-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Alex Strasheim <cp@proust.suba.com> wrote:
I don't know what blancw was getting at, but I'll take up his side of the argument. Can good security really be automated so well that people will have it without thinking about it?
I create accounts at an ISP, and 90% of the people who walk in the door pick terrible passpwords, even after listening to a little speech about what makes a good one. I'd be willing to bet that more than half the people using PGP have passphrases that would fall quickly to a dictionary attack.
Yes, but even if your PGP passphrase is "pass", using PGP gives you excellent security against anyone who can't get access to your secret key. I envision "Joe User" security as a pocket-computer That has very limited capability. Basically it can input data (but not executable code!), put Joe's authentication-stamp (a.k.a. "signature", although that's a misnomer) on that data, and output it. It only does this in response to some kind of authentication-action from Joe himself. Perhaps he inputs a 4-digit PIN. (It should be designed so that he can keep the PIN-input-device out of sight, say in his pocket, while using it.) Furthermore it should have an amnesia function where brute-forcing the PIN fails (possibly wiping the secret key) and a duress code PIN which fakes normal operation. (Possibly the duress code replaces all the incoming data with "HELP I'M BEING HELD UNDER DURESS!" before stamping it and outputting it, then wipes the secret key and continues to operate in fake mode.) And of course its hardware should be "tamper-resistant" for whatever that's worth. I guess it should have a one-time function (burnable ROM or whatever) which generates the secret key so that Joe can generate the key himself rather than having it done at the factory. It would be nice if Joe could make a back-up of his secret key, but I don't see anyway to do that without weakening the protection on it. Does this sound like something Joe could learn how to use properly, and trust enough to store a few hundred dollars in? He can choose his PIN himself and his duress PIN can be a variation of the normal one. One problem is that Joe can't necessarily tell what information is being fed into his "stamper" to be stamped. Possibly it could have an LCD display for that purpose... Hopefully it is apparent what kind of use this tool can be put to. For example, Joe picks up a a carton of milk at the grocery store, the store's cash register submits a bill for $2.00 to Joe's stamper, which stamps it, and Joe leaves. The grocer can submit Joe's signed IOU to Joe's bank at his/her leisure later. Variations on this theme. The main issue is how Joe can keep track of what information his is stamping. Regards, Bryce signatures follow "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield." -Tennyson <a href="http://www.c2.org/~bryce/Niche.html"> bryce@colorado.edu </a> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.01 iQCVAwUBMMZKHPWZSllhfG25AQEbSgP9HOYLQtCuEiok/JCvxHnq1Xxvx7aeXZH9 8OaC0GPEPFFNSnjerLTcvkbrn04JjHNBC10eMx3I8/jSTB6817M+M8+aTzqC44rH m2krfLCOMPXXHejDJgzPn/OlsLRKzi1HgeiHphpL1NGoRyNk+mKzBmq59EbvOqeF aSrF6QuEEpw= =rHnb -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----