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Re: [openpgp] Clarify status of subkeys with certification use

"Neal H. Walfield" <neal@walfield.org> Sun, 27 May 2018 09:32 UTC

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Date: Sun, 27 May 2018 11:32:05 +0200
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From: "Neal H. Walfield" <neal@walfield.org>
To: Leo Gaspard <ietf=40leo.gaspard.ninja@dmarc.ietf.org>
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Subject: Re: [openpgp] Clarify status of subkeys with certification use
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On Fri, 25 May 2018 12:26:54 +0200,
Leo Gaspard wrote:
> Another use case supporting this opinion: certification subkeys are also
> a way to increase the security of an offline OpenPGP key, as with them
> it becomes possible to put the master key behind a diode while still
> being able to certify keys, and only ever move data out:

FWIW, this workflow does not require certification subkeys.  You can
instead create two keys, an offline key and an online
certification-only key.  Then, you *t*sign the certification key using
the offline key.  This means that anyone who adds your offline key as
a trusted introducer will automatically trust your online
certification key.  Check out Section 6.3.12 of the following text for
more details:

  https://gnupg.org/ftp/people/neal/an-advanced-introduction-to-gnupg/an-advanced-introduction-to-gnupg.pdf

:) Neal

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