For a long time there has been Alice and Bob, but since the end of March 2025 there is Hegseth and Waltz!
Nah, the last Wikipedia link does not show history, as it does not really exist.
But someone made the first Wikipedia page into the below picture where Hegseth replaced Alice, Waltz replaced Bob, and Goldberg replaced Mallory.
I found it in these places, but likely it proliferated more:
- [Wayback/Archive] Lina on X: “😂 …”
- 2600 – The Hacker Quarterly | Facebook: Johnathan Vail’s Post (cannot be archived)
[Wayback/Archive] 486367253_10232703147773777_4034863747031352064_n.jpg (766×504)
The Facebook image (see further below) has less JPEG artefacts, so is more original than the Twitter image.
Since [Wayback/Archive] Some URLs Are Immortal, Most Are Ephemeral (a highly recommended reading by the way), I archived the image in the links below the blog signature and had Google OCR the text.
OPSEC is easy if you are clueless.
--jeroen
[Wayback/Archive] 427522053-438a2589-f781-45e5-b94e-92fce4c17314.png (766×504)
Hegseth and Waltz
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaHegseth and Waltz are fictional characters commonly used as placeholders in discussions about cryptographic systems and protocols, [1] and in other science and engineering literature where there are several participants in a thought experiment. The Hegseth and Waltz characters were created by Jeffrey Goldberg in his 2025 article “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans”. [2] Subsequently, they have become common archetypes in many scientific and engineering fields, such as
Hegseth
Waltz
Goldberg
Example scenario where communication between Hegseth and Waltz is intercepted by Goldberg
A similar pun was [Wayback/Archive] 487203204_10238119445586263_7274268486470714839_n.jpg (700×433)
Alice, Bob and The Atlantic
Likely all actual images have long been expired from their caches.
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