Public-channel cryptography using chaos synchronization.

We present a key-exchange protocol that comprises two parties with chaotic dynamics that are mutually coupled and undergo a synchronization process, at the end of which they can use their identical dynamical state as an encryption key. The transferred coupling- signals are based nonlinearly on time-delayed states of the parties, and therefore they conceal the parties' current state and can be transferred over a public channel. Synchronization time is linear in the number of synchronized digits alpha, while the probability for an attacker to synchronize with the parties drops exponentially with alpha. To achieve security with finite alpha we use a network.