On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 12:43:44PM -0700, Leo Bicknell wrote: (on the use of public/private keys)
The leaks stop immediately. There's almost no value in a database of public keys, heck if you want one go download a PGP keyring now.
It's a nice thought, but it won't work. There are two large-scale security problems which prevent it from working: 1. Fully-compromised/hijacked/botted/zombied systems. Pick your term, but any estimate of this population under 100M should be laughed out of the room. Plausible estimates are now in the 200M to 300M range. Any private key present on any of those is accessible to The Bad Guys whenever they can trouble themselves to grab it. (Just as they're already, quite obviously, grabbing passwords en masse.) 2. Pre-compromised-at-the-factory smartphones and similar. There's no reason why these can't be preloaded with spyware similar to CarrierIQ and directed to upload all newly-created private keys to a central collection point. This can be done, therefore it will be done, and when some security researcher discovers it, the usual excuses and justifications will be made by the designated spokesliars for the companies involved... which will of course keep right on doing it, albeit perhaps with more subterfuge. Problem #1 has been extant for ten years and no (meaningful) progress whatsoever has been made on solving it. Problem #2 is newer, but I'm willing to bet that it will also last at least a decade and that it will get worse, since there are substantial economic incentives to make it so. ---rsk