Directory

Encyclopedia

NodeWorks
                              ENCYCLOPEDIA

Link Checker

Home
Encyclopedia : K : KE : KEY :

Key signing party

 

Key signing party


In cryptography, a key signing party is an event at which people present their PGP-compatible keyss to others in person, who, if they are confident the key actually belongs to the person who claims it, digitally signs the PGP certificate containing that public key and the person's name, etc. This is one way to strengthen the web of trust. Although PGP keys are generally used with personal computers for Internet-related applications, key signing parties themselves generally don't involve computers, since that would give adversaries increased opportunities for subterfuge. Rather, participants write down a string of letters and numbers, called a fingerprint, which represents their key. The fingerprint is created by a cryptographic hash function, which condenses the public key down to a unique string, which is shorter and more manageable. Participants exchange these fingerprints as they verify each others' identification. Then, after the party, they obtain the public keys corresponding to the fingerprints they received and digitally sign them.

See also: Zimmermann-Sassaman key-signing protocol

External links

  • GPG Keysigning Party Howto


  • NodeWorks boosts web surfing!
    Page Returned in 0.486 seconds - HTML Compressed 68.3%

    This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available
    under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
     GNU Free Documentation License
    © 2008 Chamas Enterprises Inc.