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1996-03-01 - Re: A brief comparison of email encryption protocols

Header Data

From: Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>
To: cme@cybercash.com (Carl Ellison)
Message Hash: c7d903b3862bd68f0b1a990c45cff6cd39c49f155430532431ec38de3a0ff945
Message ID: <199603010020.TAA09656@homeport.org>
Reply To: <v02140b24ad5bc8a12abb@[204.254.34.231]>
UTC Datetime: 1996-03-01 00:17:26 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 29 Feb 96 16:17:26 PST

Raw message

From: Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>
Date: Thu, 29 Feb 96 16:17:26 PST
To: cme@cybercash.com (Carl Ellison)
Subject: Re: A brief comparison of email encryption protocols
In-Reply-To: <v02140b24ad5bc8a12abb@[204.254.34.231]>
Message-ID: <199603010020.TAA09656@homeport.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


Carl Ellison wrote:

| At 15:54 2/29/96, Derek Atkins wrote:
| 
| >So, there needs to be a compromise, some shorthand method to describe
| >the hint.  One solution is to provide a "keyserver" type and then some
| >string that says which "keyserver" to use.  For example, if there is a
| >DNS-style keyserver deplyed, I could put '1,"mit.edu"' in all my
| >signatures, if we assume that '1' is the DNS-style keyserver code.

| is a URL just too big?  My sigs are already several lines long.  E.g.,
| 
| Key: ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/cme/cme.asc

I think a URL is probably a good solution.  But if we're using 
URLs, lets create a scheme for public keys.  If needed, this could be
either abbriviated, or dereferenced with a key exchanger (similar to
SMTP's mail exchangers).  Defaults would also allow for a good deal of
shortening.  And URLs have the user interface advantage of becoming
common, and understood.  Who gets on the net today and not the web?


key://ftp.clark.net/pub/u/cme/cme-current.asc
key://ftp.clark.net/pub/u/cme/cme-longterm.asc

or 
key://gateway.acme.net/pub/s/telnetd.asc

abrieviated version:

key://acme.com/~telnetd/

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume

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