DNS Keys (was A brief comparison of email encryption protocols)
Donald E. Eastlake 3rd (dee@cybercash.com)
Thu, 15 Feb 1996 17:14:10 -0500 (EST)
On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Raph Levien wrote:
> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 11:21:06 -0800 (PST)
> From: Raph Levien <raph@c2.org>
> Cc: resolving-security@imc.org, pem-dev@neptune.tis.com
> ...
> On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, James M. Galvin wrote:
> > ...
> > > Perhaps the biggest feature required in the mailer is integration
> > >of key management and the "address book". If this feature is not
> > >implemented in the mailer, then two address books are required - one
> > >to select email addresses, and another to map email addresses to keys.
> > >This approach is used by premail, and is the source of many usability
> > >problems. It would be nice if a database existed which could map email
> > >addresses to public keys without manual intervention, but none of the
> > >proposals on the table are capable of it.
> >
> > In point of fact, MOSS supports this feature. The email address name form
> > was included precisely because we figured people would want to continue to
> > use names with which they were familiar. Further, the email address could
> > be parsed and the DNS could be used to lookup the public key.
>
> I chose my words poorly. What I meant to say is that none of the
> proposals can map an email address to a public key without the use of a
> manually maintained database.
>
> DNS? Are you suggesting that the public key be stored within the DNS
> database? The idea is nice, but DNS as deployed today is far too
> insecure (see the Wall Street Journal, 9 Feb 1996 for an example).
Please check out draft-ietf-dnssec-secext-09.txt in the IETF shadow
directories (such as ftp.isi.edu/internet-drafts). It specifies a
standard for authenticating data retrieved from the DNS and using the
DNS for key distribution.
> ...
>
> Raph
Donald
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