Cryptography Overview

ASecret Value

Secret

Splitting

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.

.

Share #1

NShares

Share # N

Figure 3-14Secret Sharing — Key Share Assignment

Any K out of the N shares

.

.

.

Secret

Reconstruction

The

Original

Secret

Figure 3-15Secret Sharing — Full Key Generation From Shares

Working with Keys

Key Generation

The techniques for generating public/private key pairs and symmetric keys are quite different. Symmetric-key algorithms generally require an arbitrary random-byte sequence, while a public/private key pair must satisfy a mathematical formula. Key generation depends on the availability of a good random number generator, and the security of a random number generator depends on the seed. See “Pseudo-Random Numbers and Seed Generation” on page 92 for more information.

C h a p t e r 3 C r y p t o g r a p h y

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RSA Security 5.2.2 manual Working with Keys, Key Generation