OpenSSL::PKey

Asymmetric Public Key Algorithms

Asymmetric public key algorithms solve the problem of establishing and sharing secret keys to en-/decrypt messages. The key in such an algorithm consists of two parts: a public key that may be distributed to others and a private key that needs to remain secret.

Messages encrypted with a public key can only be encrypted by recipients that are in possession of the associated private key. Since public key algorithms are considerably slower than symmetric key algorithms (cf. OpenSSL::Cipher) they are often used to establish a symmetric key shared between two parties that are in possession of each other's public key.

Asymmetric algorithms offer a lot of nice features that are used in a lot of different areas. A very c