At 9:52 PM -0700 7/20/00, Jon Callas wrote:
In our last episode ("Correction reqd. in 5.2", shown on 7/21/00), Erron
Criddle said:
To all,
Another one (trivial but may confuse newcomers):
section 5.2 starts off with:
"A signature packet describes a binding between some public key and some
data."
should read:
"A signature packet describes a binding between a private key and some data."
I disagree. A signature binds the public key and the data. Signature
verification is done with the public key only, and that is the whole point
of the exercise.
Jon
Well, really there are two bindings. The signature binds the public key
and the data. The public key and the private key are bound by their
mathematical relationship.
However, the real binding people are usually interested in is the binding
between the holder of the private key and the data. The two bindings let
us get between the private key and the data, but the next step is still
only conjecture.
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