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Re: [openpgp] User ID Packet: expand recommendation to include hostname

Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> Tue, 28 July 2015 20:56 UTC

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From: Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org>
To: "Neal H. Walfield" <neal@walfield.org>
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Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2015 22:56:20 +0200
In-Reply-To: <87fv4cnss2.wl-neal@walfield.org> (Neal H. Walfield's message of "Sat, 25 Jul 2015 17:47:25 +0200")
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Cc: IETF OpenPGP <openpgp@ietf.org>, Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>
Subject: Re: [openpgp] User ID Packet: expand recommendation to include hostname
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"Neal H. Walfield" <neal@walfield.org> writes:

> Hi,
>
> At Tue, 21 Jul 2015 23:15:48 +0200,
> Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
>> 
>> On Tue 2015-07-21 19:04:22 +0200, Neal H. Walfield wrote:
>> > At Tue, 21 Jul 2015 14:32:29 +0200,
>> > Werner Koch wrote:
>> >> > Simon pointed out to me in another context that the user id (section
>> >> > 5.11 of RFC 4880) is not always in RFC 2822 name-addr format, but is
>> >> > sometimes simply a hostname.  I think we should expand the
>> >> > recommendation in that section to cover this usage.
>> >> 
>> >> The name-addr convention has served us well for more than 20 years and I
>> >> see no reason to explicitly recommend the use of just a hostname.  I see
>> >> no problem which will be solved by this.  In case the hostname shall be
>> >> used similar to a a user id (e.g. for DNS lookup), it is easier to use a
>> >> pseudo mail address like hostmaster@foo.example.org.
>> >
>> > I'm not making a recommendation about what should be done, but
>> > suggesting we update the RFC to reflect current practice.
>> 
>> Can you point to existing examples of this usage (by fingerprint,
>> maybe)?
>
> This usage was pointed out to me by Simon.  I've cc'd him.  I hope
> he'll be able to answer your question.  Nevertheless, Derek Atkins'
> follow up to your question suggests that at least some people are
> using this convention.

I cannot recall what application this was for, but I distinctly recall
working with OpenPGP keys issued for hostnames in some context.

If nobody has any better pointer than this, I suggest to ignore this
aspect.  I'm not sure adding recommendations about using
hostmaster@foo.example.org is a good idea, so -1 on that -- better to be
silent on things without a use-case.

/Simon

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