Re: Revocation key difficulty

[David Shaw <dshaw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Mar 05, 2002 at 03:43:54PM -0500, Michael Young wrote:

> David Shaw noted this PGP (and now GnuPG) behavior:
> > If the designated revoker's key is not present, then a key "revoked"
> > by the designated revoker key is not treated as revoked.  GnuPG - as
> > of this morning - does it the same way.
> 
> I would argue that silently ignoring a missing revoker is a bad default.
> GnuPG is generally very good about issuing warnings (and offering
> options :-).  Would you be willing to do so here (at least when
> a potential revocation is present)?

Good idea.  I think a warning during key import if a key has a
potential revocation on it is appropriate.

> I know this doesn't thwart would-be attackers.  They can always
> remove the revocation itself.  A warning would simply help
> recognize that the key is effectively incomplete, and that the
> revoker should be retrieved.  (Or, have you adjusted GnuPG to
> automatically retrieve revokers after retrieving a key from a server?)

It doesn't, but that's a good idea as well (to be optional, of
course).

David

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