[pkng] Proposal for a PKS (was Re: json-dsig anyone?)

[Massimiliano Pala <[e-mail]>]

Hello PK-NGers,

I think that the issue everyone is bringing up is the need to have a way
to make PK easier than it is now. My take on this is that we need to have
a Public Key System (PKS) which should be capable of providing support
for (1) PK deployers, (2) developers (by facilitating interactions among
different parts of PKI) and (3) the users (by providing easy-to-use
interfaces).

I would say that we shall avoid the lack of vision that happened with the
"normal" PKIs. As a metaphor, we might say that in PKIs we are now still
trying to use a host.txt file instead of setting up a DNS.. and we all
know how difficult that might be - especially in open environments like
the Internet. My proposal is to provide a support infrastructure (sevice)
for easy deployment of PK systems (or trust infrastructures ?)

I am going to submit a new draft soon about the basics of the PKS that
should allow to support any PK-based system, no matter if it is X.509
based (to allow the usage of X509) or any other standard as long as it
is based on some sort of "signed" assertion (e.g., a certificate or a
signed key) and, of course, public keys :D

Is anybody interested in the idea ? Please let me know..

Cheers,
Max


On 03/22/2010 05:30 PM, Leif Johansson wrote:
> On 03/22/2010 07:16 PM, Leif Johansson wrote:
>>
>>> Eh ... What is "for now" again? Hard to recall with so little happening.
>>> Maybe letting formatters run free might help?
>>> (not a criticism since I also probably promised to do stuff but just a
>>> suggestion)
>>
>> Personally I think this question is a consequence of the "must be easier
>> to deploy" requirement. I ass u me :-) that something might
>> look like a signature of something which might have to live in the
>> browser and I don't think that is jumping too far ahead quite
>> frankly :-)