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+
The Monkeysphere project's goal is to extend the web of trust model
and other features of OpenPGP to other areas of the Internet to help
us securely identify each other while we work online.
-Specifically, the Monkeysphere is a framework to leverage the OpenPGP
-web of trust for OpenSSH authentication. In other words, it allows
-you to use your OpenPGP keys when using secure shell to both identify
+Specifically, monkeysphere is a framework to leverage the OpenPGP web
+of trust for OpenSSH authentication. In other words, it allows you to
+use your OpenPGP keys when using secure shell to both identify
yourself and the servers you administer or connect to. OpenPGP keys
-are tracked via GnuPG, and managed in the `known\_hosts` and
-`authorized\_keys` files used by OpenSSH for connection authentication.
-
-[[bugs]] | [[download]] | [[news]] | [[documentation|doc]] |
-[[development|dev]]
+are tracked via GnuPG, and managed in the `known_hosts` and
+`authorized_keys` files used by OpenSSH for connection authentication.
## Conceptual overview ##
"`PubkeyAuthentication`"), rather than relying on a password exchange.
But again, the public part of the key needs to be transmitted to the
server through a secure out-of-band channel (usually via a separate
-password-based SSH connection) in order for this type of
-authentication to work
+password-based SSH connection or a (hopefully signed) e-mail to the
+system administrator) in order for this type of authentication to
+work.
[OpenSSH](http://openssh.com/) currently provides a functional way to
-managing the RSA and DSA keys required for these interactions through
-the `known\_hosts` and `authorized\_keys` files. However, it lacks
-any type of [Public Key Infrastructure
+manage the RSA and DSA keys required for these interactions through
+the `known_hosts` and `authorized_keys` files. However, it lacks any
+type of [Public Key Infrastructure
(PKI)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Key_Infrastructure) that
can verify that the keys being used really are the one required or
expected.
and server) explicitly designate who they trust to certify the
identity of the other party. These trust designations are explicitly
indicated with traditional GPG keyring trust models. Monkeysphere
-then manages the keys in the `known\_hosts` and `authorized\_keys`
+then manages the keys in the `known_hosts` and `authorized_keys`
files directly, in such a way that is completely transparent to SSH.
No modification is made to the SSH protocol on the wire (it continues
to use raw RSA public keys), and no modification is needed to the