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OpenPGP HTTP Keyserver Protocol
draft-gallagher-openpgp-hkp-03

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Active".
Authors Daphne Shaw , Andrew Gallagher
Last updated 2023-12-30 (Latest revision 2023-11-09)
Replaces draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp
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draft-gallagher-openpgp-hkp-03
openpgp                                                          D. Shaw
Internet-Draft                                          Jabberwocky Tech
Intended status: Informational                         A. Gallagher, Ed.
Expires: 2 July 2024                                          PGPKeys.EU
                                                        30 December 2023

                    OpenPGP HTTP Keyserver Protocol
                     draft-gallagher-openpgp-hkp-03

Abstract

   This document specifies a series of conventions to implement an
   OpenPGP keyserver using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).  As
   this document is a codification and extension of a protocol that is
   already in wide use, strict attention is paid to backward
   compatibility with these existing implementations.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   The latest revision of this draft can be found at
   https://andrewgdotcom.gitlab.io/draft-gallagher-openpgp-hkp.  Status
   information for this document may be found at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-gallagher-openpgp-hkp/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the OpenPGP Working Group
   mailing list (mailto:openpgp@ietf.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/openpgp/.  Subscribe at
   https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/openpgp/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://gitlab.com/andrewgdotcom/draft-gallagher-openpgp-hkp.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 2 July 2024.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2023 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Conventions and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  HKP and HTTP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.1.  Request Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.2.  HTTP Status Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Looking up Data from a Keyserver  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.1.  The "op" (operation) Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       4.1.1.  The "get" operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       4.1.2.  The "index" operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       4.1.3.  The "vindex" (verbose index) operation  . . . . . . .   7
       4.1.4.  The "stats" (statistics/status) operation . . . . . .   7
       4.1.5.  The "hget" (hash get) operation . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       4.1.6.  Other operations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.2.  The "search" variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       4.2.1.  Key ID and V4 Fingerprint Searches  . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.2.2.  V3 Fingerprint Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.2.3.  Text Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.3.  Lookup Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  Submitting Keys To A Keyserver  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   6.  Modifier Variables  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.1.  The "options" Variable  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       6.1.1.  The "mr" (Machine Readable) Option  . . . . . . . . .   9
       6.1.2.  The "nm" (No Modification) Option . . . . . . . . . .   9
       6.1.3.  Other Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.2.  The "v" (Version) Variable  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

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     6.3.  The "fingerprint" Variable  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.4.  The "hash" Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.5.  The "exact" Variable  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     6.6.  Other Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   7.  Output Formats  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     7.1.  Machine Readable Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     7.2.  Machine Readable Indexes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   8.  Locating a HKP Keyserver  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     8.1.  Key discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   10. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17

1.  Introduction

   For ease of use, public key cryptography requires a key distribution
   system.  For many years, the most commonly used system has been a key
   server - a server that stores public keys and can be searched for a
   given key.  The HTTP Keyserver Protocol is a OpenPGP keyserver
   implemented using HTTP.

2.  Conventions and Definitions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

3.  HKP and HTTP

   As HKP is implemented over HTTP, everything in [RFC1945] applies to
   HKP as well, and HKP error codes are the same as the ones used in
   HTTP.

   Due the very large deployment of HKP clients based on HTTP version
   1.0, HKP keyservers MUST support HTTP 1.0.  HKP keyservers MAY
   additionally support other HTTP versions.

   (( dshaw : I expect this to be controversial, but we've got tons of
   deployed code that only works with 1.0.  I'd be willing to discuss
   removing this MUST or make it a SHOULD and add a "implementation
   notes" section pointing out the problem instead.  See issue #5. ))

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   When used over HTTPS, HKP is commonly referred to as "HKPS".

   By convention and history, HKP uses HTTP on TCP port 11371, and HTTPS
   on TCP port 443.  These are often distinguished from generic use of
   HTTP(S) by using the URI schemes "hkp" and "hkps".  For reasons of
   maximum compatibility with firewalls and filtering HTTP proxies, HKP
   is also often served over the standard HTTP port (TCP port 80).

   (( andrewg : We may wish to officially recommend HKPS.  See issue #7.
   ))

   See Section 8 for an automated way for clients to discover the
   correct port.

