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Re: TPKI - living without certificates
Bob,
See:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/
Lynn Wheeler has looked at this alot for financial applications.
Bob Geiger
Motorola
Bob Smart wrote:
>
> All the security infrastructures being developed (PKIX, DNSSEC, IPSEC,
> and even SPKI) show that it is not easy to build security structures with
> links into the real world.
>
> Are there applications that can use public key cryptography without
> needing certificates to link the public keys to things or rights in
> the real world? I'd like to answer that with a very positive and definite
> "maybe".
>
> If such applications exist then they are important because they are
> much easier to implement. They offer the hope of working our way up,
> and securely bootstrapping the more conventional certificate-based
> systems. But maybe experience of those certificate-free appliations
> will give us different ideas about how to link in to the real world.
>
> At any rate I've written up a rough outline of what such a system might
> be like at
>
> http://weever.vic.cmis.csiro.au/~smart/tpki.html
>
> [TPKI stands for "Trivial Public Key Infrastructure"].
>
> An example of a TPKI-based Bank and payment system is given in
>
> http://weever.vic.cmis.csiro.au/~smart/bank.html
>
> All very rough at the moment. I'll have a go at tidying them up as
> internet-drafts next weekend depending on any feedback I might get.
>
> Bob
>
> P.S. We are likely to be advertising soon for software engineers
> who are interested in a research environment, working in security and
> related Distributed Systems areas. Let me know if you would like to
> receive information about this. We are unlikely to take someone who
> isn't already resident in Australia. Later in the year we are likely
> to be advertising for a Project Leader [I'm acting PL at the moment].
> For this non-Australians are definitely eligible. If you have a PhD
> and/or equivalent experience and a research record and want to be
> kept informed about such an opening then let me know.
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