Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-09 Thread MFPA
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Hi


On Friday 8 November 2013 at 12:00:56 PM, in
mid:87zjpfxfuv@gilgamesch.quim.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:



 It
 seems to me that the BAT does not support Comodo CA.

 Uwe


Aside from the ones I have added, The Bat has about 120 root CA
certificates. I guess it is a minority-use mailer and a lot of the CAs
won't pay for their certificates to be included.

But Microsoft Crypto-API has nearly 400 root CA certificates, and
Comodo's were missing there too. In researching, I read (I think on a
Comodo help forum) that their certificates are only included in
relatively recent windows versions, and Microsoft tags root
certificate updates as non-critical.



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MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

If you are afraid to speak against tyranny, then you are already a slave.
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-08 Thread Mark H. Wood
On Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 12:16:36PM +0100, Uwe Brauer wrote:
  MFPA == MFPA  expires2...@ymail.com writes:
[snip]
 However thunderbird refuses to use yoru public key
 claiming it cannot be trusted.
 
 
 I just searched and found [1] about Thunderbird, which says you can
 import a copy of other people's self-signed S/MIME certificate from a
 .cer file into your Authorities tab. So much for being easier
 because keys are automatically embedded in the signatures.
 
 Well I was referring to the following 10 years old bug
 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=209182
 
 I have the feeling this is a design decision by  philosophy:
 thunderbird/semonkey don't encourage the use of self-signed certificates
 (BTW I just learn that there is a add-on, key-manager which generates
 self-signed certificates, similar as it seems to me to the BAT.

This bug seems to cry out for an add-on.  Then people who (think they)
know what they are doing can have the additional convenience, and the
rest can do whatever it is they do now.  I would guess there is
resistance to putting this into the base product on the theory that
99.9% of users will just hit yes, meaning get rid of this
unintelligible dialog and let me read the message, which is arguably
a Bad Thing.

Since we're getting offtopic anyway, I'll continue and opine that this
add-on would only be doing for self-signed cert.s and other unknown
CAs the same thing that the user *should* have done with those
commercial root cert.s: evaluate and install them individually.  (Of
course hardly any of us have done this.)

-- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer   mw...@iupui.edu
Machines should not be friendly.  Machines should be obedient.


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-08 Thread Robert J. Hansen
(Before I begin I should say I agree with Mark -- this is commentary,  
not disagreement.)



This bug seems to cry out for an add-on.  Then people who (think they)
know what they are doing can have the additional convenience, and the
rest can do whatever it is they do now.  I would guess there is
resistance to putting this into the base product on the theory that
99.9% of users will just hit yes, meaning get rid of this
unintelligible dialog and let me read the message, which is arguably
a Bad Thing.


A detail oft-overlooked is that the question isn't whether the  
*sender* is part of the 0.1%; the question is whether the *recipient*  
is part of the 0.1%.  If I use a self-signed S/MIME cert, will my  
recipient be savvy enough to understand the risks and take appropriate  
steps?


I think 0.1% is a reasonable approximation: of all Thunderbird users,  
maybe one in a thousand has the skill necessary to safely and  
responsibly use a self-signed S/MIME cert, or to safely and  
responsibly check someone else's usage of a self-signed S/MIME cert.   
So one in a thousand senders, multiplied by one in a thousand  
recipients...


What I'm getting at here is that this isn't just a case of 99.9% of  
users will just hit 'yes', which is arguably a Bad Thing.  It's also  
a case of the user base for this being so small as to be  
indistinguishable from statistical noise.



CAs the same thing that the user *should* have done with those
commercial root cert.s: evaluate and install them individually.  (Of
course hardly any of us have done this.)


Well, 'should' is a pretty strong word.  So long as someone  
understands the risks involved in letting Mozilla define your list of  
trusted CAs rather than taking individual responsibility yourself,  
that's really all we can ask for.  I do agree, though, that the  
default list of trusted CAs is eye-poppingly large.



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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-08 Thread Uwe Brauer
 MFPA == MFPA  expires2...@ymail.com writes:

Hi
On Thursday 7 November 2013 at 11:16:36 AM, in
mid:87txfotqaz@gilgamesch.quim.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:


I had to search for and import some more root certificates from the
Comodo website before I could encrypt to you using my mailer's
built-in s/mime.

Microsoft Crypto-API no use, even after your and comodo's certificates
imported into certmgr.msc. I'm probably doing something wrong there,
but it's not clear what to do.

For something that is supposed to be easier than OpenPGP, s/mime
doesn't seem easy to me.

That is really odd, I have successfully interchanged s/mime emails, with
users using thunderbird or outlook + windows + Comodo certificates.

None of them had to install the root certificates. It seems to me that
the BAT does not support Comodo CA.

Uwe 


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-07 Thread MFPA
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Hi


On Thursday 7 November 2013 at 11:16:36 AM, in
mid:87txfotqaz@gilgamesch.quim.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:



 BTW, I see you switched back to pgp, but why do you use
 old inline mode and not pgpmine?

Because I prefer it. I like to see the pgp signature in the message
body instead of hidden away.




- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

Those who do not read are no better off than those who cannot.
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-07 Thread MFPA
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Hi


On Thursday 7 November 2013 at 11:16:36 AM, in
mid:87txfotqaz@gilgamesch.quim.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:




 However it is not necessary I just export our signature
 as a pem file and import in under authorities. Still
 this is very uncomfortable...

