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Differences between current version and predecessor to the previous major change of PublicKey.

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Newer page: version 7 Last edited on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 9:00:40 am by AristotlePagaltzis
Older page: version 4 Last edited on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 5:43:37 pm by AristotlePagaltzis Revert
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
-InNeedOfRefactor  
+[PublicKey]s and [PrivateKey]s are generated in matched pairs in PublicKeyEncryption. The PublicKey can decrypt anything encrypted with its PrivateKey and visa-versa, but the public key is unable to decrypt anything it encrypts itself and the private key is unable to decrypt anything it encrypts itself. This enables the creation of a [Signature], in which a [CryptographicHash] of a message is created, encrypted with the private key and appended to the message. Anybody with the public key can decrypt the signature and run the cryptographic hash of a message (without the appended signature) and check that they are the same, but only someone with the private key could have created it. This is the basis of all PublicKey [Cryptography].  
  
-The public part of PublicKeyEncryption
+Standards for the use of [PublicKey]s include [SSL] [X509] and [OpenPGP], systems include: [OpenSSL], [SSH], PGP and [GPG]
  
-Stored in [SSH] as a file often called 'identity.pub'. You download people's public key using gpg --recv -keys, or from their webpage, to verify that something signed with their PrivateKey really came from them, or to encrypt something so that only their private key can decode it.  
-  
-Public keys are actually used in several different widely used programs. The place most people encounter them (though most of them are unaware of the fact) in in a WebBrowser when they traverse an https link. Other places are in PGP/[GPG]. There are several projects that even use a public key identifier as a routing destination in an InternetProtocol-like protocol. You can find the list on the [CAKE Wiki list of other projects|http://www.cakem.net/mywiki/OtherProjects].  
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+Part of CategoryCryptography