Re: Secret key transport

[Jon Callas <[e-mail]>]

On 14 Dec 2005, at 5:56 AM, David Shaw wrote:

>
> Well into comically late in the game here, but a question recently
> came up about the secret key transport format.  Namely, is there one?
> 2440bis has a public key transport format (the whole of section 10.1),
> and the format of secret key and secret subkey packets is defined, but
> there doesn't seem to be an analogue to section 10.1 for secret keys.
>
> For example, I've seen secret keys in this format:
>
>  - Secret key packet
>  - User ID packet
>  - Selfsig on user ID
>  - Secret subkey packet
>  - Selfsig on subkey
>
> I've also seen secret keys in this format:
>
>  - Secret key packet
>  - User ID packet
>  - Secret subkey packet
>
>  (i.e. missing the selfsigs).
>
> The first example strikes me as preferable as there is a mild benefit
> to having the secret key format parallel the public key format in that
> an implementation can extract the public key from the secret key
> automatically.  The second example requires a public key to be sent in
> addition to the secret key to get the selfsigs (while the selfsig on
> the user ID is optional, the one on the subkey isn't).
>
> Either way, though, 2440bis seems silent on this subject.  Is this
> something that needs a line or two of text?

Since no one has said anything in months, I'm declaring that the  
answer is, "no, this is not something that needs a line or two of text."

	Jon