Hi Bill,
tongue firmly in cheek,
On 1/02/12 05:50 AM, Bill Squier wrote:
On 01/31/2012 05:21 AM, ianG wrote:
major software product that still calls self-signed certificates
"snake-oil" certificates. Which is upside down, the use of the term
itself can be snake-oil recursively.
That would make it 'Ouroboris oil'.
Yes, easy. QKD requires hardware. A laser+receiver at each end fiber in
the middle. Software techniques don't impose any hardware costs.
QKD is only ever point to point. It can never be end to end. We now have
a 1.5 decade experiment that tells us that point to point security is
pretty much ... cosmetic for serious purposes.
Now, now. Weren't you just sticking up for self-signed certs?
So, yes, there are other absolute laws in security, such as, there are
no absolute laws :)
If one has a point to point product in place then one may find that
self-signed certs will help. Given the pretty poor integration of such
products into the overall security model, self-signed may work better
than other forms simply due to cost-effectiveness.
It all depends. The environment matters, as you point out below:
Different applications have different needs. For the foreseeable future, QKD
requires dedicated hardware at each end of an unboosted fiber circuit. This is
OK! Every system has known limitations.
Oh indeed. We know, limitations. Overall delivery? Any value there?
It's like this: in principle, it is possible to imagine a "perfect" link
between those two boxes. But, those two boxes aren't customer
applications. Pretty much all customer applications are more complex
than two end-points and a piece of string between.
There are some fixed point-to-point connections of bicycle distance in the
world needing security from fiber-splicing attackers who control the physical
key distribution and might also (can't say for sure) secretly have better
mathematicians than the rest of the world.
Thank heavens then for the bicycle, as it can carry 50Gb's worth of
one-time-pad on a single bluray ;-)
You know what QKD would have been great for? West Berlin.
lol... Ooooookay. So. We're talking about an environment where they
shoot people across those distances, just for "sorry, oops" reasons.
Ever see that film "A few good men?" Without spoiling the plot, the
lawyers, a bunch of dorks from the safe end of town turn up at gitmo and
are given nondescript jackets because "they shoot officers for target
practice here..."
One thing I wouldn't put much hope in was a line of fiber that was
within distance of a bunch of trigger-happy foreigners... If I was the
foreigner, I'd just cut the fibre, or teach a rat to chew it or
something (technically called a downgrade attack).
(Historically speaking, you're referring to the people who practically
invented KD. QED - Quantum Egg Distribution to grandmas ...)
With the short block lengths in use back then it probably would make sense to
re-key every minute.
For some reason I keep asking myself why the built longer blocks after
they knocked the wall down ... :P
iang
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