Understanding the Essentials of PGP and Its Distinct Role Compared to SSL (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between PGP and SSL? ›

Trust Model: SSL/TLS uses a hierarchical trust model with CAs, while PGP uses a web-of-trust model. Key Distribution: For SSL/TLS, the public key is distributed via the SSL certificate issued by the CA. For PGP, the public key is shared directly or via key servers.

When you send an email signed/encrypted with PGP then you will also only use a single key for this email. This is the same as the single key used with a SSL server. So the main difference between both technologies is the certificate handling (signing of public keys).

In brief, PGP encrypts the email from one person to another, and TLS encrypts communication between two email servers. An email that is not encrypted is sent as normal text over the Internet and can be easily intercepted.

PGP is short for Pretty Good Privacy, a security program that enables users to communicate securely by decrypting and encrypting messages, authenticating messages through digital signatures, and encrypting files. It was one of the first freely available forms of public-key cryptography software.

SSL can also be used to send encrypted email, similar to PGP, using the protocol known as Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME). Many of the same functions in PGP can be applied using S/MIME, such as encryption and signing, however S/MIME requires the use of certificates.

In short, it is essentially impossible for anyone – be they a hacker or even the NSA – to break PGP encryption. Though there have been some news stories that point out security flaws in some implementations of PGP, such as the Efail vulnerability, it's important to recognize that PGP itself is still very secure.

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PGP can be used to send messages confidentially. For this, PGP uses a hybrid cryptosystem by combining symmetric-key encryption and public-key encryption. The message is encrypted using a symmetric encryption algorithm, which requires a symmetric key generated by the sender.

In contrast to PGP certificates, which a user can make themselves, X. 509 certificates are only available by applying to a certificate authority. These certificates also only have a single digital signature from the issuer, as opposed to the many signatures that a PGP certificate can have from other users.

S/MIME uses a hierarchical trust model, where a central authority (such as a certificate authority) issues digital certificates to verify the identity of email senders. PGP uses a web of trust model, where users can independently verify each other's identities through key signatures.

What are the key differences between SSL and TLS? ›

However, SSL is an older technology that contains some security flaws. Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the upgraded version of SSL that fixes existing SSL vulnerabilities. TLS authenticates more efficiently and continues to support encrypted communication channels.

PGP: Is a completely different domain from SSL/IPSEC, because SSL/IPSEC restricts their-selves to network encryption, they don't deal with encryption of files or any other data, all they deal with is the encryption of "bytes" that are going over the network and once the other end has read in the bytes its going to be ...

Pretty Good Privacy uses a variation of the public key system. In this system, each user has an encryption key that is publicly known and a secret or private key that is known only to that user. Users encrypt a message they send to someone else using that person's public PGP key.

PGP uses a passphrase to encrypt your private key on your machine. Your private key is encrypted on your disk using a hash of your passphrase as the secret key. You use the passphrase to decrypt and use your private key. A passphrase should be hard for you to forget and difficult for others to guess.

While having active WHOIS protection aims to hide the domain owner's contact details from the public, an active SSL certificate encryption focuses on the data that is shared by the site's visitors.

Is PGP Encryption Secure? PGP encryption is almost impossible to hack. That's why it's still used by entities that send and receive sensitive information, such as journalists and hacktivists. Though PGP encryption cannot be hacked, OpenPGP does have a vulnerability that disrupts PGP encrypted messages when exploited.

With the advancement of cryptography, parts of PGP and OpenPGP have been criticized for being dated: The long length of PGP public keys, caused by the use of RSA and additional data other than the actual cryptographic key. Lack of forward secrecy. Use of outdated algorithms by default in several implementations.

Public certificates are used on public servers and intended to be trusted by the general public (like a website on the internet). Private certificates are often used within a single organization or between known parties.