I did not get the moto behind public key encryption....

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Question by jitu
Submitted on 2/12/2004
Related FAQ: Cryptography FAQ (01/10: Overview)
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I did not get the moto behind public key encryption. Actually i have confusion of how public key and private key are different which are applied to same algorithm. Can you give example such that public and private key are different.

Answer by alexandrum
Submitted on 6/10/2004
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Public key and private key are not different or alike. They are complementary. If you have one of them you cannot "guess" the other. Data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key and vice-versa. So if a server has a private key it will give you its complementary public key when you ask for it. Then, the server will be able to authenticate to you, so you are sure you "talk" to it, and you will send encrypted data that only the server will be able to decrypt.

Answer by Sanja
Submitted on 11/13/2004
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Your public key is known by everyone who would like to send you a message. It is what you use to encrypt messeges. Your private key is known only by you. Because you these keys are linked by some mathematical functions, anyone who knows your public key can attempt to decipher your private key.

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