I had to search for and import some more root certificates from the
Comodo website before I could encrypt to you using my mailer's
built-in s/mime.

Microsoft Crypto-API no use, even after your and comodo's certificates
imported into certmgr.msc. I'm probably doing something wrong there,
but it's not clear what to do.

For something that is supposed to be easier than OpenPGP, s/mime
doesn't seem easy to me.


- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

My mind works like lightning... one brilliant flash and it's gone
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-06 Thread Uwe Brauer
 MFPA == MFPA  expires2...@ymail.com writes:

Hi
Hi
On Monday 4 November 2013 at 10:43:43 PM, in
mid:87habrrdnk@mat.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:




-  from my own experience I am convinced that smime
is much easierthan gpg[2] for reasons  I am not
going to repeat here. (I got 7out of 10 of my
friends/colleagues to use smime, but 0 of 10 to
use gpg.)

Depending on the software people are using. I'm willing to accept
that there are probably more people for whom S/MIME is easier to
use.

Well take for example iOs: using pgp is a sort of a nightmare.

The reasons why I think smime is easier to use for the average user are:
smime is already installed in most MUA (so no additional software+plugin)
keypairs are generated and signed  by the trust center.
Public keys are automatically embedded in the signatures.




The email app I am using to write this message can (almost
trivially) generate and use self-signed certificates for the email
accounts it has configured. The difficulty is getting other people
to persuade their MUA to accept them.


Aha I see you use the BAT, an email program I have not seen in use, for
almost a decade.
Good and bad news. Gpgsm allowed my to use your public keys after having
fireing up a series of questions, iOs also, (if you don't mind I send
you to test messages later privately) However thunderbird refuses to
use yoru public key claiming it cannot be trusted. So I am afraid 
the issue is to 
persuade the not only the people but also the software.


 I think I mentioned in one of my other postings that I was using 
 hyperbole to make my point. I'm not quite _that_ paranoid, but I 
 believe in exercising a healthy skepticism.

Ok I have seen this now.



regards

Uwe 


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-06 Thread MFPA
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Hi


On Wednesday 6 November 2013 at 11:42:49 AM, in
mid:87txfpg3ie@gilgamesch.quim.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:



 Well take for example iOs: using pgp is a sort of a
 nightmare.

So I have heard.



 The reasons why I think smime is easier to use for the
 average user are: smime is already installed in most
 MUA (so no additional software+plugin)

But all the hordes who use webmail are pretty-much still out of luck,
though. (With certain exceptions, such as hushmail.)



 keypairs are
 generated and signed  by the trust center.

I don't know about the trust centre. The Bat! gives me the choice
of its own internal implementation or Microsoft Crypto-API, which is
part of Windows. (The Bat! and Windows are closed-source proprietary
products that we probably shouldn't discuss too much on this list.)



 Public
 keys are automatically embedded in the signatures.

That is simpler and avoids the web-bug-like effect you have if you
choose to auto-retrieve OpenPGP keys from keyservers for new contacts.
But must waste a lot of bandwidth between regular correspondents.



 Aha I see you use the BAT, an email program I have not
 seen in use, for almost a decade.

I have used it myself for over nine years.



 Good and bad news.
 Gpgsm allowed my to use your public keys after having
 fireing up a series of questions, iOs also,

Good.



  (if you
 don't mind I send you to test messages later privately)

I don't mind.



 However thunderbird refuses to use yoru public key
 claiming it cannot be trusted.

Fair enough. Using its internal implementation, The Bat! accepts
signatures from the S/MIME certificate I created last night (because I
added it to the trusted root CA address book) and does not accept your
S/MIME signature (because Comodo's root certificate is not in the
trusted root CA address book - but adding it would be just a few
clicks). MS Crypto-API is fine with Comodo's root cert, but says my
certificate has an invalid signature algorithm specified.

I just searched and found [1] about Thunderbird, which says you can
import a copy of other people's self-signed S/MIME certificate from a
.cer file into your Authorities tab. So much for being easier
because keys are automatically embedded in the signatures.


 So I am afraid  the
 issue is to  persuade the not only the people but also
 the software.

As I said, getting other people to persuade their MUA to accept it.

[1] http://kb.mozillazine.org/Installing_an_SMIME_certificate.


- --
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MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-05 Thread Uwe Brauer
 MFPA == MFPA  expires2...@ymail.com writes:
Hello 



There are already several private sector CAs who provide free S/MIME
certificates in the hope that punters may take one of their paid
products instead or in addition. Potential sales is their incentive to
provide some products free. What would be a government's incentive to
provide them free of charge instead of charging for the admin? And
what would a government based CA bring to the party that is not
already available?

If all we are talking about is email encryption to protect people's
email from being read in transit, a self-signed certificate takes care
of the encryption without the need for a CA. The only value in using a
recognised CA rather than a self-signed certificate is convenience for
the recipient, whose MUA is likely to automatically trust a
recognised CA but would need to be told to accept a self-signed
certificate.


Ok let me try to answer this point by point. Before doing I want to
emphasise that I am taking a very pragmatic point of view here.[1]

-  NSA (among others) has abused its resource to read email
   worldwide at a very large scale.

