BGP Security and PKI Hierarchies (was: Re: Wifi Security)

Tue Nov 22 20:32:22 UTC 2005

In message <17283.32422.105302.757816 at roam.psg.com>, Randy Bush writes:
>
>> I believe a web of trust can be operationally feasible only if the web
>> is more like a forest - if there are several well known examples of
>> "tops" to the web.  Otherwise, you have to be storing a plethora of
>> different signers' certificates to be able to validate all the
>> institution's certificates that come in.
>
>you need those certs to verify the live data anyway
>
Right.  The real issue is the trust determination -- how do you know 
that the certificate corresponds to something resembling reality 
(whatever that is)?

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb