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Basic secure E-mail process

All secure E-mail systems work roughly the same way.
  1. Calculate a checksum on the message
  2. Encrypt the mail with a session key (random)
  3. Encrypt the checksum with your own secret key
  4. Encrypt the session key with the recipient's public key
The recipient must:
  1. Decrypt the session key with his own secret key
  2. Decrypt the checksum with your public key
  3. Decrypt the message
  4. Calculate a checksum and compare it to the one you sent
The encrypted checksum serves as both signature and integrity check.
Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no
Last modified: Fri Nov 10 14:57:03 1995