Subject: RE: President Clinton digital signing

From: Mathew Butler <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 17:27:45 -0700

There is no digital key that can sign "documents of office".  The
legislation changed how certain high-value monetary transactions can be
signed -- it didn't modify how the president does his job.

-Mat Butler

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Bartoletti [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 5:24 PM
To: Philip Hallam-Baker; 'Bob Jueneman'; [email-masked];
Philip Hallam-Baker
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: RE: President Clinton digital signing

At 04:44 PM 8/23/00 -0700, Philip Hallam-Baker wrote:

> >I believe that the bill was in fact signed twice, once with a pen, but
>I also believe that >the concern about circularity is a red herring.
>
>It was a humorous observation I didn't expect you folk to make a federal
>case out of it!

:)

And I enjoyed the story of the Stuart King.

But for the sake of "formalism" (and curiosity) doe anyone know just
what CA has certified this key?  Or what the precise DN looks like?

More to the point, was the entire exercise of signing with this key
just a cute charade, or does the U.S. President (now, officially)
have a digital key with which to sign "documents of the office", and
if so, what are the attributes of the corresponding certificate?

(It must expire soon ;)

The question of "who certifies the President's digital signature"
is an interesting one, in my view, not only now but in general.

___tony___

Tony Bartoletti 925-422-3881 <[email-masked]>
Information Operations, Warfare and Assurance Center
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA 94551-9900

---

From: Tony Bartoletti <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 17:56:53 -0700

>signed -- it didn't modify how the president does his job.

Understood, thank you.

The "act" of digitally signing the bill in question was an empty gesture,
so to speak.  Out of curiosity, was it accomplished with an entirely
arbitrary "signing key" (a string of zeros, perhaps) or was the (empty)
formalism carried further (formal parameters, certificate, etc.)?

Is the signature formally (if not legally) verifiable?

___tony___