RSA-OAEP (Optimal Asymmetric Encryption Padding)

RSA-OAEP is a widely used public key cryptography scheme to protect data confidentiality during transmission. Here's a detailed explanation of how it works:

• 1. Key Pair Generation

  The process starts with the generation of an RSA key pair - a public key and a private key. The public key is shared to encrypt data, while the private key is kept secret and used to decrypt data.

• 2. Optimized Padding

  Before encryption, RSA-OAEP applies optimized padding to the message. This padding enhances the security of encryption, making it harder for an attacker to deduce information about the original message.

• 3. Encryption

  The message, after padding, is then encrypted using the RSA public key. The RSA algorithm ensures that only the corresponding private key can successfully decrypt the data.

• 4. Decryption

  To decrypt the data, the recipient uses the private key corresponding to the public key used in encryption. The padding is removed, and the original message is retrieved.

• 5. SHA1 or SHA256

  By default, the RSA-OAEP algorithm uses the SHA1 or SHA256 message digest algorithm to compute a message digest as part of the encryption operation. This adds an extra layer of security to the encrypted data.