Security Basics mailing list archives
Basic Questions about PKI
From: "Roger A. Grimes" <rogerg () cox net>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 18:43:07 -0400
Can someone that knows PKI cold confirm my knowledge of PKI? Here's what I think I know about PKI (accurate or not I'm not sure): a. People ENCRYPT messages to me with my PUBLIC key and send the encrypted message to me, and only I can open the encrypted message...because ONLY my PRIVATE key can decrypt messages encrypted with my PUBLIC key. b. If I want to SIGN a message, I use my private key to sign the message digest (ENCRYPTING the hash result). The receiver who wants to rely on my signed message uses my PUBLIC key to DECRYPT my encrypted message digest. c. Both private and public keys can decrypt, and both private and public keys can encrypt. It just depends on the situation of what we use when. Is that logic correct? Could we encrypt messages that we want to send to others with our private key (but don't because if we did anyone with our public key could read) the seemingly private message? Roger **************************************************************************** **** *Roger A. Grimes, Computer Security Consultant *CPA, MCSE (NT/2000), CNE (3/4), A+ *email: rogerg () cox net *cell: 757-615-3355 *Author of Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows by O'Reilly *http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/malmobcode *Author of upcoming Honeypots for Windows (Apress) **************************************************************************** ***** --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Basic Questions about PKI Roger A. Grimes (Oct 07)
- RE: Basic Questions about PKI David Gillett (Oct 08)
- Re: Basic Questions about PKI Meritt James (Oct 08)
- RE: Basic Questions about PKI Erik Rozman (Oct 08)
- Re: Basic Questions about PKI Michael Sconzo (Oct 08)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Basic Questions about PKI Kenneth Buchanan (Oct 08)
- RE: Basic Questions about PKI Chee Young, Tan (Oct 08)
- RE: Basic Questions about PKI Hussein Ghazy (Oct 09)
- RE: Basic Questions about PKI Kenneth Buchanan (Oct 08)