3.1.  Request Paths

   HKP defines two paths, namely "/pks/lookup" for lookups (see
   Section 4) and "/pks/add" for submission (see Section 5).  A
   keyserver MAY support requests to other paths, but these are
   implementation dependent.  These alternative paths have historically
   been used to provide human-readable interfaces such as HTML forms,
   and functionality extensions such as [SKS].

   (( andrewg : SKS uses "/pks/hashquery" for bulk updates, and
   hockeypuck also implements "/pks/delete" and "/pks/replace".  See
   issue #15. ))

3.2.  HTTP Status Codes

   When a status or error code needs to be returned by a keyserver, the
   most appropriate HTTP code from [RFC9110] should be used.  It is good
   practice to return the most specific error code possible: for
   example, returning 404 ("Not Found") rather than 400 ("Bad Request")
   when a key is not found.

   This document gives suggested HTTP error codes for several common
   situations.  Note that these are only suggestions, and
   implementations may have good reasons (such as not revealing the
   reason why a request failed) for using other error codes.

   Clients SHOULD understand the following codes:

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         +===================+===================================+
         | Status Code       | Description                       |
         +===================+===================================+
         | 200 OK            | Request succeeded                 |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+
         | 202 Accepted      | Submitted key was altered to      |
         |                   | match keyserver policy            |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+
         | 403 Forbidden     | The requested operation is not    |
         |                   | permitted                         |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+
         | 404 Not found     | The search returned no results,   |
         |                   | or path not found                 |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+
         | 410 Gone          | Key has been permanently deleted, |
         |                   | e.g. due to blacklisting          |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+
         | 413 Content too   | The search returned too many      |
         | large             | responses                         |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+
         | 422 Unprocessable | Submitted key was rejected as per |
         | content           | keyserver policy                  |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+
         | 501 Not           | The requested operation is not    |
         | implemented       | supported                         |
         +-------------------+-----------------------------------+

                           Table 1: Status Codes

   In addition, a client SHOULD understand 3xx redirect codes.

   (( andrewg : In draft-shaw-00 it was suggested that a novel header be
   used for statuses that could not be represented by the HTTP response
   codes of the time.  This was only partially specified, and it is
   unclear if any implementations of this header existed.  In the
   meantime many new HTTP response codes have been defined, so I am
   using them instead - even if their semantics does not exactly match
   that of [RFC9110].  NB therefore that codes 202, 410, 413, 422 may
   not have been implemented anywhere yet.  See issue #5. ))

4.  Looking up Data from a Keyserver

   Key lookups are done via an HTTP GET request.  Specifically, the
   abs_path (see [RFC1945], section 3.2) is built up of the base path
   "/pks/lookup", followed by any variables.  Variables are passed using
   HTTP query strings as specified in [RFC1866], section 8.2.2.

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   Most HKP lookups contain both the "op" (operation) and "search"
   variables.  The "op" variable determines what operation the keyserver
   will take, and the "search" variable determines which keys are
   operated on.  There may also be modifier variables, as specified in
   Section 6 below.  The variables may be given in any order.
   Keyservers MUST ignore any unknown variables.

4.1.  The "op" (operation) Variable

   The op variable specifies the operation to be performed on the
   keyserver.  The op variable is generally used with the "search"
   variable to specify the keys that should be operated on.

   If a particular operation is not supported, the keyserver should
   return an appropriate HTTP error code such as 501 ("Not
   Implemented").

4.1.1.  The "get" operation

   A keyserver SHOULD support the "get" operation.

   The "get" operation requests keys from the keyserver.  A string that
   specifies which key(s) to return is provided in the "search"
   variable.

   The response to a successful "get" request is a HTTP document
   containing a keyring as specified in OpenPGP [RFC4880], section 11.1,
   and ASCII armored as specified in section 6.2.

   The response MAY be wrapped in any HTML or other text desired, except
   that the actual key data consisting of an initial line break, the "
   -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----" header, the armored key data
   itself, the "-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----" header, and a final
   line break MUST NOT be modified from the form specified in [RFC4880].

   If no keys match the request, the keyserver SHOULD return an
   appropriate HTTP error code such as 404 ("Not Found").

