[H-GEN] https + apache

Russell Stuart russell at stuart.wattle.id.au
Mon Jul 21 18:42:22 EDT 2003


[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
[ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]

On Mon, 2003-07-21 at 20:00, Christopher Biggs wrote:
> Interesting idea.  Of course, you're then left with the problem of how
> to do you tell the difference a valid signature from the
> "ComWestNatPacwealthNZional Banking Corporation" and a forged one;
> you're back to square one...

Well, yes, your are right - a fatal flaw, and that is why I don't design
crypto systems I guess.  What I was trying to do was show that a system
that mirrors the the trust model we humans have built up over thousands
of years is much better than trying to replace it with a simple
hierarchal one.  Now you have forced me to think about it further, it
not immediately obvious how you would put something like that in place.
I thought it was like the PGP web of trust, but perhaps that was a
mirage. I suspect you have just forced me to acknowledge a point you
made earlier.

> I still don't think it's as bad you picture it, however.  You're still
> not separating the issues of "am I really talking to FooBarSoft Inc."
> and "how do I decide if I trust FooBarSoft".  SSL was never intended
> to address the second issue.   

I hope I have the distinction right.  My problem is that SSL is very
poor at addressing the first issue.  At least that is my current belief,
and I don't recall anybody in this current thread offering an argument
to the contrary.

--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.  See http://www.humbug.org.au/



More information about the General mailing list