Unwanted additions to Keys (was: Thawte Web-Of-Trust)

Werner Koch wk@gnupg.org
Thu, 6 Jul 2000 16:32:51 +0200


On Thu, 6 Jul 2000, Huels, Ralf KSV wrote:

> Maybe it would hamper the entire concept of public key exchange too
> much, but sometimes I think some protocol to ascertain the key 
> owners consent before tampering with the key is possible would 
> be desirable.

OpenPGP has a flag meaning that only the owner of a key can modify the
key on the keyserver.  He has to send signed updates to the keyserver.
Most keyservers don't care about this flag (at least I have never seen
a reject froma keyserver for that reason).

In any case, this flag solves only one problem.  It is still possible
to flood keyservers with new keys or updates for them without a chance
to inhibt this.  

  Werner

-- 
Werner Koch				OpenPGP key 621CC013
OpenIT GmbH                             tel +49 211 239577-0
Birkenstr. 12                           email   wk@OpenIT.de
D-40233 Duesseldorf                     http://www.OpenIT.de