ietf-asrg
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Re: [Asrg] S/MIME

2004-03-22 16:16:18


Ken Hirsch wrote:

From: "Doug Royer" <Doug(_at_)Royer(_dot_)com>
No the identity matches the cert. Your talking about content fraud not
identity fraud.

Consider the following two scenarios.
1. A person lies to the CA about their identity, yet the CA issues them a
certificate.
E.g. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-017.mspx
Yes - and that CERT was REVOKED before most people knew of the fraud or error. Try to use it and all receiving systems tag it as an invalid revoked signature because
the revocation list for that CA lists that serial number as revoked.

Problem solved and that fixed the problem. So in effect the CERT was blacklisted by all sites even when they do not use blacklists. Because it works to use certs.

2. An email worm installs spyware which steals certificates off of PCs and
installs keystroke logging software to steal the password.  A spammer uses the
thousands of certificates to send email.
As soon as the blacklist sites detect it as spam, that cert is blacklisted. Problem solved no matter how many variations or password protected zip files it sends, it is stopped once that cert is blacklisted. In many cases within minutes of the start of the spamming
when they spam some sites. Because certs work.

Now the owner of that cert can contact their CA and say it was stolen, and have that serial number revoked. Now it is invalid to all sites even to sites that do not
use blacklists.

If either of these result in somebody sending mail claiming to be
"Doug(_at_)Royer(_dot_)com", is this identity fraud or content fraud?
Try to buy an email cert from a CA that I trust for royer.com. Same thing I told the other guy - I'll pay you twice their fee if you can get an email cert for a
royer.com email address.

If the content of the email says I am 'Royer Real Estate' (royer.ca) and I am not and I then I sign it doug(_at_)royer(_dot_)com, then it is content fraud and not identity
fraud because my identity is 'doug(_at_)royer(_dot_)com' and that is what the 
valid
signature says.


--

Doug Royer                     |   http://INET-Consulting.com
-------------------------------|-----------------------------
Doug(_at_)Royer(_dot_)com                 | Office: (208)520-4044
http://Royer.com/People/Doug   | Fax:    (866)594-8574
                              | Cell:   (208)520-4044

             We Do Standards - You Need Standards


Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

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