Keysigning
Encyclopedia
Keysigning refers to digitally signing
someone else's public key using your own.
A more correct term would be certificate signing, since the actual key material is not changed by the process of signing. However, in the PGP
community it is customary not to distinguish in speaking between someone's key and certificate, and the term keysigning is used. (The term PGP refers here to all implementations of the OpenPGP standard, such as GnuPG.)
Users of PGP sign one another's keys to indicate to any third party that the signer trusts the signee. This enables someone who trusts the signer to extend his trust to the signee as well. In this way, a web of trust
is built.
PGP users often organize key signing parties
, where many people meet in person to verify each other's identity using some printed certificate of identity and then sign each other's keys.
Digital signature
A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...
someone else's public key using your own.
A more correct term would be certificate signing, since the actual key material is not changed by the process of signing. However, in the PGP
Pretty Good Privacy
Pretty Good Privacy is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, E-mails, files, directories and whole disk partitions to increase the security...
community it is customary not to distinguish in speaking between someone's key and certificate, and the term keysigning is used. (The term PGP refers here to all implementations of the OpenPGP standard, such as GnuPG.)
Users of PGP sign one another's keys to indicate to any third party that the signer trusts the signee. This enables someone who trusts the signer to extend his trust to the signee as well. In this way, a web of trust
Web of trust
In cryptography, a web of trust is a concept used in PGP, GnuPG, and other OpenPGP-compatible systems to establish the authenticity of the binding between a public key and its owner. Its decentralized trust model is an alternative to the centralized trust model of a public key infrastructure ,...
is built.
PGP users often organize key signing parties
Key signing party
In cryptography, a key signing party is an event at which people present their PGP-compatible keys to others in person, who, if they are confident the key actually belongs to the person who claims it, digitally sign the PGP certificate containing that public key and the person's name, etc...
, where many people meet in person to verify each other's identity using some printed certificate of identity and then sign each other's keys.