Schmid Watson Technical Information download pdf (Page 272)

Watson SHDSL Router

Web-based Management Manual

Watson-SHDSL-Router-GUI-Manual.doc

Version 2.3-03

9-10

Revision: 2012-02-29

9.9.4 Certificates

9.9.4.1 Overview

Public-key cryptography uses a pair of keys: a public key and a corresponding pri-

vate key. These keys can play opposite roles, either encrypting or decrypting data.

Your public key is made known to the world, while your private key is kept secret.

The public and private keys are mathematically associated; however it is computa-

tionally infeasible to deduce the private key from the public key. Anyone who has

the public key can encrypt information that can only be decrypted with the matching

private key. Similarly, the person with the private key can encrypt information that

can only be decrypted with the matching public key. Technically, both public and

private keys are large numbers that work with cryptographic algorithms to produce

encrypted material. The primary benefit of public-key cryptography is that it allows

people who have no preexisting security arrangement to authenticate each other

and exchange messages securely. Watson makes use of public-key cryptography

to encrypt and authenticate keys for the encryption of VPN data communication,

the Web Based Management (WBM) utility, and secured telnet.

9.9.4.1.1 Digital Certificates

When working with public-key cryptography, you should be careful and make sure

that you are using the correct person's public key. Man-in-the-middle attacks pose

a potential threat, where an ill-intending 3rd party posts a phony key with the name

and user ID of an intended recipient. Data transfer that is intercepted by the owner

of the counterfeit key can fall in the wrong hands. Digital certificates provide a

means for establishing whether a public key truly belongs to the supposed owner. It

is a digital form of credential. It has information on it that identifies you, and an au-

thorized statement to the effect that someone else has confirmed your identity. Dig-

ital certificates are used to foil attempts by an ill-intending party to use an unauthor-

ized public key.

A digital certificate consists of the following:

A public key

Certificate information The "identity" of the user, such as name, user ID and

so on.

Digital signatures A statement stating that the information enclosed in the

certificate has been vouched for by a Certificate Authority (CA).

Binding this information together, a certificate is a public key with identification

forms attached, coupled with a stamp of approval by a trusted party.

9.9.4.1.2 X.509 Certificate Format

Watson supports X.509 certificates that comply with the ITU-T X.509 international

standard. An X.509 certificate is a collection of a standard set of fields containing

information about a user or device and their corresponding public key. The X.509

standard defines what information goes into the certificate, and describes how to

encode it (the data format). All X.509 certificates have the following data:

The certificate holder's public key the public key of the certificate holder, together

with an algorithm identifier that specifies which cryptosystem the key belongs to

and any associated key parameters.

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