Petname

{{about|the security-enhancing software naming systems|the shorter or diminutive form of a word or given name|Hypocorism|names of pet animals|Personal name#Non-human personal names}}

Petname systems are naming systems that claim to possess all three naming properties of Zooko's triangle - global, secure, and memorable.{{cite web| url=http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/petnames/IntroPetNames.html| title=An Introduction to Petname Systems }} Software that uses such a system can satisfy all three requirements. Such systems can be used to enhance security, such as preventing phishing attacks.{{cite book|author1=Sadek Ferdous |author2=Audun Jøsang |author3=Kuldeep Singh |author4=Ravishankar Borgaonkar |title = Security Usability of Petname Systems|series = Lecture Notes in Computer Science|publisher = Springer Science+Business Media|year = 2009|isbn = 9783642047657|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSMsqoqufMoC&pg=PP1}}

Unlike traditional identity systems, which focus on the service provider, Petname systems are decentralized and designed to facilitate the needs of the enduser as they interact with multiple services.{{cite book|author1=Audun Jøsang|author2=Torleiv Maseng|author3=Svein J. Knapskog|title=Identity and Privacy in the Internet Age: 14th Nordic Conference on Secure IT Systems, NordSec 2009, Oslo, Norway, 14-16 October 2009, Proceedings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSMsqoqufMoC&pg=PP1|date=29 September 2009|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-642-04765-7|pages=1–}}{{cite web| url=http://www.erights.org/elib/capability/pnml.html| title=The PetName Markup Language }}

History

Though the Petname model was formally described in 2005 by Mark Stiegler, the potential of the system was discovered by several people successively.

Examples

The GNU Name System (GNS) – a decentralized alternative to DNS based on the principle of a petname system{{cite web

| url = https://lsd.gnunet.org/lsd0001/#section-1-4

| title = The GNU Name System

| last1 = Schanzenbach

| first1 = Martin

| last2 = Grothoff

| first2 = Christian

| last3 = B.

| first3 = Fix

| date = 2022-02-03

| website = GNUnet

| publisher = IETF

| access-date = 2022-02-04

| quote = The design of GNS incorporates the capability to integrate and coexist with DNS. GNS is based on the principle of a petname system and builds on ideas from the Simple Distributed Security Infrastructure [SDSI].

}}

CapDesk – a distributed desktop environment{{Cite web|url=http://www.combex.com/tech/edesk.html|title = E and CapDesk}}
Petname Tool (discontinued browser extension) – There was a browser extension available for Firefox called Petname Tool that allowed pet names to be assigned to secure websites. Use of this extension could help prevent phishing attacks.{{cite book

|author1=Markus Jakobsson |author2=Steven Myers |title = Phishing and Countermeasures: Understanding the Increasing Problem of Electronic Identity Theft

|publisher = Wiley-Interscience

|year = 2006

|isbn = 0471782459

|url=https://archive.org/details/phishin_xxx_2007_00_6680|url-access=registration }}

PetName Markup Language

The PetName Markup Language (PNML) is a proposal for embedding Petname information into other systems using a custom markup language.

PNML consists of two tags:

pet-name-string
stringified-cryptographic-key

References

External links

[http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/petnames/IntroPetNames.html An Introduction to Petname Systems]
[http://www.erights.org/elib/capability/pnml.html The PetName Markup Language]
[https://github.com/cwebber/rebooting-the-web-of-trust-spring2018/blob/petnames/draft-documents/petnames.md Petnames: A humane approach to secure, decentralized naming]

Category:Computer security software

Category:Secure communication

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