
| Create | Jack’s Public Key | 
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| Key Pair | 
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| Jack | 
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| 
 | Jack’s Private Key | 
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| 
 | 
 | 
 | CA’s Public Key | 
| Identity Info + | 
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| Jack | 
 | Certificate Authority | CA’s Private Key | 
| Jack’s Public Key | |||
| 
 | (Also performs Identity Verification on Jack) | ||
| Certificate Request | 
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 | |
| Jack’s Private Key | 
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| (Stays Private) | 
 | Identity Info + | 
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| 
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 | |
| 
 | 
 | CA Info + | 
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| 
 | 
 | Jack’s Public Key | 
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| 
 | 
 | Preliminary Certificate | 
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| Identity Info + | |||
| 
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 | ||
| CA Info + | 
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| Jack’s Public Key | Encryption | 
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| CA’s Digital | 
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| Signature | 
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| Jack’s Public Key | 
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| Certificate | 
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Figure 19 - Certificate Authority
Jack goes through a key pair generation process and creates a public and private key pair. The private key is kept secret. The public key is associated with some identity information and is given to a Certificate Authority. The certificate authority generates a certificate, usually specific to a purpose such as email, and signs the certificate with its digital signature. Assuming there is a place where these digital certificates are publicly available, as long as Jack and John can agree to trust a specific certificate authority, they’ll be fine trusting certificates signed by that authority. Refer to Figure 20.
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