Keys for encryption

You can learn about encryption, keys used for encryption and the corresponding algorithms through the information provided here.

For encryption you have two alternatives:

• use a public/private key pair
• use a secret key

For public key encryption the most popular algorithm is RSA. Note that other popular public key algorithms such as DiffieHellman (key exchange) and DSA (digital signature) cannot be used for encryption.

Generally encryption with secret keys is much faster and much more secure than encryption with public keys. However, by default the Directory Integrator Server uses public key encryption with RSA to preserve compatibility with earlier versions.