[ale] emailing public dsa key (good, bad or ugly?)

[Robert Reese]

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On 1/25/2006 at 10:19 PM Joe Knapka wrote:

>> is there any risk in doing this via email?  I understand the basic 
>> principles of asymetric cryptography and that it shouldn't be possible 
>> to decrypt w/the public key.
>
>Sure it is. You can decrypt any message encrypted with the private key.
>
...
>
>Wait...  *You* will be sending data to *them*? In that case, you need 
>*their* public key,
>not the other way around.  The public key is the one you encrypt with if 
>you want your
>message to stay private;  the private key is the one you encrypt with if 
>you want the receiver to be able to verify your identity.


Just for reference, you encrypt to a public key and verify a signature with a public key.  With a private key you decrypt and you sign. ;c)

Cheers,
Robert~


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