X-Git-Url: https://codewiz.org/gitweb?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fconferences%2Flca2010%2Fabstract;fp=doc%2Fconferences%2Flca2010%2Fabstract;h=b195ff97ed12980985844d006cdc7f9197682d54;hb=98dddb87efcbb90a82a7b2dfc094160811a09f86;hp=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000;hpb=37c39c434872a2fc48da7e8d1d78ec2382090426;p=monkeysphere.git diff --git a/doc/conferences/lca2010/abstract b/doc/conferences/lca2010/abstract new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b195ff9 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/conferences/lca2010/abstract @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +The Monkeysphere uses the OpenPGP web of trust to provide a +distributed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for users and +administrators of ssh. This talk is about why the Monkeysphere is +useful, how it works, and how you can use it to ease your workload and +automatically fully authenticate people and servers. + +The Secure Shell protocol has offered public-key-based mutual +authentication since its inception, but popular implementations offer +no formalized public key infrastructure. This means there is no +straightforward, computable method to to signal re-keying events, key +revocations, or even basic key-to-identity binding (e.g. "host +foo.example.org has key X"). As a result, dealing with host keys is +usually a manual process with the possibility of tedium, room for +error, difficulty of maintenance, or users and administrators simply +ignoring or skipping baseline cryptographic precautions. + +The OpenPGP specification offers a robust public key infrastructure +that has traditionally only been used for e-mail and for encrypted +storage. By its nature, the OpenPGP Web of Trust (WoT) is a +distributed system, with no intrinsic chokepoints or global +authorities. And the global key distribution network provides +commonly-held, public infrastructure for rapid distribution of key +changes, revocations, and identity binding. + +The Monkeysphere mixes the two to provide new functionality for ssh +(key revocation, key expiry, re-keying, fewer unintelligible prompts, +semantic authorization, etc) while taking advantage of existing but +often-unused functionality in OpenPGP. Additionally, the Monkeysphere +implementation does not require any patches to OpenSSH on the client +or server, but takes advantage of existing hooks, which makes it easy +to adopt. + +Specifically, the Monkeysphere allows users to automatically validate +ssh host keys through the Web of Trust, and it allows servers to +identify authorized users through the Web of Trust. Users decide +which certifications in the Web of Trust they put stock in (so they +are not spoofed by spurious certifications of host keys). Server +administrators decide whose certifications the server should put stock +in (so that the server is not spoofed by spurious certifications of +user keys). + +This presentation will go over how the Monkeysphere works; how you can +use it to increase the security of servers you maintain; how you can +use it to increase the security of accounts you connect to with ssh; +and we'll discuss future possibilities lurking in the ideas of the +Monkeysphere. + +Monkeysphere is currently available in the main Debian repository and +as a port in FreeBSD. A Slackbuild is available for Slackware, and +Monkeysphere itself should work on any POSIX-ish system with the +appropriate dependencies available. + +The project's main web site is http://web.monkeysphere.info/ +