cryptomgmtlibs/securitydocs/doxygen_docs/Security_intro_signatures.dox
author William Roberts <williamr@symbian.org>
Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:15:22 +0100
branchRCL_3
changeset 51 ccc1dbc4665c
parent 8 35751d3474b7
permissions -rw-r--r--
Re-merge fix for Bug 1301

/**
@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.


*/