4.1.2.  The "index" operation

   A keyserver MAY support the "index" operation.

   The "index" operation requests a list of keys on the keyserver that
   match the text or key ID in the "search" variable.  Historically, the
   "index" operation returned a human readable HTML document containing
   links for each found key, but this is not required.

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4.1.3.  The "vindex" (verbose index) operation

   A keyserver MAY support the "vindex" operation.

   The "vindex" operation is similar to "index" in that it provides a
   list of keys on the keyserver that match the text of key ID in the
   "search" variable.  Historically, a "vindex" response was the same as
   "index" with the addition of showing the signatures on each key, but
   this is not required.

4.1.4.  The "stats" (statistics/status) operation

   A keyserver MAY support the "stats" operation.

   The output of the "stats" operation is implementation-dependent, but
   may include diagnostic output, configuration state, or other
   metadata.  The "search" variable is ignored when supplied with
   "stats".

4.1.5.  The "hget" (hash get) operation

   A keyserver MAY support the "hget" operation.

   "hget" is used to search for a key by its digest rather than its key
   ID or fingerprint.

4.1.6.  Other operations

   Other site-specific or nonstandard operations can be indicated by
   prefixing the operation name with the string "x-".

4.2.  The "search" variable

   The search variable contains arbitrary text encoded as usual for a
   HTTP URL.  This text may represent the key ID of the key being sought
   or some text from a user ID on the key being sought.

   If any particular type of searching is not supported, the keyserver
   should return an appropriate HTTP error code such as 501 ("Not
   Implemented").  The server MUST NOT return an error code (such as 404
   ("Not Found")) that could be mistaken by the client for a valid
   response.

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4.2.1.  Key ID and V4 Fingerprint Searches

   If a key is being sought by its key ID, the key ID string is prefixed
   with an "0x" to indicate a hexadecimal number.  Key ID strings may be
   16 digits (64-bit key ID), 32 digits (version 3 fingerprint), or 40
   digits (version 4 fingerprint).  The hexadecimal digits are not case
   sensitive.

   A keyserver that allows searching by key ID MUST accept the 160-bit
   version 4 fingerprint and MAY accept 64-bit key IDs in the "search"
   variable.  A keyserver MUST NOT return results for 32-bit "short key
   ID" searches, as these do not provide sufficient collision
   resistance.

4.2.2.  V3 Fingerprint Searches

   The 128-bit version 3 fingerprint is represented by a leading "0x",
   followed by 32 case-insensitive hexadecimal digits.  Note that v3
   fingerprints are treated differently and not grouped with key ID or
   v4 fingerprint searches as it is not possible to calculate a key ID
   from a v3 fingerprint.

   V3 keys are no longer considered secure, but MAY be distributed for
   historical reference.

4.2.3.  Text Searches

   How a keyserver handles a textual search is implementation defined.
   See also the definition of the "exact" variable (Section 6.5) for a
   method to give additional instructions to the server on how the
   search is to be executed.

4.3.  Lookup Examples

   Search for all keys containing the string "dshaw":

   http://keys.example.com:11371/pks/lookup?search=dshaw&op=index

   Get key 0xDEADBEEFDECAFBAD (64-bit key ID):

http://keys.example.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xDEADBEEFDECAFBAD

5.  Submitting Keys To A Keyserver

   A keyserver MAY accept submissions via an HTTP POST request.
   Specifically, the abs_path (see [RFC1945], section 3.2) is set to
   "/pks/add", and the key data is provided via HTTP POST as specified
   in [RFC1945], section 8.3, and [RFC1866], section 8.2.3.

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   The body of the POST message contains a "keytext" variable which is
   set to an ASCII armored keyring as specified in [RFC4880], sections
   6.2 and 11.1.  The ASCII armored keyring should also be urlencoded as
   specified in [RFC1866], section 8.2.1.  Note that more than one key
   may be submitted in a single transaction.

   There may also be modifier variables, as specified in Section 6
   below.

   If a keyserver does not support adding keys via HTTP, then requests
   to do so should return an appropriate HTTP error code, such as 403
   ("Forbidden") if key submission has been disallowed, or 501 ("Not
   Implemented") if the server does not support HTTP key submission.
   The keyserver MUST NOT return an error code (such as 404 ("Not
   Found")) that could be mistaken by the client for a valid response.

