Re: Public key crypto

[davidk@ISI.EDU]

Michael,

> Michael Dillon writes :
> 
> On Fri, 10 Jan 1997, Rick H. Wesson wrote:
> 
> > IMHO the IAHC and CORE should not premote the use of technology that
> > would be illegal for a registry and/or an individual to use. The technology
> > used to run the CORE db shold not incur any legal issues for its use.
> 
> This is why I proposed that the keys be generated by CORE. They would then
> be transmitted direct to the user who can include them in a transaction to
> validate that they have indeed authorized the transaction. This does not
> require the user to run any crypto software of any type and it does not
> require the user to exchange any encrypted information. The key is not
> encrypted information, merely a unique number that is generated with a
> cryptographic quality algorithm.

That is what I meant by a token mechanism. A simple random number
generator could be used as long as the CORE db doesn't store them in
clear text. Note that such mechanisms are not considered to be entirely
safe (messages could be read by third parties), but could be considered
safe enough for the purpose for what we need them. I would prefer real
real authentication if politically feasible though,

David K.
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