The Keysigning Party HOWTO
The Keysigning Party HOWTO
V. Alex Brennen<br>vab@MIT.EDU>
2008-01-24
Revision History Revision 2.0.02008-01-24VABNew keysigning methods, new content, clarifications, and conversion to docbook xml.Revision 1.1.12004-04-16VABAdded Russian Translation.Revision 1.1.02003-11-26VABAdded Traditional Chinese Translation.Revision 1.0.92003-11-20VABAdded Spanish and Italian Translations.Revision 1.0.82003-05-09VABAdded Section 5.3 Related ProgramsRevision 1.0.72003-05-07VABAdded German TranslationRevision 1.0.62003-03-24VABNew Content: Zimmermann-Sassaman Method. General document clean-up.Revision 1.0.52003-03-24VABGlossary Added: 4. Pictures Added: 5.5. Minor corrections, additional material, and formatting changes.Revision 1.0.42001-06-21VABRevocation information added: 3.5, 3.7. RFC info added: 4.4. Keyserver list and web site links updated.Revision 1.0.32001-01-14VABSimplification revisions, graphing, keyserver security/etiquette information, perl code, announcement examples, additional material, and general fixes.Revision 1.0.22000-12-07VABHTML (Bad Link) Fix.Revision 1.0.12000-10-03VABFormat/Writing changes, private public keys info.Revision 1.0.02000-10-01VABInitial Release.
Table of Contents<br>1. About This DocumentGeneral InformationTranslationsContributers2. Overview of A Keysigning PartyWhat is a Keysigning Party?What is Keysigning?What is the Web of Trust?Why should I hold a Keysigning Party?Can you give me some examples of why I'd want to hold one?Choosing a Keysigning Party TypeInformal Method PartyTheoryOrganizingParticipatingList Based Method PartyTheoryOrganizingParticipatingHash Based Method PartyTheoryOrganizingParticipating3. Announcing The PartyLocal GroupsPress Release4. Prepairing For The PartyGenerating Your Key PairGenerating a Revocation CertificateSending Your Key Pair To A KeyserverPosting a Signing Policy5. After The PartySigning KeysAdvanced Key SigningGraphing The Web of TrustSigning Role Keys and Pseudononymous KeysAdvanced Statistics6. Maintaining Your Keypair and the Web Of TrustWhen Your Key ExpiresRevoking A SignatureRevoking Your KeypairKeeping Up With Technical DevelopmentsThe CryptoWatch BlogThe Schneier on Security BlogPolitical ActivismElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Free State Project7. More InformationPartial List Of Public KeyserversRelated WebsitesRelated ProgramsRelated RFCsRelated BlogsPictures from keysinging partiesGlossary of Terms<br>List of Figures<br>2.1. An Example Web Of Trust Graph<br>Chapter�1.�About This Document
Table of Contents<br>General InformationTranslationsContributers<br>General Information
Copyright (c) 2000-2008<br>V. Alex Brennen (VAB).
This document is hereby placed in the public domain.<br>This document lives at
http://cryptnet.net/fdp/crypto/keysigning_party/en/keysigning_party.html<br>(DocBook XML)
Translations
This document is currently only available in the following languages:
[be] Belorussian (Provided by webhostingrating.com)
[de] German (Mirror)
[en] English (DocBook XML)
[es] Spanish (Mirror)
[it] Italian (Mirror (DocBook XML))
[ru] Russian (Mirror)
[si] Slovenian (Mirror)
[zh-TW] Traditional Chinese (Mirror)
If you know of a translation or would like to translate it to another language please let me know so that I can distribute or link to the translated versions.
Contributers
V. Alex Brennen (Principal Author)
Darxus (Graphing Code (sig2dot.pl & sigtrace.pl))
Bostjan Muller (Slovenian Translation)
Gerfried Fuchs (German Translation)
Alex Bergonzini (Spanish Translation)
Cristian Rigamonti (Italian Translation)
Vladimir Ivanov (Russian Translation)
chihchun,<br>clotho, fetag,<br>jedi,<br>kcwu,<br>pwchi, and<br>winfred<br>(Traditional Chinese Translation)
Chapter�2.�Overview of A Keysigning Party
Table of Contents<br>What is a Keysigning Party?What is Keysigning?What is the Web of Trust?Why should I hold a Keysigning Party?Can you give me some examples of why I'd want to hold one?Choosing a Keysigning Party TypeInformal Method PartyTheoryOrganizingParticipatingList Based Method PartyTheoryOrganizingParticipatingHash Based Method PartyTheoryOrganizingParticipating<br>What is a Keysigning Party?
A key signing party is a get-together of people who use the PGP encryption system with the purpose of allowing those people to sign each others keys. Key signing parties serve to extend the web of trust to a great degree. Key signing parties also serve as great opportunities to discuss the political and social issues surrounding strong cryptography, individual liberties, individual sovereignty, and even implementing encryption technologies or perhaps future work on free encryption software.
What is Keysigning?
Key signing is act of digitally signing a public key packet and a user id packet that is attached to the key in that public key packet. Key signing is done to verify that a given user id and public key really do belong to the entity that appears to own the key. In more basic terms it is done to verify that the representation of...