[CentOS] [OT] Where to buy S/MIME ??

Thu Nov 29 03:58:33 UTC 2018
Gordon Messmer <gordon.messmer at gmail.com>

On 11/27/18 3:47 PM, Alice Wonder wrote:
> I actually went for a more complex scenario, I've created my own CA 
> complete with CRL.


OK.  That means fewer certificates for your peers to install over time, 
but is otherwise no better than self-signed.


> It's nice because with S/MIME you really want two certs - one for 
> signing (where ecdsa can be used) and one for when you need to receive 
> encrypted.


IIRC, an S/MIME client should be able to install your public cert and 
encrypt messages sent to you with no user interaction.  With 
Thunderbird, if I reply to a signed message, I can encrypt the reply.  
 From a usability standpoint, I really want to have just one 
certificate.  The easier it is to send me encrypted messages, the more 
likely it is that messages will be secure.


> Web browsers are applications that exist for the explicit purpose of 
> downloading and executing untrusted code. It does not seem like that 
> is a very wise environment to use for generating long term 
> cryptography keys. It really doesn't. 


On the other hand, if you don't trust your browser's cryptography 
implementation, you definitely should not be using your browser for 
secure communication (https).