[kwlug disc.] gpg / pgp key signing

[Bob Jonkman]

Richard Weait said:

> *Two* pieces of gov't issue photo ID preferred.

Why?  The whole point of creating a "Web of trust" is to remove 
hierarchical key signing authority, especially that of the government.  
Requiring government issued ID simply proxies the trust of your digital 
signature to the government. The government essentially becomes a 
certificate authority because no-one will trust (sign) a key without the 
say-so of government ID.

The purpose of me signing your key is to publicly state that I trust the 
relationship between the key and you.  It is not to verify your license to 
drive an automobile or to acknowledge your permission to travel to foreign 
countries.  

When enough people have mutually signed each other's keys (ie. enough 
people believe that a particular key is associated with a particular 
person) then second-level effects happen.  People who trust me will, by 
association, trust that a particular key is associated with you because I 
have signed it, even if they've never met you personally. And the more 
people that have signed your key, the greater their level of trust in your 
key.

ID shouldn't be required at a keysigning at all, especially if I want to 
remain anonymous, or, more correctly, pseudonymous. For example, I might 
create a key for a pseudomymous identity (a 'nym'). The purpose of signing 
a nym key is to ensure that any messages you exchange with the nym are 
always with the same entity behind the nym, not someone impersonating the 
nym.  

I could appear at Monday's meeting and identify myself by nym only. I would 
hand out printed copies of the nym's key (or a digest of the key, or just a 
fingerprint of the digest). I would then offer to sign your key (the actual 
keysigning would be done later).  This would prove that I control the key 
for the nym, without ever identifying myself. Once your key has been signed 
by the nym's key then you can sign the key for the nym, knowing that the 
person representing the nym did the signing (because you can verify that 
the key fingerprint of the signature is the same as the fingerprint of the 
printed copy).  

This builds the same web of trust, but doesn't require any government ID, 
yet there is no reason that the nym is any less trustworthy without ID. In 
fact, the whole purpose of the nym in the first place may be to avoid the 
government.  This may not be so important in Canada where the government 
consists of fine, trustworthy and honest politicians, but may be a matter 
of life or death in countries with repressive regimes.

When the KW Internet Users Group was still meeting I arranged for Robert 
Guerra, now of Privaterra, to speak on the uses of PGP and cryptography for 
human rights issues.  I could probably persuade him to speak to KWLUG, if 
there is interest...


Also have a look at http://www.rubin.ch/pgp/kspa/index.en.html  
Unfortunately, this site does perpetuate the myth of requiring ID in order 
to have a keysigning...

--Bob.

(will there be a fishbowl on Monday?)



This is what Richard Weait <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> said
about "[kwlug disc.] gpg / pgp key signing" on 1 Dec 2006 at 15:54

> Just saw a request for key-signing.  
> 
> We'll do this at the Monday meeting, before and after (but not during)
> the meeting.  We should mention it more often.  (As it happens I have my
> key-stuff most of the time, so ad-hoc is fine, too)  
> 
> *Two* pieces of gov't issue photo ID preferred.

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