6.  Modifier Variables

   These variables are used to modify basic requests.

6.1.  The "options" Variable

   This variable takes one or more option values, separated by commas.
   These are used to modify the behavior of the keyserver on a per-
   request basis.  Each value indicates a boolean flag, where the
   presence of the value indicates "true" and the absence "false".

6.1.1.  The "mr" (Machine Readable) Option

   The machine readable option instructs the server that a program
   (rather than a person) is making the request, so the output SHOULD be
   in machine-readable format.  See Section 7 for the specific details
   of machine readable output.

6.1.2.  The "nm" (No Modification) Option

   As keyservers may modify submitted keys to suit a particular policy,
   this option is used to inform the keyserver that the submitter would
   rather have the submission fail completely then have the submitted
   key(s) modified.  An example of this would be a keyserver that does
   not accept user IDs with an email address outside of the local
   domain.  If such a key was submitted, the keyserver MAY trim any
   noncompliant user IDs before accepting the key.  If this option was
   set, then such a key submission SHOULD fail with an appropriate error
   code such as 422 (Unprocessable content).

   "nm" is meaningful for submissions only.

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6.1.3.  Other Options

   Other site-specific or nonstandard options can be indicated by
   prefixing the option name with the string "x-".  Non-standard options
   MUST represent boolean values with a default value of "false".

6.2.  The "v" (Version) Variable

   This variable identifies the version of machine readable output that
   the client supports.  Currently, only "v=1" is defined.

   "v" is meaningful for machine readable output only.

6.3.  The "fingerprint" Variable

   This variable takes one argument: "on" or "off".  If present and on,
   it instructs the server to provide the key fingerprint for each key
   in an "index" or "vindex" operation.  This variable has no effect on
   any other operation.  The exact format of the displayed fingerprint,
   like the "index" and "vindex" operations themselves, is
   implementation defined.  An implementation MAY decide to ignore this
   variable or set the default behaviour to "on".

   "fingerprint" is meaningful for lookups only.

6.4.  The "hash" Variable

   This variable takes one argument: "on" or "off".  If present and on,
   it instructs the server to provide the [SKS] digest of each key in an
   "index" or "vindex" operation in the default human-readable form.
   This variable has no effect on any other operation.  The exact format
   of the displayed fingerprint, like the "index" and "vindex"
   operations themselves, is implementation defined.  An implementation
   MAY decide to ignore this variable or set the default behaviour to
   "on".

   "hash" is meaningful for lookups only.

6.5.  The "exact" Variable

   This variable takes one argument: "on" or "off".  If present and on,
   it instructs the server to search for an exact match for the contents
   of the "search" variable.  The exact meaning of "exact match" is
   implementation defined.  An implementation MAY decide to ignore this
   variable or set the default behaviour to "on".

   "exact" is meaningful for lookups only.

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6.6.  Other Variables

   Other site-specific or nonstandard variables can be indicated by
   prefixing the variable name with the string "x-".

7.  Output Formats

   HKP is intended for both human and programmatic use.  In general, the
   default "human readable" output is implementation specific.  The
   "machine readable" option is used to tailor the output for automated
   use.  For interoperability, the "machine readable" output MUST
   carefully follow the guidelines given here.

   A client implementation SHOULD request machine readable output and
   SHOULD NOT attempt to parse human-readable output.

7.1.  Machine Readable Output

   Clients requesting machine readable output:

   *  SHOULD supply "v=1" Section 6.2 and "option=mr" Section 6.1.1 in
      the request.

   *  MUST silently ignore any content preceding or following a returned
      armored key block.

   *  MUST silently ignore any keys with unknown versions or algorithms.

   Keyservers returning machine readable output:

   *  MUST set the HTTP header "Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *", as
      specified in [CORS].

   *  MUST set "Content-Type: application/pgp-keys" when returning keys
      ("op=get"), as specified in [RFC3156], section 7.

   *  MUST use the format specified in Section 7.2 when returning
      indexes ("op=index").

   *  MAY return statistics in JSON format [RFC8259], the schema of
      which is otherwise implementation-dependent.

