Re: What's up with Skype in Germany?

On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:22:10 +0100, Sebastian G. <seppi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Peter Pearson wrote:

As I understand it, my assurance that I am talking with you
depends only upon (1) the validity of our two respective
copies of the Skype Certificate Authority's public key, (2)
the secrecy of the Skype CA's private key, and (3) the
secrecy of our two private keys, stored in our two
computers. If your understanding differs, or if you see
a connection between any of these points and the Skype login
server, please elaborate.

Simply said, the Skype login server is the one who authenticates users
against each other.

Are you claiming that my computer performs no authentication?
Checks no certificate? Doesn't use your public key? I'm getting
my information from Tom Berson's report at
http://www.skype.com/security/files/2005-031%20security%20evaluation.pdf .
Have you found a clearer description of the authentication
process? (If we weren't in "simply said" mode, would actual facts
emerge? After all, if I only wanted condescending and laconic
conclusory assertions, I'd go to Usenet. Oh, wait; I'm there.)

Considering under which jurisdictation this server
exists, and the history of the company that provides
Skype, it's very likely that this actually happens quite
often.

It would greatly facilitate communications if you said something
specific about that jurisdiction and that history.

Well, obviously the Skype login server is on soil of USA,

Is that obvious? I thought their engineering was in
Tallinn, and their business office in London. Skype's
"About" page says that they are based in Luxembourg. When I
run the Skype software, within seconds messages are
exchanged with IP addresses all over the globe.

--
To email me, substitute nowhere->spamcop, invalid->net.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: public key confusion
    ... > public key cryptosystem works. ... public/private is a business process application of asymmetric key ... for secrecy, data is encrypted with the public key ... ... non-divulged private key can ever decrypt the message. ...
    (sci.crypt)
  • Re: Key Evolving Encryption
    ... secrecy; that's also why I don't want interactive "public key" update. ... evolve both the public and private key independently (instead of evolving ... > I gather the goal here is forward secrecy in an public-key system. ...
    (sci.crypt)
  • Re: Whats up with Skype in Germany?
    ... copies of the Skype Certificate Authority's public key, ... the secrecy of the Skype CA's private key, ... the Skype login server is the one who authenticates users against each other. ...
    (sci.crypt)
  • Re: Whats up with Skype in Germany?
    ... copies of the Skype Certificate Authority's public key, ... the secrecy of the Skype CA's private key, ... the Skype login server is the one who authenticates users against each other. ... This is done encrypted with a key agreement protocol to create a session key, authentication is due to the public key of the server being embedded in the client. ...
    (sci.crypt)