Security Without Obscurity, 2nd Edition

3 PKI Building Blocks

DOI: 10.1201/9781003425298-3

This chapter builds on the general security and cryptography basics presented in the previous chapters. The public key infrastructure (PKI) building blocks include details of related standards, descriptions of selected protocols, and various architectural components. These PKI building blocks provide a foundational knowledge base for the remainder of the book and more generally for the reader’s continuing education.

As noted in Chapter 1, “Introduction,” Crypto-Agility is defined as the capability of a PKI to easily switch between cryptographic algorithms, encryption key strengths, and certificate contents in response to changing system and enterprise needs. See Section 7.7, “Crypto-Agility,” ...