On 2015-01-11 14:02, James Knott wrote:
On 01/10/2015 04:56 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Symmetric encryption does not you a key-pair. What does it use, then? :-?
Symmetric encryption uses a single for both encryption and decryption and so it must be kept secret. Public key encryption uses 2 keys, one for encryption and the other for decryption. The 2 are mathematically related so that the public key used for encryption can be easily created from the private key used for decryption. But it's extremely difficult to create the private key from the public. Also, in practical systems, the public/private keys are generally used only to protect a random number that's actually used as a symmetrical key to protect the data.
Ah, yes. Thanks for the concise explanation. I think I understand now. :-) -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 13.1 x86_64 "Bottle" at Telcontar)