[66884] in Cypherpunks
Minor wording error in Snake Oil FAQ
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (rjasonc)
Mon Sep 30 15:24:59 1996
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 15:02:23 -0500
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
From: rjasonc@pobox.com (rjasonc)
>Date: Mon, 30 Sep 96 11:05 EST
>From: "Robert S. Powers" <@mcimail.com>
>To: rjasonc <rjasonc@pobox.com>
>Subject: Wording error in your email
>
>Minor wording error. Your paragraph:
>
> random session This is a temporary key that is generated specifically for
> key one message. Typically, in public key cryptosystems, the
> message to be sent is encrypted with a symmetric key that
> was specifically generated for that message. The encrypted
> version of that message, as well as the associated session
Wording error here > <
> key can then be encrypted with the recipient's public key.
> When the recipient decrypts the message, then, the system
> will actually decrypt the message it gets (which is the
> ciphertext message and the symmetric key to decrypt it),
> and then use the symmetric key to decrypt the ciphertext.
> The result is the plaintext message. This is often done
> because of the tremendous difference in the speed of
> symmetric vs. asymmetric ciphers.
>
>
>...says that BOTH the message and the secret key are encrypted
>using the public key system. I'm sure it's just a wording error;
>but clearly the public key system is NOT generally used to encrypt
>the full message. That would take too long, as you point out;
>and that's why the secret key is used at all!
>
>bp
