BUG: Web of trust circumvention by secret key distribution

[L. Sassaman]

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

Actually, a simpler solution would be to require that the user set the
implicit ultimate trust on the secret key manually, correct?

- --Len.

On 7 Dec 2000, Florian Weimer wrote:

> This is just some more stuff from the 'cracking GnuPG by cheating'
> department.
>
> GnuPG accepts secret keys from key servers.  This means that a secret
> key can be added to the secret key ring without user intervention,
> making the corresponding public key ultimately trusted and thus
> effectively circumventing the web of trust.  (GnuPG has the additional
> feature that the key becomes ultimately trusted only after a program
> restart, so you will see the 'Could not find a valid trust path to the
> key.' message once, but this is worse enough.)
>
> A similiar problem exists with "--import".  IMHO, a separate
> "--import-secret-key" option is needed, and secret keys downloaded
> from key servers should be discarded.
>
> --
> Florian Weimer 	                  Florian.Weimer at RUS.Uni-Stuttgart.DE
> University of Stuttgart           http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de/
> RUS-CERT                          +49-711-685-5973/fax +49-711-685-5898
>


__

L. Sassaman

Security Architect             |  "The world's gone crazy,
Technology Consultant          |   and it makes no sense..."
                               |
http://sion.quickie.net        |                   --Sting


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Comment: OpenPGP Encrypted Email Preferred.

iD8DBQE6L1+MPYrxsgmsCmoRApcNAJ93GAVkQIo+jCt2Rd8u2oGhEuzO+ACfWiTs
4kSrhCvHEs6fPkIBeeSRcNA=
=m0c3
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----