At 9:27 PM -0800 12/30/96, Anonymous wrote:
A scenario:
1) The spooks put a bug (named Eve) on the link between kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu and the Internet.
Whenever kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu sents out the pubring.pgp Eve intercepts it and replaces it with a file of the spooks' choosing. This file will selectively replace the public pgp keys of some of the remailers (say exon) in pubring.pgp with keys to which the spooks know the private key.
(1) Protection against this scenario is what the signatures on the key are for. (2) Nomenclature quibble: It would have to be Mallory, not Eve. Eve can only listen. Mallory is a lot more dangerous because he can alter/delete/insert messages as well as listen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | Client in California, POP3 | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | in Pittsburgh, Packets in | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz@netcom.com | Pakistan. - me | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA