Bug#204038: Keysigning: signers should not uploaded signatures
Package: www.debian.org
Version: unavailable; reported 2003-08-04
Severity: wishlist
On the keysigning page in the "What you should not do"
section it would be useful to mention that the signed key
should be sent to the key's owner and not immediately
uploaded to a public keyserver. This is implied by the
procedure described earlier, but not with crystal clarity,
and indeed I have been to keysignings where uploading
signatures to keyservers was considered routine.
The reason for this restriction is that one usually signs
a key after a person presents ID that links his face with
his name and a fingerprint-printout that links his name
with his key. Assume that the ID is trustworthy and the
face matches the picture on the ID so that the face-name
link is proven. One is prepared to sign the key to say
that this person claims this key. However, the key also
lists an email address and unless something further is
done there is nothing to prove that this person owns this
email address (except perhaps for the fact that the
person is present, if the occasion is a keysigning that
was arranged by private email). It adds to the security
of the process if the signature is emailed to that address.
It will then only be uploaded if and only if the person in
question really owns that address. If the address actually
belongs to someone else then she will not upload the key
but will probably make inquiries into who is claiming to
own her email address.
If my thinking is muddled here, please let me know.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux thanatos 2.4.21 #3 Wed Jun 18 21:35:52 CEST 2003 i686
Locale: LANG=en_IE@euro, LC_CTYPE=en_IE@euro
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