Hal Finney wrote:
I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense though to define a general
MIME type for a base64 encoded PGP object. This would ***NOT*** be
an alternative or replacement for PGP/MIME. That protocol is used to
protect MIME body parts, and would still be the protocol of choice for
email and similar appliations.
This proposal would simply be a transport layer for a binary PGP message.
It would be an alternative/replacement for PGP's existing ascii armor.
We'd add a couple of parameters to encode the small amount of data we
currently have in the ascii armor headers and header line.
This is an *excellent* idea. It seems similar to S/MIME's 'envelope'.
Let's do it!
(Including "PUBLIC KEY BLOCK" would mean that this would subsume the
application/pgp-keys content type from RFC2015.)
Just one reservation. If you had separate apps for crypto and key
management (like PGPtray and PGPkeys) you would then have to have at
least a stub application which looked at the parameter and launched the
appropriate application. If we kept application/pgp-keys, that type
could be explicitly associated with a key management program, and
application/pgp kept for the crypto itself.
Ian :D