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What does signing with private key mean?

What does signing with private key mean?

When encrypting, you use their public key to write a message and they use their private key to read it. When signing, you use your private key to write message’s signature, and they use your public key to check if it’s really yours.

Do you sign with the public or private key?

As I mentioned above, messages are encrypted with the message recipient’s public key and decrypted with the corresponding private key. Message signing, on the other hand, uses the sender’s private key to sign the message, and his public key is used to read the signature.

What is private key used for?

The private key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the data. This key is shared between the sender and receiver of the encrypted sensitive information. The private key is also called symmetric being common for both parties.

How does private key work?

Only the owner of the private key can encrypt data so that the public key decrypts it; meanwhile, anyone can encrypt data with the public key, but only the owner of the private key can decrypt it. Therefore, anyone can send data securely to the private key owner.

How is private key generated?

A sender encrypts data with the receiver’s public key; only the holder of the private key can decrypt this data. Computer cryptography uses integers for keys. In some cases keys are randomly generated using a random number generator (RNG) or pseudorandom number generator (PRNG).

How do I secure my private key?

The best way of securely storing private keys is to use a cryptographic hardware storage device such as:

  1. USB Token.
  2. Smart Card.
  3. Hardware Storage Module (HSM)

Can a private key be used to sign a message?

A private key can be used to sign the message. – monksy Aug 28 ’11 at 23:59 The above two comments are actually not true (usually). Most often you can encrypt (and therefore sign) stuff with either key (private or public). This is how asymmetric encryption works.

How does a public key and a private key work?

In some ways, they work in opposite directions. With public-key encryption, anybody can encrypt data with the public key. Only the owner of the private key can decrypt encrypted messages to recover the data. With signatures, only the owner of the private key can sign messages. Anybody can use the public key to verify the signature of a message.

Who is the owner of the private key?

With signatures, only the owner of the private key can sign messages. Anybody can use the public key to verify the signature of a message. My understanding of Public/Private key is that data is always encrypted with the vendor’s public key and they decrypt using their private key. That’s correct.

Can a public key be used to verify a signature?

Anybody can use the public key to verify the signature of a message. My understanding of Public/Private key is that data is always encrypted with the vendor’s public key and they decrypt using their private key. That’s correct. But it only covers public-key encryption, not other uses of public-key cryptography such as signatures.