GPG/PGP key signing anyone?

Brian Russo brusso at phys.hawaii.edu
Tue Oct 2 03:18:26 PDT 2001


On Mon, Oct 01, 2001 at 10:01:32PM -1000, John & Sheila Nickerson wrote:
> Sure, sounds good.  guess I'd have to generate a key first tho ....
> 
> Do we have to meet to sign.  My reading of the man page makes it look like we 
> could do it over the net.

We have to meet, and exchange ID, passport or driver's license is
usually fine, (depends on level of paranoia). I'll bring my
passport.

Basically how it works is, everyone brings an appropriate ID, and
several (one for each other person) pieces of paper, preferably
legibly printed out, containing gpg --fingerprint <yourkey> output.

In my case this is..
pub  1024D/54D81666 2000-10-11 Brian Russo (wolfie) <brian at entropy.net>
Key fingerprint = 404E 87E8 DD0C 275B 742B  09AD 2243 839C 54D8 1666
uid                            Brian Russo (wolfie) <brusso at phys.hawaii.edu>
uid                            Brian Russo (wolfie) <wolfie at debian.org>
sub  2048g/08BD1E69 2000-10-11 [expires: 2011-05-05]


The main part to be interested in is the long fingerprint, i.e.
404E 87E8 DD0C 275B 742B  09AD 2243 839C 54D8 1666.
Note the last 8 elements of this are my short ID (54D81666).
The short version is more convenient, but should not be used when 
authenticating, as there is a much greater chance of collision.

There's ways to do this without paper, but I prefer this method,
even if you have large groups of people, because it's cool to meet
the person whose key your signing individually. 


I recommend you read 
http://www.uk.pgp.net/pgpnet/pgp-faq/faq-06.html
(The entire thing is good, but section 6 is relevant to signing).


Anyhow, seems like there's about 6 or so people interested, since
we'll all want to exchange sigs, it makes sense to meet somewhere.
I propose this weekend, perhaps Saturday?
Probably in the afternoon or evening? Depends on what is
convenient/what obligations you have.

I live on-campus, and don't have a car, but I can walk anywhere
relatively close (i.e. not kailua). Suggestions for a site?


-- 
Unix Staff, High Energy Physics Group   <brusso at phys.hawaii.edu>
Debian/GNU Linux! http://www.debian.org <wolfie at debian.org>



More information about the LUAU mailing list