IETF Logo Mail Archive

Re: [openpgp] keyserver protocol

Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> Thu, 03 January 2013 23:29 UTC

Return-Path: <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>
X-Original-To: openpgp@ietfa.amsl.com
Delivered-To: openpgp@ietfa.amsl.com
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7802321F8D26 for <openpgp@ietfa.amsl.com>; Thu, 3 Jan 2013 15:29:19 -0800 (PST)
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at amsl.com
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Score: -2.599
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.599 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[BAYES_00=-2.599]
Received: from mail.ietf.org ([64.170.98.30]) by localhost (ietfa.amsl.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id of4mGiLdfWlc for <openpgp@ietfa.amsl.com>; Thu, 3 Jan 2013 15:29:18 -0800 (PST)
Received: from che.mayfirst.org (che.mayfirst.org [209.234.253.108]) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id CB1D721F8CF1 for <openpgp@ietf.org>; Thu, 3 Jan 2013 15:29:18 -0800 (PST)
Received: from [192.168.13.194] (lair.fifthhorseman.net [108.58.6.98]) by che.mayfirst.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 1726FF970; Thu, 3 Jan 2013 18:29:04 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <50E6143D.2040800@fifthhorseman.net>
Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:29:01 -0500
From: Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/17.0 Icedove/17.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: David Shaw <dshaw@jabberwocky.com>
References: <50E5E6AE.5050201@jcea.es> <3C32E4F1-6B48-4561-94FF-7489D44E36CC@jabberwocky.com>
In-Reply-To: <3C32E4F1-6B48-4561-94FF-7489D44E36CC@jabberwocky.com>
X-Enigmail-Version: 1.5
Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg="pgp-sha512"; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="----enig2CBXVMHRNJVAFKAJOJWQJ"
Cc: Jesus Cea <jcea@jcea.es>, openpgp@ietf.org
Subject: Re: [openpgp] keyserver protocol
X-BeenThere: openpgp@ietf.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12
Precedence: list
List-Id: "Ongoing discussion of OpenPGP issues." <openpgp.ietf.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/options/openpgp>, <mailto:openpgp-request@ietf.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/openpgp>
List-Post: <mailto:openpgp@ietf.org>
List-Help: <mailto:openpgp-request@ietf.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/openpgp>, <mailto:openpgp-request@ietf.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2013 23:29:19 -0000

On 01/03/2013 05:53 PM, David Shaw wrote:
> On Jan 3, 2013, at 3:14 PM, Jesus Cea <jcea@jcea.es> wrote:
> 
>> I have been following SKS mailing lists for years and I wonder how can
>> OpenPGP rely on an undocumented protocol, with only a single codebase
>> written in a unusual language for something so paramount as keyservers
>> and key distribution :-).
>>
>> http://minsky-primus.homeip.net/sks/
> 
> I actually wrote this up at one point as an informational draft, but for one reason or another didn't finish submitting it.  If there is interest, I can clean it up and submit:
> 
>   http://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp-00.txt

I'd be interested in seeing the HKP draft revised, especially since
modern use seems to have diverged from that draft a bit.

It seems like Jesus might be more concerned about the SKS gossip
protocol, which is even more poorly-documented than HKP.

Jesus, i suspect that sks-devel@nongnu.org is the best place to discuss
the gossip protocol.  It's a known issue that it is poorly-documented
(no one is happy about it, including Yaron Minsky, the lead author of
SKS), and there is at least one other project that has been discussed on
that list that is trying to make a compatible/interoperable
implementation in go:

 https://launchpad.net/hockeypuck

It's a work in progress, and i'm sure any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

	--dkg

v2.23.0 | Report a Bug | By Email