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Public Key Infrastructure

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a framework that enables secure communication and data exchange through the management of public and private keys, along with digital certificates that authenticate identities. PKI is essential for ensuring trustworthy online interactions and protecting organizations from unauthorized access. The process of obtaining a PKI certificate involves creating a private key, generating a public key, and validating the certificate through a certificate authority (CA).

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18 views4 pages

Public Key Infrastructure

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a framework that enables secure communication and data exchange through the management of public and private keys, along with digital certificates that authenticate identities. PKI is essential for ensuring trustworthy online interactions and protecting organizations from unauthorized access. The process of obtaining a PKI certificate involves creating a private key, generating a public key, and validating the certificate through a certificate authority (CA).

Uploaded by

sivarashwanth16
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PKI provides a framework for securely exchanging and verifying public

keys,

while Digital Certificates serve as digital identities that enable secure


communication and data exchange.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) provides a framework of encryption and


data communications standards used to secure communications over
public networks.
At the heart of PKI is a trust built among clients, servers and certificate
authorities (CAs). This trust is established and propagated through the
generation, exchange and verification of certificates.

Public key infrastructure (PKI) refers to tools used to create and manage public keys
for encryption, which is a common method of securing data transfers on the internet. PKI
is built into all web browsers used today, and it helps secure public internet traffic.

Organizations can use it to secure the communications they send back and forth
internally and also to make sure connected devices can connect securely.

The most important concept associated with PKI is the cryptographic keys that are part
of the encryption process and serve to authenticate different people or devices
attempting to communicate with the network.

Why Is PKI Important?

PKI is crucial because the encryption and authentication it manages and makes possible
ensures trustworthy, secure communication online.
For an enterprise, PKI can make the difference between an intruder gaining access to
the network through a connected device and keeping a potentially dangerous threat
away from the organization.

How Does PKI Work?


PKI works through the implementation of two technologies: certificates and keys. A key
is a long number used to encrypt data. Each element of a message gets encrypted using
the key formula. For example, if you want to write a message where every letter is
replaced by the letter after it, then A will become B, C will be D, etc. If someone is to
have this key, they will get what will look like a nonsensical message and decrypt it.

With PKI, the key involves advanced mathematical concepts that are much more
complicated. With the alphabetic example above, there is one key, and if the recipient
has it, they can easily decrypt the message. With PKI, on the other hand, there are two
keys: a private and a public one.

The public key is available to anyone who wants it and is used to encode a message
that someone sends to you. A private key is what you use to decrypt the message after
you get it. The keys are connected using a complex mathematical equation. Even
though the private and public keys are connected, the connection is facilitated by this
complex equation. It is therefore extremely difficult to ascertain the private key by using
data from the public key.

Certificates, which are issued by a certificate authority (CA), let you know the person or
device you want to communicate with is actually who they claim to be. When the correct
certificate is associated with a device, the device is considered authentic. The validity of
the certificate can be authenticated through a system that checks whether it is real or
not.

What Are PKI Certificates?

PKI certificates refer to documents that grant an entity permission to engage in the
exchange of PKI keys. They are similar to passports that carry an identity unique to the
holder. Without this passport, the entity is not allowed to participate in the exchange of
PKI-encrypted data.

A certificate includes the public key and is used to share the public key between two
parties. It also includes official attestation from a source that both entities trust. This
confirms the identity of the entity engaging in the digital interaction. The source that
issues the certificate is referred to as the CA.

PKI certificates also involve a registration authority (RA), which receives the signing
requests for certificates. The signing requests facilitate the issuance and renewal of
certificates as they are given to things, people, or applications.

Certificates are stored within a certificate database. This is on a server that hosts the
CA. The CA information is also kept on the local device or computer used to engage in
the communication. The storage of the certificate for the CA is called the certificate
database, while the local storage on the device or computer is called a certificate store.

Another important facet of PKI certificates is certificate policy. This refers to a document
that aims to identify each entity involved in a PKI interaction, as well as outline their
respective roles. The certificate policy is published within what is called the PKI
perimeter. In the case of X.509 certificates, a link can be included in a certain field within
the PKI perimeter, and this link is associated with the certificate policy.

How To Get a PKI Certificate


The process of creating a certificate follows several, logical steps. First, a private key is
created, which is used to calculate the public key. Then, the CA requires the private key
owner's attributes presented for verification.

After that, the public key and the owner's attributes are encoded into a digital signature
known as a certificate signing request (CSR). This then gets signed by the owner of the
key. The signature the owner provides serves as proof that they are the rightful
possessor of the private key.
The final step involves the CA. The CSR gets validated by the CA, which then also adds
its own signature to the certificate using the CA’s private key. At this point, the certificate
is considered legitimate, and communication can commence.

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