2.3 PUBLIC-KEY ENCRYPTIONOf equal i

2.3 PUBLIC-KEY ENCRYPTION
Of equal importance to symmetric encryption is public-key encryption, which finds
use in message authentication and key distribution.
Public-Key Encryption Structure
Public-key encryption, first publicly proposed by Diffie and Hellman in 1976
[DIFF76], is the first truly revolutionary advance in encryption in literally thousands
of years. Public-key algorithms are based on mathematical functions rather than on
simple operations on bit patterns, such as are used in symmetric encryption algorithms.
More important, public-key cryptography is asymmetric, involving the use
of two separate keys, in contrast to symmetric encryption, which uses only one key.
The use of two keys has profound consequences in the areas of confidentiality, key
distribution, and authentication.
Before proceeding, we should first mention several common misconceptions
concerning public-key encryption. One is that public-key encryption is more secure
from cryptanalysis than symmetric encryption. In fact, the security of any encryption
scheme depends on (1) the length of the key and (2) the computational work involved
in breaking a cipher. There is nothing in principle about either symmetric or public-key
encryption that makes one superior to another from the point of view of resisting cryptanalysis.
A second misconception is that public-key encryption is a general- purpose
technique that has made symmetric encryption obsolete. On the contrary, because of
the computational overhead of current public-key encryption schemes, there seems no
foreseeable likelihood that symmetric encryption will be abandoned. Finally, there is
a feeling that key distribution is trivial when using public-key encryption, compared to
the rather cumbersome handshaking involved with key distribution centers for symmetric
encryption. For public-key key distribution, some form of protocol is needed,
often involving a central agent, and the procedures involved are no simpler or any
more efficient than those required for symmetric encryption.
A public-key encryption scheme has six ingredients ( Figure 2.7a ):
• Plaintext: This is the readable message or data that is fed into the algorithm as
input.
• Encryption algorithm: The encryption algorithm performs various transformations
on the plaintext.
• Public and private key: This is a pair of keys that have been selected so that
if one is used for encryption, the other is used for decryption. The exact