summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/doc/conferences/lca2010/abstract
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorDaniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>2009-07-30 23:09:46 -0400
committerDaniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>2009-07-30 23:09:46 -0400
commit98dddb87efcbb90a82a7b2dfc094160811a09f86 (patch)
tree468542e111161492913ab8e357a4fb5db7bf88ae /doc/conferences/lca2010/abstract
parent37c39c434872a2fc48da7e8d1d78ec2382090426 (diff)
initial draft of LCA2010 entry; hoping for feedback on a tight deadline
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/conferences/lca2010/abstract')
-rw-r--r--doc/conferences/lca2010/abstract54
1 files changed, 54 insertions, 0 deletions
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/
+