7.2.  Machine Readable Indexes

   The machine readable index format is a list of newline-separated
   records.  The document is 7-bit clean, and as such is sent with no
   encoding and Content-Type: text/plain.

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   The machine readable response MAY be prefixed by an information
   record:

   info:<version>:<count>

              +=========+===================================+
              | Field   | Description                       |
              +=========+===================================+
              | version | the version of this output format |
              +---------+-----------------------------------+
              | count   | the number of keys returned       |
              +---------+-----------------------------------+

                     Table 2: Information Record Fields

   If this line is not included, or the version information is not
   supplied, the version number is assumed to be 1.  Currently, only
   version 1 is defined.

   Note that "count" is the number of keys, and not the number of lines
   returned.  That is, it SHOULD match the number of "pub:" lines
   returned.

   The key listings themselves are made up of several records per key.
   The first record specifies the primary key:

pub:<keyid>:<algorithm>:<keylen>:<creationdate>:<expirationdate>:<flags>:<version>

     +================+=============================================+
     | Field          | Description                                 |
     +================+=============================================+
     | keyid          | the fingerprint or the key ID               |
     +----------------+---------------------------------------------+
     | algorithm      | the algorithm ID                            |
     +----------------+---------------------------------------------+
     | keylen         | the key length in bits                      |
     +----------------+---------------------------------------------+
     | creationdate   | creation date of the key                    |
     +----------------+---------------------------------------------+
     | expirationdate | expiration date of the key                  |
     +----------------+---------------------------------------------+
     | flags          | letter codes to indicate details of the key |
     +----------------+---------------------------------------------+
     | version        | the version of the key                      |
     +----------------+---------------------------------------------+

                    Table 3: Public Key Record Fields

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   A keyserver MAY return a 16-digit key ID, but SHOULD return a
   fingerprint if available.  Since it is not possible to calculate the
   key ID from a V3 key fingerprint, for V3 keys this SHOULD be the
   16-digit key ID only.

   The algorithm ID is as specified in [RFC4880], section 9.1 i.e.
   1==RSA, 17==DSA, etc.

   Following the "pub" record are one or more "uid" records to indicate
   user IDs on the key:

   uid:<uidstring>:<creationdate>:<expirationdate>:<flags>

   +================+=================================================+
   | Field          | Description                                     |
   +================+=================================================+
   | uidstring      | the user ID string                              |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------------+
   | creationdate   | creation date of the User ID                    |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------------+
   | expirationdate | expiration date of the User ID                  |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------------+
   | flags          | letter codes to indicate details of the User ID |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------------+

                      Table 4: User ID Record Fields

   The user ID string MUST use HTTP % encoding for anything that isn't
   7-bit safe as well as for the ":" character.  Any other characters
   MAY be HTTP encoded, as desired.

   The information for the "creationdate", "expirationdate", and "flags"
   fields is taken from the User ID self-signature, if any, and applies
   to the user ID in question, not to the key as a whole.

   Primary key and User ID records may contain a "flags" field
   containing a sequence of alphabetical characters, one per flag.
   Flags MAY be given in any order.  The meaning of "disabled" is
   implementation-specific.  Note that individual flags may be
   unimplemented, so the absence of a given flag does not necessarily
   mean the absence of the detail.  Client implementations MUST ignore
   unknown flags.

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                          +======+=============+
                          | Flag | Description |
                          +======+=============+
                          | r    | revoked     |
                          +------+-------------+
                          | d    | disabled    |
                          +------+-------------+
                          | e    | expired     |
                          +------+-------------+

                          Table 5: Record Flags

   Note that empty fields are allowed.  For example, a key with no
   expiration date would have the "expirationdate" field empty.  Also, a
   keyserver that does not track a particular piece of information may
   leave that field empty as well.  Colons for empty fields on the end
   of each line MAY be left off, if desired.  Client implementations
   MUST ignore unknown trailing fields.  All dates are given in the
   number of seconds since midnight 1/1/1970 UTC.

