encryption algorithm

Daniel Kahn Gillmor dkg at fifthhorseman.net
Tue Dec 17 17:09:33 CET 2013


Hi Matt--

On 12/17/2013 10:07 AM, Matt D wrote:
> Hi!  What encryption algorithm do we use in OpenPGP

OpenPGP has "algorithm agility", meaning that it's possible to use
different encryption algorithms at different times in the same
cryptographic framework.  encrypted OpenPGP messages are generally also
"hybrid" messages -- that is, the bulk of the message is encrypted with
a symmetric encryption algorithm (using a random key), and that random
key is encrypted to the recipient's public key using an asymmetric
algorithm.

If you want more details, you might be interested in the list of
symmetric key algorithms:

 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880#section-9.2

or possibly the asymmetric algorithms:

 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880#section-9.1

Regards,

	--dkg

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