Public Key Crypto
Mark Stamp · Information Security · 2005
In this chapter we cover the most important public key crypto topics. We begin with the knapsack, which is insecure, but provides a nice introduction to the subject. We then discuss the workhorses of modern public key cryptography, namely, RSA and Diffie-Hellman. We briefly present the concepts behind elliptic curve cryptography, or ECC, which promises to play a larger role in the future, particularly in resource-constrained devices. We also consider digital signatures and non-repudiation which are major benefits of public key cryptography and we discuss a hybrid cryptosystem, which illustrates one of the ways that public key crypto is used in the real world. We briefly discuss the challenge of public key infrastructure, or PKI, which is the most significant impediment to the widespread deployment of public key crypto.