[openssl-users] EVP_SealInit question

[Norm Green]

Sorry, I'm still not quite getting it.

It sounds like you're saying that only RSA supports encrypting with a 
public key.  But can't any asymmetric encryption algorithm encrypt using 
the public key?  Why is RSA special in this regard?

Norm Green

On 8/15/2016 5:31 PM, Dr. Stephen Henson wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2016, Norm Green wrote:
>
>> Ok, thanks.
>>
>> What I don't understand is what key transport has to do with
>> EV_SealInit() ?  Why is key transport important here ?
>>
> Because EVP_SealInit() generates a random symmetric key and encrypts it using
> one or more public keys. For this to work the public key algorithm has to
> support encryption of the symmetric key using a public key aka key transport.
>
> Of the public key algorithms OpenSSL currently implements only RSA has that
> operation.
>
> Steve.
> --
> Dr Stephen N. Henson. OpenSSL project core developer.
> Commercial tech support now available see: http://www.openssl.org