-  so if a lot of people, say 30 % of all users would encrypt their
   email, then NSA statistical approach would *not* work that smooth
   and this is a good thing.

-  so encrypting email should be easy and look trustful for a
   majority of users 

-  usually public/private key based methods are considered relative
   secure (Even Snowden claimed that you could rely on them), this
   does not mean that the NSA could not read your email. They would
   usually try to enter your machine installing a keylogger or
   something like this. But this is beyond the statistical method I
   mentioned above.

-  if I understand correctly the real problem is not security of the
   the cipher but the authenticity of the sender and so the most
   common attack is a man in the middle attack. This is true for
   both smime and gpg. So comparing fingerprints of public key is a
   good thing, which most of us, I presume, don't do.
   

-  from my own experience I am convinced that smime is much easier
   than gpg[2] for reasons  I am not going to repeat here. (I got 7
   out of 10 of my friends/colleagues to use smime, but 0 of 10 to
   use gpg.)

-  one of the reasons some of them hesitated was the fact that the
   certificates were offered by some commercial company they did not
   know and trust.[3]
   They would have had installed it from a government based
   organisation, say the ministry of justice though.


-  so if some government based organisation would do what say commodo
   does it would send a signal to the public that it takes privacy
   seriously and I think it would encourage more people  to use smime.

-  Private certificates, are unfortunately no solution. Yes it is
   possible with openssl to generate them, I have done that
   myself. However it is very difficult till impossible to convince
   the main email programs, such as outlook, thunderbird or Apple
   mail to use them or to use public keys sent by such
   certificates. [4]

Uwe Brauer 

Footnotes:
[1]  I must add that I don't share your general view about government
 based organisations. I still hope that abuse is the exception not
 the  rule..

[2]  although pgp seems technically better, since some implementations of
 smime allow a relative short symmetric key

[3] (Besides these companies have a certain business model and their
   free certificates last short and expire usually after one year.)


[4]  I finally managed to use them in thunderbird, but is was
 complicated not something the regular user would like to do.



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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-05 Thread MFPA
Hi


On Monday 4 November 2013 at 10:43:43 PM, in
mid:87habrrdnk@mat.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:



 -  NSA (among others) has abused its resource to
 read emailworldwide at a very large scale.

Indeed.


 -  so if a lot of people, say 30 % of all users
 would encrypt theiremail, then NSA statistical
 approach would *not* work that smoothand this
 is a good thing.

Why do you describe it as a statistical approach? 

I guess 30% was plucked out of the air. It would seem self-evident 
that if a sizeable proportion of emails travelled encrypted, the NSA 
etc. would have to do more work to read them. 



 -  so encrypting email should be easy and look
 trustful for amajority of users

I like the idea, but have a bit of an issue with security made too 
easy. Security has to be inconvenient; just a lot more so for a 
would-be attacker than for the person using the security.



 -  usually public/private key based methods are
 considered relativesecure (Even Snowden claimed
 that you could rely on them), thisdoes not mean
 that the NSA could not read your email. They would
 usually try to enter your machine installing a
 keylogger orsomething like this. But this is
 beyond the statistical method Imentioned above.

Hopefully, if it was more effort and more cost to read an individual's
mail, that individual might be left alone unless they are a suspect.
But what about an individual two or three communication hops from a
suspect?



 -  if I understand correctly the real problem is
 not security of thethe cipher but the
 authenticity of the sender and so the most
 common attack is a man in the middle attack. This
 is true forboth smime and gpg. So comparing
 fingerprints of public key is agood thing,
 which most of us, I presume, don't do.

For most people's communication, it is not encrypted so the main
problem is simply being read in transit, and/or stored. Once you start
encrypting, even without putting the effort in for sender
authentication, it takes more effort to snoop on your mail than on the
majority of people's.



 -  from my own experience I am convinced that smime
 is much easierthan gpg[2] for reasons  I am not
 going to repeat here. (I got 7out of 10 of my
 friends/colleagues to use smime, but 0 of 10 to
 use gpg.)

Depending on the software people are using. I'm willing to accept that 
there are probably more people for whom S/MIME is easier to use.



 -  one of the reasons some of them hesitated was
 the fact that thecertificates were offered by
 some commercial company they did notknow and
 trust.[3]They would have had installed it from
 a government basedorganisation, say the
 ministry of justice though.

I think know is the key factor, but know and trust is even better.
I suspect a whole lot of people would also be perfectly comfortable if
a certificate were available from the company that supplied their
operating system, or their email application or webmail account. Or
maybe from their bank or ISP.



 -  so if some government based organisation would
 do what say commododoes it would send a signal
 to the public that it takes privacyseriously
 and I think it would encourage more people  to use
 smime.

The actions of governments and government organisations in so many
countries send signals that they are anti-privacy, or at least not
pro-privacy. I think this small contradictory signal would be in 
severe danger of being drowned out. But now I understand what you 
meant.



 -  Private certificates, are unfortunately no
 solution. Yes it ispossible with openssl to
 generate them, I have done thatmyself. However
 it is very difficult till impossible to convince
 the main email programs, such as outlook,
 thunderbird or Applemail to use them or to use
 public keys sent by suchcertificates. [4]

The email app I am using to write this message can (almost trivially)
generate and use self-signed certificates for the email accounts it
has configured. The difficulty is getting other people to persuade 
their MUA to accept them.



