From zane at genesis.mcs.com Thu Jul 8 23:40:46 1993 From: zane at genesis.mcs.com (Sameer) Date: Thu, 8 Jul 93 23:40:46 PDT Subject: USENET newsreaders and cryptography: features/suggestions/questions In-Reply-To: <9307080348.AA10446@polaris.unm.edu> Message-ID: In message <9307080348.AA10446 at polaris.unm.edu>, Clifford A Adams writes: > 1. Does anyone know if including code like > system("pgp -m foobar") might cause legal problems? Strn doesn't > implement any cryptographic techniques. I wouldn't know, but to stay completely safe, it *might* be a good idea to use environment variables. CRYPTOPROGRAM=pgp system(strcat(getenv("CRYPTOPROGRAM"), " -m foobar")) (I'm not well-versed in strcat, so this could be wrong, but you know what I mean.) Then you're not mentioning PGP at all in the code. (Env. variables for the options would be a good idea as well.. that way you can't be attacked under the premise, "It's OBVIOUSLY for PGP, because the options are PGP-options.") > 3. It would be greatly convenient if someone would implement > a "verify signature only" switch for PGP. Most of the applications I > would like to use don't involve data hiding--just signature verification. > I'm also lobbying the RIPEM author to include a similar feature. One feature I'd like would be easy to parse PGP output. That way PGP can be more easily integrated with other programs. For example, doing the following: (-p for "easyparse"?) pgp -p 01/01/93 12:34:56 GMT Then a program can parse it very easily. A successful sig would give a return code of 0, and failed sig would have a nonzero return code. -- | Sameer Parekh-zane at genesis.MCS.COM-PFA related mail to pfa at genesis.MCS.COM | | Apprentice Philosopher, Writer, Physicist, Healer, Programmer, Lover, more | | "Symbiosis is Good" - Me_"Specialization is for Insects" - R. A. Heinlein_/ \_______________________/ \______________________________________________/