Re: [Gnu-arch-users] oh the heck with it -- tla-1.2pre0

[Andrew Suffield]

On Wed, Dec 31, 2003 at 10:44:36AM +0200, Momchil Velikov wrote:
> Andrew> openpgp encryption is many-to-one, not one-to-many - I can't see how
> Andrew> it adds anything here.
> 
>   I can't see the relevance of whether particular encryption is
> many-to-one or one-to-many (and of course, public key schemes are both
> ways).

Public key schemes in the many-to-one direction are encryption, and in
the one-to-many direction are signatures.

People have tried to abuse the encryption form for one-to-many
purposes before now (either via a shared secret, which defeats the
point, or via encrypting multiple times, which is an infeasible use of
resources). It doesn't work - at best, it is equivalent to a shared
secret system.

>   Using encrypted archives allows you to use public access protocols
> for distributing private data. For example, I can to setup a single
> anonymous ftp for an arbitrary number of independent, isolated groups,
> which receive their own data.  Without the need of giving shell
> access.

Use a non-anonymous authentication system, then.

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
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