 Footnotes: [1]  I must add that I don't share your
 general view about government  based organisations.
 I still hope that abuse is the exception not  the
 rule..

I think I mentioned in one of my other postings that I was using 
hyperbole to make my point. I'm not quite _that_ paranoid, but I 
believe in exercising a healthy skepticism.


-- 
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-04 Thread MFPA
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Hash: SHA512

Hi


On Saturday 2 November 2013 at 6:48:39 PM, in
mid:87fvreprlk@mat.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:


 Your point being?

 I presume it goes like this: NSA is  a government
 based organisation doing, among other things,
 violations of civil rights.

 So any other government based organisation cannot be
 trust, end of argument.


Exactly.



 Well I just talked  about a service, which provides
 certificates to its citizen. That means it signs a
 public/private key pair, which is generated by the,
 hopefully open source, crypto module of your browser.

 So either you claim to have evidence that this modules
 have been hacked and the key pair is transferred to
 some of these evil organisations or I really don't see
 your point.

Simply stated, it is established that government based organisations
sometimes act in a nefarious manner, contrary to the law and contrary
to the interests of the population. I view that as a reason not to
trust government based organisations. And if I don't trust government
based organisations, I cannot trust a certification issued by one.

Of course, private companies or individuals who issue certifications
are susceptible to coercion. Whether issued by government or by
private sector, a single certification on a public key represents a
single point of failure. It does not provide any great level of
assurance the corresponding private key is controlled by the identity
it claims. Such assurance could potentially be derived from numerous
certifications that are independent from each other, but how do you
tell which are truly independent?

Where actual identity is not required, just continuity of
communication, I see no value in obtaining any certification at all.

- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

Can you imagine a world with no hypothetical situations?
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-04 Thread MFPA
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Hi


On Sunday 3 November 2013 at 10:02:14 PM, in
mid:87habtnnyx@mat.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:


 Ingo == Ingo Klöcker kloec...@kde.org writes:
 So, your point/hope probably was that a government
based CA  wouldn't have such a business model and
would instead offer this  service gratis to the
people (so that more people would be  protected
from the NSA reading their mail). If this was your
point  then apparently I didn't see it when I first
read your message.

 That was *precisely* my point, thanks for clarifying it

There are already several private sector CAs who provide free S/MIME
certificates in the hope that punters may take one of their paid
products instead or in addition. Potential sales is their incentive to
provide some products free. What would be a government's incentive to
provide them free of charge instead of charging for the admin? And
what would a government based CA bring to the party that is not
already available?

If all we are talking about is email encryption to protect people's
email from being read in transit, a self-signed certificate takes care
of the encryption without the need for a CA. The only value in using a
recognised CA rather than a self-signed certificate is convenience for
the recipient, whose MUA is likely to automatically trust a
recognised CA but would need to be told to accept a self-signed
certificate.



- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

CAUTION! - Beware of Warnings!
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-04 Thread MFPA
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512

Hi


On Monday 4 November 2013 at 2:02:30 PM, in
mid:563460450.20131104140230@my_localhost, MFPA wrote:



 Where actual identity is not required, just continuity
 of communication, I see no value in obtaining any
 certification at all.

Or, indeed, where encryption is required but not actual identity.


- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.
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=+o2F
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-03 Thread Uwe Brauer
 Ingo == Ingo Klöcker kloec...@kde.org writes:


I interpreted especially because of all which was lately revealed about 
the NSA 

No it was more of a general remark, concerning NSA malpractice of
reading everybody's (uncrypted) email unconditionally.

So, your point/hope probably was that a government based CA
wouldn't have such a business model and would instead offer this
service gratis to the people (so that more people would be
protected from the NSA reading their mail). If this was your point
then apparently I didn't see it when I first read your message.


That was *precisely* my point, thanks for clarifying it 

Uwe Brauer 


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread MFPA
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512

Hi


On Friday 1 November 2013 at 7:25:30 PM, in
mid:20131101122530.horde.l0bejumqv5vfmfmqhbr7...@mail.sixdemonbag.org,
Robert J. Hansen wrote:


 But since some of
 my RD funding comes from the government, I'm just as
 nefarious as the NSA.

[...]

 John Moore III, who hasn't been seen on this list in
[...]
 Apparently John's
 contributions to the GnuPG community mean nothing,
 because he's just as nefarious as the NSA.

[...]

 Werner has taken money from the German government to do
 crypto-related software development.  Apparently Werner
 is just as nefarious as the   NSA.

 There are a lot of people on this list who have some
 kind of   connection to the government.

[...]

 You owe all of us an apology.

I wish to extend my sincere and unreserved apologies to all the people
I unintentionally offended.


- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

Wise men learn many things from their enemies.
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread MFPA
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512

Hi


On Friday 1 November 2013 at 6:47:56 PM, in
mid:20131101114756.horde.f5rbb0pjwmqx-chco0km...@mail.sixdemonbag.org,
Robert J. Hansen wrote:


 Isn't the NSA a government based organisation?
 Surely guilt-by-association renders every government
 based organisation just as nefarious as the NSA.

