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Date:      Tue, 11 Jan 2000 11:51:40 -0800 (PST)
From:      Kris Kennaway <kris@hub.freebsd.org>
To:        Stephen McKay <syssgm@detir.qld.gov.au>
Cc:        freebsd-security@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/usr.sbin/ctm/ctm ctm.1 src/usr.sbin/ctm/ctm_rmail ctm_rmail.1 
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0001111148150.95142-100000@hub.freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <200001111218.WAA31198@nymph.detir.qld.gov.au>

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On Tue, 11 Jan 2000, Stephen McKay wrote:

> But you are correct from a theoretical viewpoint; an attack *could* be
> made on the current email distributed ctm system.  So, I am motivated
> to work on a cryptographic signature enhancement.  Otherwise, what is
> the point of distributing a program with a manual that advises everyone
> not to use it?!

I agree: this was something I planned to work on in the near future. The
solution is actually very simple, it just requires a bit of infrastructure
to get there. Now that we have OpenSSL in the base system (well, it's
still coming for US folks because of untidiness in the code I have to
clean up), we need to get a FreeBSD certificate authority of some sort set
up, and the CTM administrator would (have the generator) sign each delta
with a DSA key, the public half of which is distributed to the clients.

> Also, if the delta format changes, it would be a good time to introduce other
> changes, like detecting when files move from foo/bar.c to foo/Attic/bar.c
> and thus further reducing delta sizes.

It would certainly be better to make these changes at the same time.

Kris



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