Title: Encryption Using PKI Certificates
Course: Introduction to SSL/PKI > Section: PKI

Encryption Using PKI Certificates

Note: The following steps are simplified and are a "cartoon" of how PKI is use to encrypt data. A complete description of the actual porocess can be found on the web.

Step 1

Bob creates an “encryption” key pair and put his public encryption key certificate in a public location (usually an LDAP directory).

Step 2

Alice gets Bob’s public encryption key certificate from the public location.

Step 3

Alice

1. Encrypts the message with Bob’s public encryption key found in the certificate
2. Sends the encrypted message to Bob

Bob

1. Decrypts the received encrypted message using his private decryption key
2. Bob is the only one that can read the message because he is the only one that has the decryption key