 This is why grown-ups don't believe in guilt by
 association.

Which would mean police who interview people who had contact with a
suspect, in order to eliminate them from their enquiries, are either
not grown-ups or are practising something in which they do not
believe.


 Do you really think a bunch of graduate students
 obsessing over _La   Chanson du Roland_ are just as
 nefarious as the NSA?

 If you do, then I think your paranoia is so out of hand
 you really   ought consider seeking professional help.
 And no, I'm not kidding.

I was merely making use of hyperbole to challenge the previous
poster's assertion that a government based organisation would be
preferable to the current CA service providers, especially because of
all which was lately revealed about the NSA.

What I was trying to convey, was my opinion that the revelation of
unpalatable/nefarious behaviour on the part of a government
organisation seems a pretty odd reason to call for services, currently
provided by private-sector CAs, to instead be provided by a government
organisation.


- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

ETHERNET(n): device used to catch the Ether bunny
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread Robert J. Hansen
 I wish to extend my sincere and unreserved apologies to all the people
 I unintentionally offended.

Thank you for this.  (Seriously.)

There's an American movie that probably hasn't been seen much in Europe.
 _High Noon_, starring Gary Cooper, which may be the finest Western ever
made.  In a nutshell, the Frank Miller Gang comes to town intent on
bloodshed and violence, and to protect the town the retired police
officer, Marshal Will Kane, puts on the tin star once more.  The Frank
Miller Gang does something violent and Kane gets in the way -- the gang
retaliates and does something else violent, and Kane gets in the way and
stops that, too.

After a while the townsfolk, who were begging Marshal Kane to come out
of retirement at the beginning of the movie, are screaming their outrage
at him.  If you'd just quit, the Frank Miller Gang would leave us
alone!  Can't you see that your meddling is just making them angry and
making the problems worse?

In a climactic showdown Marshal Kane shatters the Miller Gang.  All the
townsfolk, who had begged him to save them and then screamed at him that
he was the problem, come around to praise him for his courage and valor.
 Marshal Kane looks them over in disgust, then tears off his badge,
throws it in the dirt, and rides off into the sunset with his
girlfriend.  The townspeople have finally done what the Frank Miller
Gang couldn't do: they've made a good and decent policeman stop caring
about his town.

I can't help but think, as I see the tenor of the discussion about the
NSA, that there are probably thousands of good and decent people in that
agency who are concerned with following the law and respecting civil
liberties -- and they probably feel an awful lot like Marshal Kane right
now, wondering whether it's even worth it.

 Which would mean police who interview people who had contact with a
 suspect, in order to eliminate them from their enquiries, are either
 not grown-ups or are practising something in which they do not
 believe.

They are not practicing guilt by suspicion.  They are practicing, hey,
let's collect as much information as possible on this crime so that we
can find the truly guilty person.

Police do not determine guilt.  Courts determine guilt.  Police are in
the business of collecting information.  In a very real sense, police
are a domestic intelligence agency.



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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread MFPA
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512

Hi


On Saturday 2 November 2013 at 2:36:27 PM, in
mid:52750deb.6090...@sixdemonbag.org, Robert J. Hansen wrote:


 They are not practicing guilt by suspicion. They are
 practicing, hey, let's collect as much information as
 possible on this crime so that we can find the truly
 guilty person.

Experiences of people I know, together with footage broadcast on the
reality TV programmes where TV crews follow real police going about
their business, lead me to the conclusion they routinely practice
guilt by suspicion/guilt by association. If that approach fails to
find somebody the circumstantial evidence doesn't rule out, they will
switch to a genuine investigation if the matter is serious enough to
warrant the man-hours, or if it affects high-profile individuals.

No slur intended on any individual police personnel, just public
perception of the police forces' corporate approach. (And for the
record, I know many people who have formed a similar impression as
well as plenty who have formed a very different impression.)



 Police do not determine guilt.  Courts determine guilt.
 Police are in the business of collecting information.
 In a very real sense, police are a domestic
 intelligence agency.

Unfortunately, police sometimes influence the determination of guilt
by being selective in their presentation of information to the courts.
In the UK any withholding of evidence by the police has constituted
grounds for appeal since R v Fellows in July 1985.[1]

[1] The very short quote at
http://www.criminalsolicitor.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5833PN=1get=last
is the only reference I can find at the moment.


- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

The second mouse gets the cheese
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread Uwe Brauer
 MFPA == MFPA  expires2...@ymail.com writes:

Hi
On Sunday 27 October 2013 at 2:46:05 PM, in
mid:8761si4vrm@mat.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:

Isn't the NSA a government based organisation? Surely
guilt-by-association renders every government based organisation just
as nefarious as the NSA.

Your point being?

I presume it goes like this: NSA is  a government based
organisation doing, among other things, violations of civil rights.

So any other government based organisation cannot be trust, end of
argument.

Well I just talked  about a service, which provides certificates to its
citizen. That means it signs a public/private key pair, which is
generated by the, hopefully open source, crypto module of your browser.

So either you claim to have evidence that this modules have been hacked
and the key pair is transferred to some of these evil organisations or I
really don't see your point.

