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[John -- I've sent this to the cypherpunks list, and Bcc'd you.]
On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, John wrote:
> In various published keysigning protocols, I note that
> there doesn't seem to be any step in the process where
> we confirm that the person submitting a key to the
> ksig-party-admin is actually the owner of the key.
Actually, there is, at least in the protocol Phil and I worked out.
(http://sion.quickie.net/keysigning.txt). I left this extremely vague.
Step 8: "Identity verification is done in the normal manner."
How identity verification is conducted is up to the signing organizers.
And, of course, everyone should have a personal policy regarding key
signing -- an individual CSP, so to speak. If, for instance, your policy
requires that you view government-issued passports before signing keys,
sign only those keys that belong to people who can produce
government-issued passports.
Others will not sign keys at all, believing that in doing so they would be
making public information about themselves and their associations with
other people that is best kept private.
Not everyone participating in a group keysigning needs to have the same
requirements for ID verification, and not everyone participating needs to
actually sign others' keys.
And there is the question of signing pseudonyms, of course.
http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/dir.1996.01.18-1996.01.24/msg00323.html
PGP is a tool. A technical instrument. In specifying the keysigning method
we developed, I opted to keep it removed from the politics and policy
issues regarding keysigning. How you determine identity or if you even
choose to sign keys was not interesting to me in that context.
> If John Smith stands up and claims ownership of several
> keys, it certainly creates an appearance that all of them
> belong to the same person, and that each key's owner
> was present at the keysigning party.
So how would you prevent this? I can think of several easy ways, but I'll
leave that as an exercise to the reader.
You may wish to check the Cypherpunks mailing list archives for past
discussions on PGP keysignings, and the issues/dangers involved.
__
Len Sassaman
Security Architect |
Technology Consultant | "Let be be finale of seem."
|
http://sion.quickie.net | --Wallace Stevens
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