How does one get a key pair ?

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How does one get a key pair ?..

Answer / ramkumar

A user can generate his or her own key pair, or, depending
on local policy, a security officer may generate key pairs
for all users. There are tradeoffs between the two
approaches. In the former, the user needs some way to trust
his or her copy of the key generation software, and in the
latter, the user must trust the security officer and the
private key must be transferred securely to the user.
Typically, each node on a network should be capable of
local key generation. Secret-key authentication systems,
such as Kerberos, often do not allow local key generation,
but instead use a central server to generate keys.

Once a key has been generated, the user must register his
or her public key with some central administration, called
a Certifying Authority (CA). The CA returns to the user a
certificate attesting to the validity of the user's public
key along with other information (see Questions 4.1.3.10-
4.1.3.12). If a security officer generates the key pair,
then the security officer can request the certificate for
the user. Most users should not obtain more than one
certificate for the same key, in order to simplify various
bookkeeping tasks associated with the key.