Article View: comp.security.misc
Article #1008Re: Can a single signature, without certificates, be enough?
From: Lyal Collins
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 00:00
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 00:00
53 lines
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3049 bytes
This general situation is no differnte to paper signatures. In general, the recipint of a handwritten sigature does not know if it is a forgery, unless the person can supply other details at the time (e.g. not possible with orders by fax, letters etc) In general: Provide a public key which the buyer uses to encrypt a hash of the order/details. If a dispute, use the private key to decrypt the hash, and use the hash to prove the existence of the order, and all details in it. This does nothing for the situation where false details were initially supplied by the buyer. None of this is built anywhere I know of. Otherwise: Spend several million dollars and a year or 2 getting an accredited CA service in place and issuing certificates to people in person, with proof of their claimed ID. Or, forget the idea. Lyal Fredrik Israelsson wrote in message <7lvoht$e62$1@nnrp1.deja.com>... >I am doing some research for a type of system that is characterized by >the following. > >- A reseller has a computer with a web application for online orders to >a distributor. >- A customer comes in to the reseller's store and wants to make an >order. >- The reseller fills out a form in the web application, and lets the >customer confirm the order by signing it electronically in some way. >- The customer does not need to have a certificate or anything else >that proves the authenticity of his signature. >- The customer does not need to load his signature into some database >before signing the order. Comparing of signatures only becomes relevant >if a dispute between the customer and the distributor takes place. > >Is such a system possible to implement? > >All kinds of solutions I have read about so far deals with certificate, >specialized smart cards and some kind of registration of customer data >before the actual signing takes place. None of these is needed when >signing with ink on paper. Why does it seem to be required in all >computer-related applications? > >Thank You all in advance! > >Fredrik Israelsson >Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden > > >Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ >Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
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X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fdbb6,5df7da1ab816ffb X-Google-Attributes: gidfdbb6,public X-Google-Thread: ff723,5df7da1ab816ffb X-Google-Attributes: gidff723,public X-Google-Thread: 10410e,5df7da1ab816ffb X-Google-Attributes: gid10410e,public From: "Lyal Collins" <lyalc@ozemail.com.au> Subject: Re: Can a single signature, without certificates, be enough? Date: 1999/07/08 Message-ID: <BYSg3.162$1u.568@ozemail.com.au> X-Deja-AN: 498373928 Distribution: world References: <7lvoht$e62$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 X-Trace: ozemail.com.au 931396513 210.84.10.215 (Thu, 08 Jul 1999 11:15:13 EST) Organization: OzEmail Ltd, Australia NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 11:15:13 EST Newsgroups: comp.security.misc,alt.internet.commerce,a.business.internet