NAME¶
pgpverify - cryptographically verify Usenet control messages
SYNOPSIS¶
pgpverify
DESCRIPTION¶
The
pgpverify program reads (on standard input) a Usenet control message
that has been cryptographically signed using the
signcontrol program.
pgpverify then uses the
pgp program to determine who signed the
control message. If the control message was validly signed,
pgpverify
outputs (to stdout) the User ID of the key ID that signed the message.
OPTIONS¶
The
pgpverify program takes no options.
EXIT STATUS¶
pgpverify returns the follow exit statuses for the following cases:
- 0
- The control message had a good PGP signature.
- 1
- The control message had no PGP signature.
- 2
- The control message had an unknown PGP signature.
- 3
- The control message had a bad PGP signature.
- 255
- A problem occurred not directly related to PGP analysis of signature.
AUTHOR¶
David C Lawrence <tale@isc.org>
ENVIRONMENT¶
pgpverify does not modify or otherwise alter the environment before
invoking the
pgp program. It is the responsibility of the person who
installs
pgpverify to ensure that when
pgp runs, it has the
ability to locate and read a PGP key file that contains the PGP public keys
for the appropriate Usenet hierarchy administrators.
SEE ALSO¶
pgp(1)
NOTES¶
Historically, Usenet news server administrators have configured their news
servers to automatically honor Usenet control messages based on the originator
of the control messages and the hierarchies for which the control messages
applied. For example, in the past, David C Lawrence <tale@uunet.uu.net>
always issued control messages for the "Big 8" hierarchies (comp,
humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, talk). Usenet news administrators would
configure their news server software to automatically honor newgroup and
rmgroup control messages that originated from David Lawrence and applied to
any of the Big 8 hierarchies.
Unfortunately, Usenet news articles (including control messages) are notoriously
easy to forge. Soon, malicious users realized they could create or remove (at
least temporarily) any Big 8 newsgroup they wanted by simply forging an
appropriate control message in David Lawrence's name. As Usenet became more
widely used, forgeries became more common.
The
pgpverify program was designed to allow Usenet news administrators to
configure their servers to cryptographically verify control messages before
automatically acting on them. Under the pgpverify system, a Usenet hierarchy
maintainer creates a PGP public/private key pair and disseminates the public
key. Whenever the hierarchy maintainer issues a control message, he uses the
signcontrol program to sign the control message with the PGP private
key. Usenet news administrators configure their news servers to run the
pgpverify program on the appropriate control messages, and take action
based on the PGP key User ID that signed the control message, not the name and
address that appear in the control message's From or Sender headers.
Thus, using the
signcontrol and
pgpverify programs appropriately
essentially eliminates the possibility of malicious users forging Usenet
control messages that sites will act upon, as such users would have to obtain
the PGP private key in order to forge a control message that would pass the
cryptographic verification step. If the hierarchy administrators properly
protect their PGP private keys, the only way a malicious user could forge a
validly-signed control message would be by breaking the RSA encryption
algorithm, which (at least at this time) is believed to be an NP-complete
problem. If this is indeed the case, discovering the PGP private key based on
the PGP public key is computationally impossible for PGP keys of a sufficient
bit length.
<
URL:ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/> is where the most recent versions
of
signcontrol and
pgpverify live, along with PGP public keys
used for hierarchy administration.