Signature, certificates, public and private keys

[Hlambi]

Hi All,

I'm need help on key authentication.

How does one know if really the priv ate key comes from the expected host.

How do you "lock-down" a key to only one host/computer? so that if another person get hold of the private key by any chance, they wont be able to connect because the key wasn't created for their PC/host.

I'm new to the keys and signatures authentication. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Former Community Member]

What are you trying to authenticate to?  What you are describing sounds like "client authentication" when establishing a TLS\SSL connection to a server.  Check out wikipedia for details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security (see the Client-authenticated TLS handshake section).

When using Digital Certificates to create a digital signature, the certificate is tied to a specific user (not a particular machine)  Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_certificates for more details.

Regards

Steve