.NET Framework Security

Setting the Stage: Key Definitions and Scenarios in Cryptography

Before describing the contents of the .NET Framework's cryptographic libraries, we briefly review and define some of the basic concepts of cryptography: symmetric algorithms, asymmetric algorithms, cryptographic hash functions, and digital signatures. We introduce these concepts in the context of basic two-party communication scenarios requiring one or more features of message security (confidentiality, integrity, and authentication).

NOTE

Cryptography is a rich and active field of ongoing research. It is impossible to provide a strong introduction to the theory and practice of modern cryptographic techniques in only two chapters, so we do not attempt to do so here. We assume that ...