D&C Lug - Home Page
Devon & Cornwall Linux Users' Group

[ Date Index ][ Thread Index ]
[ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]

Re: [LUG] GPG confusion



-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Sunday 30 June 2002 11:07 pm, Neil Williams wrote:

Would I have to export my public key again after signing your key? 

no

If so, does the new key keep the same key ID?

yup, it just adds a certificate data block to ther current key.

How does me signing your key affect your key? I've imported keys from
people whose keys have been signed by other members of my public ring and
the signature shows up in their imported key, even if I haven't imported
the key from the people who have actually signed the key. I can't see how
this works:

When I import the key for A, I can see that it has been signed twice, once
by someone already in my public ring, B. The other signature just gives the
key ID [unknown user]. So B has signed A's key but A's key appears to have
changed (otherwise I couldn't see the two signatures). How? B has signed
A's key on his own computer - remote from A's computer, does the keyserver
act as an intermediary??? How can A's key be changed from B's computer?

no, you email them, or copy onto cd and post ;P 

It depends how anal you want to be.

I'd generate a key, sign it and email to my friend.  HE would then confirm the 
f/p and sign it and email it back to me.

basiclly, ther eare 2 ways of signing  a certificate/key - either a "local 
sign", or a "exportable sign";

a local sign is identical to a exportable sign except that won't ever be 
exported or sent to keyservers - once it leaves your keyring, you louse the 
sig.

If I import a key, C, from a text file on a website rather than from the
keyserver, would I miss out on signature data? (e.g. if B has also signed
C's key, how can that information be included in the exported ASCII public
key for C?)

it is by default.  Once a key is signed by someone, that signature it part of 
thats 'copy' of the certificate.


(BTW: Is there a problem with your fingerprint being available to anyone
via the DCLUG website?)

no, not at all.

How carefully have you verified the key you are about to sign actually
belongs to the person named above?  If you don't know what to answer,
enter "0".

   (0) I will not answer. (default)
   (1) I have not checked at all.

More info please:
If you haven't checked it at all, is signing it worthwhile? Does that
dilute the trust?

sign != trust.

a key needs to be signed for it to be valid - either by someone you trust, or 
yourself.  Even if signed trust is 0, it still makes the key valid.


Please decide how far you trust this user to correctly
verify other users' keys (by looking at passports,
checking fingerprints from different sources...)?

Is there any way of knowing how carefully someone has checked a key they
have signed when signing/importing their key? (I don't want to trust other
keys of people signed by someone who hasn't checked what they are signing!)

i don't think so... it's all about the trust hting - if you trust someone to 
make sur they check properly, then you trust them - if you don't, then don't 
;)

~ Theo

- -- 

Theo Zourzouvillys
http://zozo.org.uk/

Don't go surfing in South Dakota for a while.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE9IFBH448CrwpTn6YRAiWnAJ9vIIGr5yWp2VZtQ8wxt6W2Ot68nQCg4rbR
Q/SFL/gDOdgTqsf4onMALF0=
=ZPyb
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


--
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the
message body to unsubscribe.


Lynx friendly