From: zane@genesis.mcs.com (Sameer)
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 93 23:40:43 PDT
To: Clifford A Adams <caadams@polaris.unm.edu>
Subject: Re: USENET newsreaders and cryptography: features/suggestions/questions
In-Reply-To: <9307080348.AA10446@polaris.unm.edu>
Message-ID: <m0oE9bF-000ZD1C@genesis.mcs.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In message <9307080348.AA10446@polaris.unm.edu>, Clifford A Adams writes:
> 	1.  Does anyone know if including code like
> system("pgp -m foobar") might cause legal problems?  Strn doesn't
> implement any cryptographic techniques.
	I wouldn't know, but to stay completely safe, it *might* be a good
idea to use environment variables.

CRYPTOPROGRAM=pgp

system(strcat(getenv("CRYPTOPROGRAM"), " -m foobar"))

	(I'm not well-versed in strcat, so this could be wrong, but you
know what I mean.)
	Then you're not mentioning PGP at all in the code. (Env. variables
for the options would be a good idea as well.. that way you can't be
attacked under the premise, "It's OBVIOUSLY for PGP, because the options
are PGP-options.")
 

> 	3.  It would be greatly convenient if someone would implement
> a "verify signature only" switch for PGP.  Most of the applications I
> would like to use don't involve data hiding--just signature verification.
> I'm also lobbying the RIPEM author to include a similar feature.
	One feature I'd like would be easy to parse PGP output. That way PGP
can be more easily integrated with other programs. For example, doing
the following:

(-p for "easyparse"?)
pgp -p <signed.txt

	Would create output to stderr:

3434/344D
Sameer Parekh <zane@genesis.mcs.com>
01/01/93 12:34:56 GMT

	Then a program can parse it very easily. A successful sig would give
a return code of 0, and failed sig would have a nonzero return code. 

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