Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) with OpenSSL (RSA and ECC) (Udemy.com)
Understand Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), OpenSSL, CSR, Certificates, Public Key Cryptosystems (RSA and ECC) in Java
Created by: Holczer Balazs
Last updated February 2025
What you will learn
- Understand the basics of public key crypto-systems
- Understand the basics of public key infrastructure (PKI)
- Understand certificates (root and intermediate certificates)
- Understand certificate signing requests (CSRs)
- Understand RSA and ECC
- Understand TLS protocol
How it compares
Against the other 1,182 rated Udemy courses in IT & Software on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 45% of them
- Reviews455#602 of 1,183 by number of reviews
- Length4.7 hoursshorter than 55% of them
- Last updatedFebruary 2025earlier than 55% of them
Course Description
Are you ready to truly understand how modern cryptography works and why it matters?
In this hands-on course, you’ll go beyond the buzzwords and dive into the foundations of cryptography, certificates, and certificate signing—all with practical OpenSSL examples. Whether you're a developer, security enthusiast, or IT professional, this course will give you the knowledge and tools to secure communication, understand public key cryptography, and work confidently with real-world cryptographic systems.
You won’t just learn the theory—you’ll implement it.
What You’ll Learn:
The core purpose of cryptography and how it protects digital communication
How RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) work—both in theory and in practice
How to generate public/private keys, create CSRs, and sign certificates using OpenSSL
The structure of certificate chains, including root and intermediate CAs
How TLS works, and how certificates are used in secure network protocols
Course Outline:
Chapter 1 – Cryptography Fundamentals
Why cryptography is essential
Public vs. private key cryptosystems
Chapter 2 – Public and Private Keys in OpenSSL
Generating RSA and ECC keys
Encrypting data with RSA
Chapter 3 – Certificates
Self-signed and intermediate certificates
Configuring certificate parameters
Chapter 4 – Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs)
What CSRs are and how to create them
Signing and verifying certificate chains
Chapter 5 – Transport Layer Security (TLS)
How TLS ensures secure communication
CRLs and certificate management in networks
Chapter 6 – RSA Algorithm Deep Dive
The math behind RSA
Can RSA be cracked?
Chapter 7 – Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)
ECC theory and practical algorithms
Digital signatures and real-world use cases (like Bitcoin)
Strengths and potential vulnerabilities of ECC
By the end of this course, you’ll not only understand cryptography—you’ll be able to use it confidently in real-world scenarios.
Take the next step. Enroll now and gain the skills to work with modern cryptographic systems using OpenSSL!
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
455 Reviews
Holczer Balazs
My name is Balazs Holczer. I am from Budapest, Hungary. I am qualified as a physicist. At the moment I am working as a simulation engineer at a multinational company. I have been interested in algorithms and data structures and its implementations especially in Java since university. Later on I got acquainted with machine learning techniques, artificial intelligence, numerical methods and recipes such as solving differential equations, linear algebra, interpolation and extrapolation. These things may prove to be very very important in several fields: software engineering, research and development or investment banking. I have a special addiction to quantitative models such as the Black-Scholes model, or the Merton-model.
Take a look at my website if you are interested in these topics!
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Reviews
By Asha Rakesh on 8/23/2026
Loved the simplified yet detailed explanation presented. The content is concise and I could learn the concepts quickly
By David Padgett on 6/16/2026
not sure really best to rate. Presenter seemed to know his material well. It is hard to know until I can actually use it in a work setting.
By Víctor Manuel Pérez García on 12/10/2025
Aborda los aspectos de criptografía con suficiente nivel para entender cómo generar claves, sistemas simétricos, asimétricos, certificados, validaciones, protocolos, etc. Muy buena claridad expositiva
By Attila Viktor Molnár on 12/9/2025
Precise, well-structured and I love that the appendix explained the algorithms, so they were not handled as backboxes.
By Prajit Gandhi on 11/27/2025
Appendix section can be improved a lot. Although it is there just to support and enhance our understanding. It could be much better by providing link to existing resources.
By Tim Krassowski on 5/21/2025
Great content, and can really go 'down the rabbit hole', if you want, but my main issue is when following along, there are no samples or full screenshots shown so I can make sure what I have matches to his. I was getting the public key in section 5, but not the private key and from what I could see on his screen, I had exactly that, but I couldn't see all of the import modules, or other pertinent information.
By Anna on 2/27/2025
RSA and ECC algorithms explained, course contains all the basics about how to generate and use certificates via openssl and using java.
By Jakub Raczkowski on 1/20/2025
The content is good, all necessary issues are explained properly and if that was a book I'd give full 5 stars.. but it's not. It seems that the author is reading all the time (way too fast btw.) and makes very little effort to provide this difficult subject in an easy way.
By Marijana Palalic on 8/5/2024
Very good course. It is very easy to follow even for beginners, and it is very helpful and detailed.
By P Blessington on 2/4/2024
This is Really what I expected, as a Embedded Software Engineer[Fresher], working in a Network Related Project. Using Openssl for Certificate and Key Management .
Quality Score
No CourseDuck member has rated this course yet. Taken it? Give each part a thumbs up or down.
Overall Score : 90 / 100












