Re: kernel.org status: establishing a PGP web of trust

Willy Tarreau
2011-10-02T18:39:49Z

On Sun, Oct 02, 2011 at 11:19:24AM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 10/02/2011 11:14 AM, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> >>
> >> You probably know enough people (including myself) that would be willing
> >> to sign your key over the phone. That's part of giving yourself
> >> sufficient time.
> >
> > Well, then I propose that people create two new key pairs instead of
> > just one and take both of them to the KS for signing. Afterwards, one
> > of them will be used for development and the other one's private key
> > will be kept in a safe place (without any online access), so it can be
> > used readily if the first pair is lost or compromised somehow.
> >
> > Perhaps the second pair should have a longer life time.
> >
>
> Yes, this is actually a very good practice (the long-lived key should be
> a sign-only key, for what it's worth.) I didn't propose it because I
> thought it would be too much work.
>
> What do people think? It might be more important for people who are
> physically isolated.

I'm not opposed to generate a second key, but I don't really understand
how it solves the isolation issue. I'm not used to key signing parties
and am presently in the situation where I don't know whom to ping to
sign my key. The only thing I could do was to sign it with my old key
as you suggested in the initial mail on the subject :-/

So if at least generating a second key can save that hassle for next
time, I'm all in favor of making it, it just takes a few seconds.

Best regards,
Willy