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draft-koch-openpgp-webkey-service-08

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Network Working Group                                            W. Koch
Internet-Draft                                                GnuPG e.V.
Intended status: Informational                              May 13, 2019
Expires: November 14, 2019

                       OpenPGP Web Key Directory
                  draft-koch-openpgp-webkey-service-08

Abstract

   This specification describes a service to locate OpenPGP keys by mail
   address using a Web service and the HTTPS protocol.  It also provides
   a method for secure communication between the key owner and the mail
   provider to publish and revoke the public key.

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
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   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 November 14, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 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
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   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Web Key Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     3.1.  Key Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Web Key Directory Update Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.1.  The Submission Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.2.  The Submission Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.3.  The Confirmation Request  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.4.  The Confirmation Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.5.  Policy Flags  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     6.1.  Well-Known URI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   7.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   8.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   Appendix A.  Sample Protocol Run  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     A.1.  Sample Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     A.2.  Sample Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   Appendix B.  Changes Since -07  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

1.  Introduction

   This memo describes a method to associate OpenPGP keys with a mail
   address and how to look them up using a web service with a well-known
   URI.  In addition a mail based protocol is given to allow a client to
   setup such an association and to maintain it.

2.  Notational Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3.  Web Key Directory

   A major use case for OpenPGP is the encryption of mail.  A common
   difficulty of sending encrypted mails to a new communication partner
   is to find the appropriate public key of the recipient.  Unless an
   off-channel key exchange has been done, there are no easy ways to
   discover the required key.  The common practice is to search the
   network of public key servers for a key matching the recipient's mail
   address.  This practise bears the problem that the keyservers are not
   able to give a positive confirmation that a key actually belongs to
   the mail addresses given in the key.  Further, there are often
   several keys matching a mail address and thus one needs to pick a key

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