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Re: The Real Gary M Stewart, in Case Someone Wants to Sue Him the Fish


Verily I say unto thee, that Chris Ahlstrom spake thusly:
> After takin' a swig o' grog, Homer belched out this bit o' wisdom:

> Truthfully, I didn't even consider the concept validating a usenet
> post until now.

In a group like this, with so many nymshifters who sometimes spoof
others, it's very useful.

> Plus, what's to prevent you from using your own PGP key, but posting
> as someone else?

Well if Roy posted as "Joe Bloggs <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx>", but used the
same GPG key, then he'd still be identified as <sch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
by the Enigmail plugin, because that identifier is part of the key,
regardless of whatever fake name and E-mail address he might provide, so
I'd know just from that it was him. If he changed the signing key as
well, then it wouldn't verify here, unless I had a copy of that public
key in my local keyring. Similarly, if someone spoofed as "Roy
Schestowitz" and created a GPG key with the identifier
<sch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, then it wouldn't validate here, because the
new/fake key wouldn't match the one in my local keyring.

So basically there'd be no point in Roy nymshifting and /also/ signing
his posts with his usual key, because we'd still know it was him, and
equally there'd be no point in anyone trying to spoof Roy without his
private key, because we'd know that it /wasn't/.

> Now you have to actually compare the keys of two different messages 
> yourself.
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong.

Well that depends on how your client presents the information, but
generally I think you'd be wrong, because the only way that message will
verify, is if you actually have a copy of that public key in your
keyring, and the key identifier will reveal all (assuming your client
actually displays it).

-- 
K.
http://slated.org

.----
| "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It
|  is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." ~ William
|  Pitt the Younger
`----

Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.25.11-60.fc8
 18:25:27 up 92 days,  2:08,  4 users,  load average: 0.01, 0.05, 0.01

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