8.  Locating a HKP Keyserver

   Clients are usually manually configured with the address of a HKP
   keyserver.  Client implementations should be aware that it is
   reasonably common practice to use a single name in DNS that resolves
   to multiple address records.  When receiving a DNS response with
   multiple addresses, clients SHOULD try each address until a server is
   reached.  The order to try these addresses in is implementation
   defined.

   A far more flexible scheme for listing multiple HKP keyservers in DNS
   is the use of DNS SRV records as specified in [RFC2782].  DNS SRV
   allows for different priorities and weights to be applied to each HKP
   keyserver in the list, which allows an administrator much more
   control over how clients will contact the servers.  The SRV symbolic
   service name for HKP keyservers is "hkp" when used over plaintext
   HTTP, or "hkps" when using HTTPS.  For example, the SRV record for
   HKP keyservers in domain "example.com" would be
   "_hkp._tcp.example.com".

   SRV records contain the port that the target server runs on, so SRV
   can also be used to automatically discover the proper port for
   contacting a HKP keyserver.  HKP clients SHOULD support SRV records.

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8.1.  Key discovery

   An additional use of SRV records is when a client needs to locate a
   specified key by email address.  For example, a client trying to
   locate a key for isabella@silvie.example.com could consult
   "_hkp._tcp.silvie.example.com".

   (( andrewg : key discovery is the subject of ongoing debate, and may
   need to be left for another document.  See issue #1. ))

9.  Security Considerations

   As described here, a keyserver is a searchable database of public
   keys accessed over the network.  While there may be security
   considerations arising from distributing keys in this manner, this
   does not impact the security of OpenPGP itself.

   Without some sort of trust relationship between the client and
   server, information returned from a keyserver in search results
   cannot be trusted by the client until the OpenPGP client actually
   retrieves and checks the key for itself.  This is important and must
   be stressed: without a specific reason to treat information
   otherwise, all search results must be regarded as untrustworthy and
   informational only.

10.  IANA Considerations

   This document assigns the DNS SRV symbolic names "hkp" and "hkps",
   the URI schemes "hkp" and "hkps", and the HKP port 11371.

   (( andrewg : if we assign hkps, we may be required to specify a
   dedicated port, even though nobody uses it.  See issue #14. ))

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

   [CORS]     "Cross Origin Resource Sharing", n.d.,
              <https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/#cors-protocol>.

   [RFC1866]  Berners-Lee, T. and D. Connolly, "Hypertext Markup
              Language - 2.0", RFC 1866, DOI 10.17487/RFC1866, November
              1995, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1866>.

   [RFC1945]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and H. Frystyk, "Hypertext
              Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0", RFC 1945,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC1945, May 1996,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1945>.

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   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.

   [RFC2782]  Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for
              specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2782, February 2000,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2782>.

   [RFC3156]  Elkins, M., Del Torto, D., Levien, R., and T. Roessler,
              "MIME Security with OpenPGP", RFC 3156,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3156, August 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3156>.

   [RFC4880]  Callas, J., Donnerhacke, L., Finney, H., Shaw, D., and R.
              Thayer, "OpenPGP Message Format", RFC 4880,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4880, November 2007,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4880>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

   [RFC9110]  Fielding, R., Ed., Nottingham, M., Ed., and J. Reschke,
              Ed., "HTTP Semantics", STD 97, RFC 9110,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9110, June 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110>.

11.2.  Informative References

   [RFC8259]  Bray, T., Ed., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", STD 90, RFC 8259,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8259, December 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8259>.

   [SKS]      "Synchronising Key Server Wiki", n.d.,
              <https://github.com/sks-keyserver/sks-keyserver/wiki>.

Appendix A.  Acknowledgments

   This document is a formalization and extension of the HKP originally
   implemented in the PKS keyserver by Marc Horowitz, which in turn was
   based on earlier work by Brian LaMacchia and Michael Graff.  Without
   their grounding, this document would not exist.

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   The authors would also like to thank Peter Gutmann for his work on
   the Certstore protocol, some of which was applicable here, and the
   members of the pgp-keyserver-folk mailing list who contributed
   valuable comments and suggestions.

Authors' Addresses

   Daphne Shaw
   Jabberwocky Tech
   Email: dshaw@jabberwocky.com

   Andrew Gallagher (editor)
   PGPKeys.EU
   Email: andrewg@andrewg.com

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