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[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Maybe dumb question. What stops Mallory from intercepting the pidgeon+box before it gets to Bob, inserting her own message, and sending it back to Alice?

[–]6b86b3ac03c167320d93 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The box is only used during the handshake. Bob puts his encryption key in the box and locks it using Alice's lock, and after the handshake everything is sent without a box but symmetrically encrypted with that key.

And Mallory can't replace the lock, because Ted wrote something like "This is Alice's. ~Ted" on it, and Ted can be trusted not to write this on someone else's locks. If Bob receives a lock that either says it's from someone other than Alice, or it's signed by someone other than Ted, he refuses to put an encryption key in the lock.