-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- [ To: cypherpunks ## Date: 05/06/96 06:55 pm ## Subject: Escrowing signing vs. encryption keys. ]
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 21:06:37 -0700 From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com> Subject: Re: US law - World Law - Secret Banking
Baker's problem was that the keys would be used for signing as well as for encryption. He said that in the U.S. they had been careful to separate these functions in their plans. That's why we have DSS for signatures and Clipper (Capstone, Skipjack, etc.) for encryption. Only the Clipper keys get escrowed. The DSS keys are kept private.
Privacy, on the other hand, at least from the point of view of someone like Baker, is not as important. His people eavesdropped all the time, and it wasn't that bad. So from his perspective it is reasonable that a possibly insecure escrow system is acceptable for encryption, but not for signatures. And that is apparently a principle behind the US crypto policies as they have unfolded over the last few years.
There is another angle to this. If extralegal key escrow accesses are occurring, it will probably take a long time to come out, if it ever does. There's a good chance that anyone successfully eavesdropping on people by use of the key escrow mechanism will simply keep quiet about it, and while the victim may *suspect* what's happened, they won't be able to prove it. However, forged signatures *will* be noticed directly, and there will be high-profile court cases about them. Even if untrue, serious allegations of forged signatures based on escrowed signing keys will make it into the papers, and cause all kinds of chaos. Presumably, this is seen by the Feds to balance out the downside that, if I have the ability to do secure signatures with certificates, I can always use Diffie-Hellman to establish a secure session with someone else.
Hal
--John Kelsey, jmkelsey@delphi.com / kelsey@counterpane.com PGP 2.6 fingerprint = 4FE2 F421 100F BB0A 03D1 FE06 A435 7E36 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMY6Vh0Hx57Ag8goBAQHI2gP/bUhtWnIjWX8xKJ44IcmdG9OqbO7PaB1B 9iu7GYFzQXLgsMdc9Opzm64W7F+NrBlE1PjOCj965bK7MC9+Lz176Bo5nBHGMktP pALZcRvm6bmNMls49abvucVr8Xm2SbDOnsp5z4NHVUuNGdXi+J5tDVR2vYqIQjh5 GmZk9fVkQUM= =r6zZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----