Re: getross - email privacy /security of system
Andrej Lajovic <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.mail.pine.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On Sat, 4 Nov 2006, Ryan Barrett wrote: > no, it's an asymmetric key system. the email address determines their > *public* key, which is only used to encrypt email. they decrypt email > with their *private* key, which they keep secret, like a password. If so, where does the private key come from? If they generate it themselves, it must be somehow derived from their e-mail address. What prevents an interceptor to do the same? As far as I know, asymmetric cryptography is based on the fact that it is almost impossible (i.e. not possible in a reasonable time and with reasonable resources) to find out the private key associated with a public one. Andrej _______________________________________________ Pine-info mailing list [email protected] http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/pine-info