Re: CA Q
- From: "The Rev [MCT]" <ireportbadpeople@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 09:50:02 -0400
Yeah... I'm gonna start a new Root CA company. Revisign, think anyone will trust me?
-- rev
MCT/MCNGP #44
..
"Ben Smith" <online_bensmi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:MPG.1d6b8d9bf79c6d54989802@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <#yvYaiioFHA.3996@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, coolromeo29 @yahoo.com says...So far I understand the whole concept of public & private keys, but I guess
my real question is in what situations would you use CA. The only scenario
that I've done so far is issue a certificate to my IIS webserver. In what
other cases can you use CA.
Private/Public keys are only useful if you trust that the service/person that possesses that the private key is reasonably the party that was issued the key and that the keys can used used for the attempted operation. This is where certification authorities come into play - they provide the trust structure.
For example, I send you a digitally signed e-mail, which means I have signed the message by using my private key that was associated with a certificate issued to me by Microsoft, which in turn, came from an issuing CA which received it cert from a public CA (GTE, Thawte, Verisign, etc...) Because you trust the root public CA that my cert chains to, you accept that I am the person that the private keys where issued to. (meaning that you have some assurance that I really am Ben Smith). Your computer trusts all CAs in its Trusted Roots.
You need CAs for any kind of distributed encryption/authentication - SSL, IPSec, Smart Card, Client Auth, 802.1x, S/MIME, etc...
The alternative model is web of trust, which is as best described by one security expert I know as "completely 14th century."
"Ben Smith" <online_bensmi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d6b1c2c28285674989801@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> In article <#wDIzUfoFHA.3312@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, coolromeo29
> @yahoo.com says...
>> By using Certification Authority on WIN2K3 server, does all data >> become
>> encrypted between those with certificates?
>>
>>
>>
>
> Not quite. Public and private keys (as well as generated session keys)
> are used by services for encryption and authentication. The MSPress
> Security+ book has a really good overview of how encryption works. (I
> wrote that chapter).
.
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