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On Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 10:01 AM Marek Szuba <marecki@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> On 2019-04-24 13:41, Rich Freeman wrote: |
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> |
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> > What is the recommended way to create an on-card key? |
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> |
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> I haven't got my NitroKey yet but between the specifications (which say |
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> NK2 can hold up to 3 private RSA keys) and my prior experience with |
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> OpenPGP smartcards (which have always had at most one slot each assigned |
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> to authentication, encryption and signing), chances are pretty high you |
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> cannot have two separate signing keys in hardware. If so, your best bet |
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> is probably to generate the primary key in software (preferably with |
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> usage bits stripped down so that it can ONLY be used for signing keys), |
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> generate hardware subkeys associated with it, then stash the private |
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> primary key away somewhere. |
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> |
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Well, in that case recommendations for how to generate a key that |
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complies in software would be helpful. There used to be a wiki |
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article on it, but it is marked with various warnings saying it isn't |
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recommended to follow it, and has seemingly vanished with a note that |
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it moved somewhere. |
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Aside from that, it seems a bit odd to issue devs Nitrokeys (at |
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significant expense to both the Foundation and a kind sponsor), then |
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require a key design that can't actually be stored on the Nitrokey. A |
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Nitrokey-generated key is going to be way more secure than the way 99% |
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of devs will actually implement what seems to be intended, which is to |
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just generate their keys on a regular online host, and probably just |
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leave it there. |
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If it is the case that Nitrokeys can't support a separate primary key, |
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I'd suggest modifying the GLEP to remove that requirement when a |
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smartcard is in use. Its main purpose is to keep a key component |
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offline, and if the key is generated on the card that is already |
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accomplished. Maybe somebody has a suggestion for how to make the two |
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work together, otherwise I'll go ahead and suggest a GLEP revision for |
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the next Council meeting. |
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|
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-- |
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Rich |
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