational video:  https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/cryptography/modern-crypt/v/diffie-hellman-key-exchange-part-2.

For comments or questions, write to any of us in LIT, or to libraryit@yale.edu.