Minor wording error in Snake Oil FAQ

[rjasonc@pobox.com (rjasonc)]

>Date: Mon, 30 Sep 96 11:05 EST
>From: "Robert S. Powers" <@mcimail.com>
>To: rjasonc <rjasonc@pobox.com>
>Subject: Wording error in your email
>
>Minor wording error. Your paragraph:
>
>  random session  This is a temporary key that is generated specifically for
>  key             one message. Typically, in public key cryptosystems, the
>                  message to be sent is encrypted with a symmetric key that
>                  was specifically generated for that message. The encrypted
>                  version of that message, as well as the associated session
Wording error here                               >               <
>                  key can then be encrypted with the recipient's public key.
>                  When the recipient decrypts the message, then, the system
>                  will actually decrypt the message it gets (which is the
>                  ciphertext message and the symmetric key to decrypt it),
>                  and then use the symmetric key to decrypt the ciphertext.
>                  The result is the plaintext message. This is often done
>                  because of the tremendous difference in the speed of
>                  symmetric vs. asymmetric ciphers.
>
>
>...says that BOTH the message and the secret key are encrypted
>using the public key system. I'm sure it's just a wording error;
>but clearly the public key system is NOT generally used to encrypt
>the full message. That would take too long, as you point out;
>and that's why the secret key is used at all!
>
>bp