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0 sats \ 40 replies \ @ek OP 24 Feb freebie \ parent \ on: The Curious Case of Digital Signatures crypto
  1. found the public key from https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/pubkeys/ThomasV.asc
Imported the key, also there are other devs are listed on the site.
Good, I think using Github as the source of trust is okay. But remember: the more sources that say that this is indeed the correct key, the better!
one thing really strange is that when I tried this again, it says
gpg: can't open 'electrum-4.5.3.dmg.asc': No such file or directory

gpg: verify signatures failed: No such file or directory
Mhh, and you are sure you didn't (remove) the file? Did you run gpg --verify in the correct folder?
  1. I can't find the SHA256 to continue šŸ˜³
If the software you downloaded was signed, then you don't need separate hashes. The signature contains the hash to verify integrity. I can tell from your comment that this is the case for Electrum since the signature is named electrum-4.5.3.dmg.asc and the software is in electrum-4.5.3.dmg.
Sparrow Wallet was just a special case where not the software was signed but the hashes. Then you need to run another command (sha256sum --check <hashfile> --ignore-missing) to verify the software.
I mentioned that I don't know why Craig did it like this, I only had an educated guess:
Conclusion
So what we just did was to basically verify the authenticity and integrity of the file that contained the hashes for all binaries with gpg --verify. When the hashes could be trusted, we could use them to make sure that the software was not tampered with. But why not simply provide a digital signature for the binary itself?
I actually don't know. But my educated guess is that it's related to convenience. Instead of providing a signature for every binary, the hashes are signed. Using sha256sum --check with --ignore-missing then simply ignores all files that don't exist. So I am basically guessing that there is no way to do something similar with digital signatures. Maybe someone knows more?
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473 sats \ 38 replies \ @Natalia 24 Feb
wait, so when the software was signed all you need to do is finding the correct public key ( the more sources suggesting the same key the better ), and then verify the asc? that's all?
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480 sats \ 37 replies \ @ek OP 24 Feb freebie
Yes. The "asc" is the (detached) signature.
The hardest part is verifying the public key but most people just skip that lol
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412 sats \ 29 replies \ @Natalia 24 Feb freebie
how hard can it be, all you need to do is to search. šŸ˜‚
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346 sats \ 28 replies \ @ek OP 24 Feb freebie
To be fair, I think if the instructions mention to import the key from a site like Keybase like Sparrow does, I think it's fine. Most important thing is to not import the public key from the same site you received everything else and I think if people just follow instructions, they automatically do that.
It just makes me feel uneasy if people are not aware that this is important. The why's and so on.
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589 sats \ 27 replies \ @Natalia 24 Feb
It just makes me feel uneasy if people are not aware that this is important.
like @DarthCoin say - education is key šŸ”‘
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0 sats \ 26 replies \ @ek OP 24 Feb
Haha yes. Like a secret key hidden in plain sight.
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0 sats \ 25 replies \ @Natalia 24 Feb
is my understanding correct?
the logic behind this is the dev uses his private key to sign the signature ( asc ) which then hash the software.
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359 sats \ 24 replies \ @ek OP 24 Feb
Yes
You just summarized my post with a few words haha
Wait, no. The dev signs the software (or whatever). The signature IS the hash "encrypted" with the private key.
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0 sats \ 6 replies \ @Natalia 25 Feb
now I finally understand what you mean here, why not just put each dev's key in GitHub šŸ˜Ø
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @ek OP 25 Feb freebie
Best way is to spread your key fingerprint around imo.
If you only use one site as the source of trust, it's a single point of failure. Even if it's Github.
I have to do that myself, still figuring things out around PGP keys
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Natalia 27 Feb
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