private key protection

Jerome Baum jerome at jeromebaum.com
Tue Oct 18 15:23:22 CEST 2011


> If someone sniffs your PIN, and has trojaned or rooted your computer, he could
> use your smartcard while it is still plugged in to your computer, just like you
> are using your smartcard.

If you're worried about this you should be able to find a smartcard
reader with PIN entry that GnuPG supports. That way you never enter your
PIN on the computer.

It doesn't prevent a trojan from signing something other than what you
intended (if it's your master key on card, even another key or a new
sub-key) but whether this is a problem depends on your threat model.

-- 
PGP: A0E4 B2D4 94E6 20EE 85BA E45B 63E4 2BD8 C58C 753A
PGP: 2C23 EBFF DF1A 840D 2351 F5F5 F25B A03F 2152 36DA



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