Uwe Brauer 


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread Peter Lebbing
On 02/11/13 19:48, Uwe Brauer wrote:
 So either you claim to have evidence that this modules have been hacked
 and the key pair is transferred to some of these evil organisations or I
 really don't see your point.

I think the most common way for an X.509 CA to be deceitful is by giving someone
else a certificate with your name on it, not by stealing your key.

Then I would be under the impression I was holding an encrypted and signed
conversation with /you/, but I would be talking to the well-funded attacker that
got the false certificate. That attacker could then re-encrypt and send it on to
you, to be a man in the middle.

HTH,

Peter.

-- 
I use the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) in combination with Enigmail.
You can send me encrypted mail if you want some privacy.
My key is available at http://digitalbrains.com/2012/openpgp-key-peter

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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread Filip M. Nowak
On 02.11.2013 20:20, Peter Lebbing wrote:
 On 02/11/13 19:48, Uwe Brauer wrote:
 So either you claim to have evidence that this modules have been hacked
 and the key pair is transferred to some of these evil organisations or I
 really don't see your point.
 
 I think the most common way for an X.509 CA to be deceitful is by giving 
 someone
 else a certificate with your name on it, not by stealing your key.
 
 (...)

Not mentioning giving away (actually signing) intermediate CA keys.

Cheers,
Filip

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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-02 Thread Ingo Klöcker
On Saturday 02 November 2013 19:48:39 Uwe Brauer wrote:
  MFPA == MFPA  expires2...@ymail.com writes:
 Hi
 On Sunday 27 October 2013 at 2:46:05 PM, in
 mid:8761si4vrm@mat.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:
 
 Isn't the NSA a government based organisation? Surely
 guilt-by-association renders every government based organisation
 just
 as nefarious as the NSA.
 
 Your point being?
 
 I presume it goes like this: NSA is  a government based
 organisation doing, among other things, violations of civil rights.
 
 So any other government based organisation cannot be trust, end of
 argument.
 
 Well I just talked  about a service, which provides certificates to
 its citizen. That means it signs a public/private key pair, which is
 generated by the, hopefully open source, crypto module of your
 browser.
 
 So either you claim to have evidence that this modules have been
 hacked and the key pair is transferred to some of these evil
 organisations or I really don't see your point.

Since I had exactly the same thought as MFPA (namely that the NSA is a 
goverment based organization), I'll explain my thoughts (which could be 
different from MFPA's point).

You, Uwe Brauer, wrote:
 I would prefer a government based organisation which provides this
 service to its citizen (especially because of all which was lately
 revealed about the NSA)

where this service refers to the service a commercial, not goverment 
based CA like comodo offers.

I interpreted especially because of all which was lately revealed about 
the NSA to refer to the NSA's ability to forge certificates issued by 
commercial CAs (e.g. by forcing the CAs to provide such a certificate). 
Now my thinking was that the NSA (or some other country's secret agency, 
e.g. the German BND) probably wouldn't have more problems to get forged 
certificates if they were issued by a government based CA.

OTOH, you wrote the above in reply to Werner's
 The business model of most CAs is to sell you a subscription by
 setting the expiration time very low so that they can ask after a
 year for another fee to create a new certificate.  Here it does not
 make sense to create a new private key every year.

So, your point/hope probably was that a government based CA wouldn't 
have such a business model and would instead offer this service gratis 
to the people (so that more people would be protected from the NSA 
reading their mail). If this was your point then apparently I didn't see 
it when I first read your message.


Regards,
Ingo


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-01 Thread MFPA
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512

Hi


On Sunday 27 October 2013 at 2:46:05 PM, in
mid:8761si4vrm@mat.ucm.es, Uwe Brauer wrote:



 I would prefer a government based organisation which
 provides this service to its citizen (especially
 because of all which was lately revealed about the NSA)

Isn't the NSA a government based organisation? Surely
guilt-by-association renders every government based organisation just
as nefarious as the NSA.




- --
Best regards

MFPAmailto:expires2...@ymail.com

Free advice costs nothing until you act upon it
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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-01 Thread Robert J. Hansen

Isn't the NSA a government based organisation? Surely
guilt-by-association renders every government based organisation just
as nefarious as the NSA.


This is why grown-ups don't believe in guilt by association.

To take an example: the graduate students at the University of Iowa  
who teach undergraduate courses on classical French literature are  
University employees. (Unionized ones at that: United  
Electicalworkers/Committee to Organize Graduate Students, *represent*!  
[1])  As University employees, they are officially also government  
employees, since the University is funded by the State.


Do you really think a bunch of graduate students obsessing over _La  
Chanson du Roland_ are just as nefarious as the NSA?


If you do, then I think your paranoia is so out of hand you really  
ought consider seeking professional help.  And no, I'm not kidding.


If you don't, then let's dial back the rhetoric.  Governments are  
*big* *big* things with lots of employees, and they deserve better  
treatment than this.




[1] Yes, I was a card-carrying union man and served as a union  
officer.  Try not to keel over from the shock.  ;)


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-11-01 Thread Robert J. Hansen

My previous email was pretty dry and impersonal.  This one is very personal.


Isn't the NSA a government based organisation? Surely
guilt-by-association renders every government based organisation just
as nefarious as the NSA.


