On Mon, 3 Feb 2003, Kurt Roeckx wrote: > I'm not saying md5 is as secure as pgp, not at all, but you can't > trust those pgp keys to be the real one either.
Sure you can. Just verify that they've been signed by someone you trust. For example, next time I happen to run into Bruce Momjian, I hope he'll have his PGP key fingerprint with him. I can a) verify that he's the same guy I who, under the name "Bruce Momjian," was giving the seminar I went to last weekend, and b) check his passport ID to see that the U.S. government believes that someone who looks him is indeed "Bruce Momjian" and a U.S. citizen. That, for me, is enough to trust that he is who he says he is when he gives me the fingerprint. I take that fingerprint back to my computer and verify that the key I downloaded from the MIT keyserver has the same fingerprint. Then I sign that key with my own signature, assigning it an appropriate level of trust. Next time I download a postgres release, I then grab a copy of the postgres release-signing public key, and verify that its private key was used to sign the postgres release, and that it is signed by Bruce's key. Now I have a direct chain of trust that I can evaluate: 1. Do I believe that the person I met was indeed Bruce Momjian? 2. Do I trust him to take care of his own key and be careful signing other keys? 3. Do I trust his opinion that the postgres release-signing key that he signed is indeed valid? 4. Do I trust the holder of the postgres release-signing key to have taken care of the key and have been careful about signing releases with it? Even if you extend this chain by a couple of people, that's trust in a lot fewer people than you're going to need if you want to trust an MD5 signature. cjs -- Curt Sampson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> +81 90 7737 2974 http://www.netbsd.org Don't you know, in this new Dark Age, we're all light. --XTC ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster