Padding (cryptography) - Public Key Cryptography

Public Key Cryptography

In public key cryptography, padding is the process of preparing a message for encryption or signing using a specification or scheme such as PKCS#1 v2.0, OAEP, PSS, PSSR, IEEE P1363 EMSA2 and EMSA5. A popular example is OAEP used with RSA.

The operation is referred to as "padding" because originally, random material was simply appended to the message to make it long enough for the primitive, but this is not a secure form of padding and is no longer used. A modern padding scheme aims to ensure that the attacker cannot manipulate the plaintext to exploit the mathematical structure of the primitive and will usually be accompanied by a proof, often in the random oracle model, that breaking the padding scheme is as hard as solving the hard problem underlying the primitive.

Read more about this topic:  Padding (cryptography)

Famous quotes containing the words public and/or key:

    Most of the folktales dealing with the Indians are lurid and romantic. The story of the Indian lovers who were refused permission to wed and committed suicide is common to many places. Local residents point out cliffs where Indian maidens leaped to their death until it would seem that the first duty of all Indian girls was to jump off cliffs.
    —For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Yes, I know.
    Death sits with his key in my lock.
    Not one day is taken for granted.
    Even nursery rhymes have put me in hock.
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)