My current job is in software forensics -- discovering new ways to  
pull information off electronic media.  Most of the people funding  
research in this area are connected to the government somehow.  I  
would describe what a typical week for me entails but I'm pretty sure  
I would terrify and traumatize a good portion of the list.  (A great  
week for me is one in which I don't have to see, hear, or even think  
about, the three words, Daddy, no, stop!)  But since some of my RD  
funding comes from the government, I'm just as nefarious as the NSA.


John Moore III, who hasn't been seen on this list in ages, was always  
quite open about the fact he served in the Marine Corps attached to a  
signals intelligence unit at Fort Meade.  I'll let you do the math and  
figure out what three letter agency at Fort Meade does signals  
intelligence.  Apparently John's contributions to the GnuPG community  
mean nothing, because he's just as nefarious as the NSA.


Werner has taken money from the German government to do crypto-related  
software development.  Apparently Werner is just as nefarious as the  
NSA.


There are a lot of people on this list who have some kind of  
connection to the government.  Many of them -- us -- are deeply  
concerned about civil liberties, surveillance, and the future of  
liberty.  We are not your enemies and we do not deserve to be tarred  
with that brush.


You owe all of us an apology.


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-27 Thread Werner Koch
On Sat, 26 Oct 2013 22:03, o...@mat.ucm.es said:

 know by the date of the certificate which certificate to use for which
 message?

 -  old for old messages

Note, that there is no need for a certificate for decryption - only the
private key is required.  The certificate is only used to show some meta
information.

 -  the new for the new messages

Expired certificates are not used and thus a now valid one will be used.


Shalom-Salam,

   Werner


-- 
Die Gedanken sind frei.  Ausnahmen regelt ein Bundesgesetz.


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-27 Thread Uwe Brauer
 Werner == Werner Koch w...@gnupg.org writes:

On Sat, 26 Oct 2013 22:03, o...@mat.ucm.es said:
know by the date of the certificate which certificate to use for which
message?

-  old for old messages

Note, that there is no need for a certificate for decryption - only the
private key is required.  The certificate is only used to show some meta
information.

Now I am confused. Most likely my knowledge of certificates is not
correct. (I played around with openssl to generate my own, useless,
certificates).

I thought a certificate consists of a key pair (private/public) which is
signed by the Authority (here comodo).
When I apply for a certificate, the keypair is generated by the crypto
module of the browser and then signed.

So I thought when I apply for a new certificate  a new key pair
is generated which gets signed again.

But your comment above seems to indicate that the old pair gets a new
signature. Is this correct?  But what if I apply with a different
browser I applied the last time.

thanks

Uwe Brauer 


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-27 Thread Pete Stephenson
On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Uwe Brauer o...@mat.ucm.es wrote:
 Werner == Werner Koch w...@gnupg.org writes:

 On Sat, 26 Oct 2013 22:03, o...@mat.ucm.es said:
 know by the date of the certificate which certificate to use for which
 message?

 -  old for old messages

 Note, that there is no need for a certificate for decryption - only the
 private key is required.  The certificate is only used to show some meta
 information.

 Now I am confused. Most likely my knowledge of certificates is not
 correct. (I played around with openssl to generate my own, useless,
 certificates).

 I thought a certificate consists of a key pair (private/public) which is
 signed by the Authority (here comodo).

Mostly correct.

All that is needed to encrypt/decrypt/sign/verify messages is the
public/private keys themselves. The certificate is a signed,
structured format that binds a particular public key to an identity
(be it an email address, a name, a website, etc.). The certificate is
for public consumption: Comodo is asserting to the world that this
particular public key (and it's corresponding private key, which only
you know) belongs to you (or your website, email, etc.).

On your end, all you need is the private key to decrypt messages
encrypted to your public key. You don't need a certificate to decrypt
messages that had already been encrypted to that public key -- a
certificate may expire at a certain time, but the private key has no
baked-in expiration date.

 When I apply for a certificate, the keypair is generated by the crypto
 module of the browser and then signed.

Correct.

 So I thought when I apply for a new certificate  a new key pair
 is generated which gets signed again.

Correct, though it is possible (but usually recommend against) to
create a new certificate using the same private keypair as before. In
general, you should create a new keypair when applying for a new
certificate.

 But your comment above seems to indicate that the old pair gets a new
 signature. Is this correct?  But what if I apply with a different
 browser I applied the last time.

I interpreted Werner's comment to mean In order to decrypt messages
encrypted to you, you only need a private key. You don't need a valid
certificate to decrypt old messages that were encrypted to a
now-expired certificate.

If you generate a new keypair for the new certificate (which is
probably a good idea) then gpgsm (and presumably any other
certificate-using software) will figure out what private key will be
needed to decrypt a particular message and, so long as you still have
the private key on your system, will use it as needed even if the
corresponding certificate has expired.

Cheers!
-Pete

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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-27 Thread Uwe Brauer

If you generate a new keypair for the new certificate (which is
probably a good idea) then gpgsm (and presumably any other
certificate-using software) will figure out what private key will be
needed to decrypt a particular message and, so long as you still have
the private key on your system, will use it as needed even if the
corresponding certificate has expired.

So gpgsm (and others) will also figure out which private key to use for
signing: that is the new one, once the old certificate is expired? 

