Elliptic Curve Cryptography Support

Sun Java System Web Server has always supported RSA keys. In addition to the continued support for RSA keys, Web Server 7.0 introduces support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC).

ECC is the next generation of public-key cryptography for mobile or wireless environments. ECC is based on a set of algorithms for key generation, encryption, and decryption for performing asymmetric cryptography.

Important features of ECC are:

• Compared to traditional cryptosystems like RSA, ECC offers equivalent security with smaller key sizes that enable faster computations, lower power consumption and memory, and bandwidth savings.

• ECC operates on elliptic curves. You must pick a curve and a key length. Curves are standardized and given names by various organizations such as, NIST, ANSI, and SECG. Because these standards include the key length, you only have to pick one of the predefined curve names. Web Server 7.0 supports all the curves currently specified.

For more information on how to use ECC in Web Server, see the Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 Administrator’s Guide.