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Preparing for the Keysigning Cryptoparty, 2 Dec 2013
Posted by Bob Jonkman on 24th November 2013
Cryptoparty like it’s 31 December 1983!
For those people who already have GnuPG/PGP keys I’m also hosting a Formal Keysigning. Participants will introduce themselves, read their GnuPG key fingerprint, then anyone else is invited to vouch for that person:
Bob: “I’m Bob Jonkman, and my GnuPG fingerprint is 04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115 26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA”
Andrew: “I’ve known Bob since the early days, and that’s really him”
This is a great way to expand your Web Of Trust to include people whose keys you might not otherwise sign (because you don’t know them very well, or they only have ID issued by an authority you don’t like). With all these introductions and vouchings the chance of someone misrepresenting their identity is vanishingly small, so you can trust that the key fingerprint they read is really associated with that person.
To make this process go smoothly I’d like to have a printout of all the participants’ keyIDs, UserIDs, and key fingerprints, which I’ll distribute at the keysigning. That way you can just check off each name/keyID/fingerprint as people read them, and then sign their keys later at your leisure. But to get that printout I’ll need the public key of anyone who would like to participate in the keysigning.
If you’re using Thunderbird and Enigmail then open the Key Management window, right-click on your key and select “Send Public Keys by E-mail”, and send it to me ( bjonkman@sobac.com )
If you’re a command-line weenie then use
gpg --export 0xYOURKEYID > 0xYOURKEYID-public-key-for-YOURNAME.pgpand send that file 0xYOURKEYID-public-key-for-YOURNAME.pgp to me (substitute your actual keyID and actual name as needed).
Of course, I’d prefer signed, encrypted e-mail, but public keys are public (so encryption isn’t necessary), and public keys should already be self-signed anyway.
Unfortunately, if you’re creating your keys for the first time at the meeting you won’t be able to send me anything now. You can still participate in the vouching process, and we’ll have an informal keysigning after the formal keysigning, where all you need to do is read your fingerprint straight from your computer and those people who already know you can sign your key.
I’m still working on the procedures for the formal keysigning; you can see the work in progress (and contribute!) on the Formal Keysigning page on the Wiki.
Thanx, and hope to see you on Monday, 2 December 2013!
–Bob, who is the Keymaster. Who will be the Gatekeeper?
The Cryptoparty keypair logo from the Cryptoparty Artwork repository on GitHub is available in the 
Public Domain.
Tags: Crypto, e-mail, encryption, Enigmail, fingerprint, gatekeeper, GNU Privacy Guard, GnuPG, identity, introduction, keymaster, keysigning, keysigning party, KWLUG, pgp, Pretty Good Privacy, procedure, Thunderbird, vouch, web of trust
Posted in email, PGP/GPG, privacy | Comments Off on Preparing for the Keysigning Cryptoparty, 2 Dec 2013