Which means in the case of smime, also to embedd the corresponding
new public key in the signature.

thanks

Uwe 


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-27 Thread Pete Stephenson
On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 11:01 AM, Uwe Brauer o...@mat.ucm.es wrote:

 If you generate a new keypair for the new certificate (which is
 probably a good idea) then gpgsm (and presumably any other
 certificate-using software) will figure out what private key will be
 needed to decrypt a particular message and, so long as you still have
 the private key on your system, will use it as needed even if the
 corresponding certificate has expired.

 So gpgsm (and others) will also figure out which private key to use for
 signing: that is the new one, once the old certificate is expired?

 Which means in the case of smime, also to embedd the corresponding
 new public key in the signature.

I can't speak specifically for gpgsm, as I only use GPG with OpenPGP
keys and not x.509 certs, but I would venture that the answer to your
question is yes, gpgsm will select the correct private key for
signing as that's standard behavior for such software.

Werner or others could answer authoritatively.

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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-27 Thread Werner Koch
On Sun, 27 Oct 2013 10:23, p...@heypete.com said:

 Correct, though it is possible (but usually recommend against) to
 create a new certificate using the same private keypair as before. In

The business model of most CAs is to sell you a subscription by setting
the expiration time very low so that they can ask after a year for
another fee to create a new certificate.  Here it does not make sense to
create a new private key every year.

GnuPG basically does the same by allowing you to prolong the expiration
time.

 I interpreted Werner's comment to mean In order to decrypt messages
 encrypted to you, you only need a private key. You don't need a valid
 certificate to decrypt old messages that were encrypted to a
 now-expired certificate.

Correct.


Shalom-Salam,

   Werner

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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-27 Thread Uwe Brauer
 Werner == Werner Koch w...@gnupg.org writes:

On Sun, 27 Oct 2013 10:23, p...@heypete.com said:
Correct, though it is possible (but usually recommend against) to
create a new certificate using the same private keypair as before. In

The business model of most CAs is to sell you a subscription by
setting the expiration time very low so that they can ask after a
year for another fee to create a new certificate.  Here it does not
make sense to create a new private key every year.


Well comodo is free (still) and to prolong the certificate  seems free to for
the moment, but I agree I would prefer a government based organisation
which provides this service to its citizen (especially because of all
which was lately revealed about the NSA)
GnuPG basically does the same by allowing you to prolong the expiration
time.
I don't want to enter a flame war here and in principle I'd prefer gpg
over smime but in reality I have to use smime, because


-  it is implemented in almost all MUA while gpg is not[1]

-  it is so much easier to install for the people I communicate with
   than gpg. 

I recall that I tried to convince gpg and after some hours he almost
yelled at me, while he was able to set up smime in 5 minutes.

The reasons for this are the following.



-  As I said smime is already installed in almost all MUA, so no
   need to install gpg and to install a plugin for the MUA

-  the user does not have to generate a keypair. Well this is not
   entirely true, as we mentioned earlier, but the user applies for
   a certificate picks it up and he is set.

-  the user does not have to exchange public keys, he just sends a
   signed message which includes his public key.


So if the big MUAS and not only thunderbird, but at least outlook apple
mail, and iOS mail, would

-  support gpg natively

-  when use gpg in the mailreader for the first time, it would
   silently generate a key pair

-  when sending a signed message it would always embed the public
   key in the signature


Then a think gpg would be as easy to use as smime, but till then


Uwe Brauer 



Footnotes:
[1]  I tried to use gpg on a non jailbroken iPhone and it is honestly a hassle.



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gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-26 Thread Uwe Brauer
Hello

I use gpgsm, via gnus+Xemacs and I have installed a free certificate
from Comodo. This certificate expires in a couple of weeks and I have to
apply for a new one. However I need the old one to read old messages.

Can gpgsm deal with this situation?

thanks

Uwe Brauer 


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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-26 Thread Werner Koch
On Sat, 26 Oct 2013 12:02, o...@mat.ucm.es said:

 Can gpgsm deal with this situation?

Sure.  That is a very common situation.

Although I am myself not using gpgsm for mail encryption, I use it to
maintain all kind of X.509 certificates.  FWIW, gpgsm passed several
conformance tests with quite good results [1] and was recently approved
for secret communication (at the Germany's entry level VS/NfD).


Salam-Shalom,

   Werner


[1]
Watch out for Aegypten, which included GnuPG, in 
https://www.bsi.bund.de/DE/Themen/weitereThemen/VerwaltungsPKIVPKI/Interoperabilitaetstest/Testberichte/testberichte_node.html
 

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Re: gpgsm and expired certificates

2013-10-26 Thread Uwe Brauer
 Werner == Werner Koch w...@gnupg.org writes:

On Sat, 26 Oct 2013 12:02, o...@mat.ucm.es said:
Can gpgsm deal with this situation?

Sure.  That is a very common situation.

Although I am myself not using gpgsm for mail encryption, I use it to
maintain all kind of X.509 certificates.  FWIW, gpgsm passed several
conformance tests with quite good results [1] and was recently approved
for secret communication (at the Germany's entry level VS/NfD).

Good, so if I understand that correctly once I have the new certificate
then I only have to import it into gpgsm and gpgsm will know by the date of the
certificate which certificate to use for which message?

-  old for old messages

-  the new for the new messages

thanks

Uwe Brauer 


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