Authenticating Meat

Patrick Chkoreff patrick at fexl.com
Fri Apr 25 20:22:41 PDT 2003


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Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> I didn't doubt that it was.  However, my caveat
> remains true, and you haven't proved anything additional.

Let me know when you're in the Jasper, Georgia area and we'll have a 
few beers.  :-)

> An entity claiming that name, and claiming to be
> not-a-bot, and apparently controlling the DNS entry
> at the server I checked today for fexl.com today,
> has signed a message.  Yep, I believe [1] that.

That about sums up my digital identity, yes.  The real Patrick is tied 
up in the cellar and I forced him to tell me his password.  As the de 
Vere and Marlowe scholars might say, the works of Shakespeare were not 
written by Shakespeare, but by somebody else using that name.  Not to 
compare myself with Shakespeare.  All too often my words are full of 
sound and fury, signifying nothing.  Like now.


> I'm not picking on you.  Neither am I trying to be a dick;
> skeptical socratics sometimes appear so.  Check the archives
> for extended discussion as to what, exactly, signing proves.

Will do, thanks.  I have plenty of reading ahead of me.


> On the other hand, *whatever* entity has been signing
> these messages collects the reputations associated with
> them *more reliably*[1] than merely posting under your
> name.  ...

Well said.  I find it utterly amazing that mere sequences of bits can 
accomplish this.


>  Maybe you're a 14 year old girl pretending to
> be an FBI agent pretending to be a cryptographer :-)

Oh God, so it's that obvious?  I'm devastated.


> Making the leap from key-holder to meatspace
> entity is unsound unless something in meatspace demonstrates
> it.

All this talk about meatspace suggests we should have some spare ribs 
with those beers.

Of course, writing style and personality can help expose private key 
hijacking and impersonation somewhat, though even that can be 
counterfeited.  I can recognize a post by JP May with my eyes squinted, 
just looking at the shapes of the letters and paragraphs.  But I bet I 
could do an utterly, mind-bogglingly good impersonation if I tried.


> You're all bits from here.

BE the bits.

- -- Patrick
http://fexl.com

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