diff -r 000000000000 -r 2c201484c85f cryptomgmtlibs/securitydocs/doxygen_docs/Security_intro_signatures.dox --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/cryptomgmtlibs/securitydocs/doxygen_docs/Security_intro_signatures.dox Wed Jul 08 11:25:26 2009 +0100 @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +/** +@page Security_signatures Digital signatures + +A digital signature is used to verify that a message (or data) actually came from the sender (the one who signed the +message) and that it has not been tampered with. + +A signature is formed by producing a fixed-length digest (@ref hash) of the message using a hash algorithm, which is then +encrypted using the sender's private key. This signature and the message are then sent to the recipient. + +The receiver can then verify the signature as follows: a @ref hash is produced of the sender's message (using the hashing +algorithm sent with the signature); also, using the sender's public key, their signature is decrypted into a @ref hash. +These two hashes are compared: if they are the same, it is more or less certain that the public key used for the +@ref decryption corresponds to the private key used to create the signature, thus data integrity is validated. + + +*/ \ No newline at end of file