On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 8:42 PM, Bill Davidsen <davidsen(a)tmr.com> wrote:
Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2008-09-03 at 10:30 -0400, Bill Davidsen wrote:
>>
>> hardest of all find a secure way to provide the public part of the
>> signing key
>
> The whole point about asymmetric encryption is that you don't need a
> secure distribution channel. The worst that can happen is that some fake
> public key gets distributed, which won't match the private key and hence
> will be instantly detectable.
>
NAK - if a fake public key were distributed then packages signed with the
fake key would be matched, allowing full access to install crap in your
machine. And packages signed with any valid redhat key would be rejected.
The public key really must be distributed in a secure manner.
Isn't the point of a Public Key to be publicly distributed?
The Private Key is what you closely guard against all tampering.
~af