Consider this scenario:
- Alice sends a signed message with her key to BOB.
- Bob never traded a key with Alice.
- Alice's key is signed by a certain X.
- X's key is signed by Y, an entity that BOB trusts.
Is Alice's key valid or not for Bob?
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Please add some context on this question.
– André Vermeulen
Stackoverflow is for programming questions. Questions about cryptography are off-topic for Stack Overflow unless they directly involve tools used primarily for programming. You may be able to get help on Crypto.
– President James K. Polk
This is about PKI-X, but before answering yes/no you may want to consider that trust is not a black and white thing.
– Maarten Bodewes
Trick question. The validity of Alice's key does not depend on Bob's decision to trust it or not.
– Thomas M. DuBuisson
As noted, this belongs on either crypto.stackexchange.com or security.stackexchange.com, but before you ask it there, you will need to make it more precise. Make sure you have a very specific meaning for "trust" (trust that the key is theirs? trust that they are a valid introducer? trust that anyone they trust is also trustworthy? Trust as Maarten notes, trust is not a binary thing.) You must also make sure you have a precise meaning for "valid" (as Thomas notes). The short answer is "probably no in most cases, for most common systems," but it highly depends on the specifics.
– Rob Napier
