Differences between version 5 and predecessor to the previous major change of PublicKey.
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Newer page: | version 5 | Last edited on Sunday, March 14, 2004 6:10:31 am | by StuartYeates | Revert |
Older page: | version 4 | Last edited on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 5:43:37 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-InNeedOfRefactor
+[PublicKey]s and [PrivateKey]s are generated in matched pairs in PublicKeyEncryption. The PublicKey can decrypt anthing encrypted with it's 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.
-
-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
].
+Standards for the use
of [PublicKey
]s include [SSL] [X509] and [OpenPGP]
, systems include: [SSH]
, PGP and
[GPG].