Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

From: What is Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) (accessed by Benjamin Hobbs on 7/15/2023)

What is PKI?

• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a technology for authentication for users and devices.

  • Basic Idea:
    • A trusted party digitally signs a "document" to certify that a certain cryptological key (used for access) belongs to a particular user or device.
    • The key (with the signed document) can then be used as an identity for the user on a digital network
    • The purpose of PKI is to securely associate a key with an entity (user/device/program/process/component/etc.)

• The aforementioned Trusted Party is called a Certificate Authority (CA). A CA has a key that is used to sign these "documents" called certificates.

Common Use Cases for Certificates

• Secure Web Sites - HTTPS

• Authenticating Users and Computers - SSH

• Email Signing and Encryption

Questions for Understanding

1. Name the three main components which make up PKI.

• Public Key
• Private Key
• Public Key Cryptography

2. How would you explain, to a non-technical friend, the role PKI plays in protecting traffic between your browser and a web server.

• Well, for one PKI is how HTTPS (secure websites) stay secure (and prevent others from listening in)
• Also- digital signatures is possible becuase of this technology

3. What is the main weakness of the PKI architecture?

• any Certificate Authority can sign a certficate for any person or computer.

Additional Resources

Videos

Prof Messer Security+ PKI Components