[tor-dev] [tor-assistants] Python metrics-lib

[Beck Chen]

I observed some inconsistency, if not errors, in the directory server specs
[1]:

1. Outline
   Every authority has a very-secret, long-term "Authority Identity Key".
   This is stored encrypted and/or offline, and is used to sign "key
   certificate" documents.  Every key certificate contains a medium-term
   (3-12 months) "authority signing key", that is used by the authority to
   sign other directory information.

2.1. Router descriptor format

   "fingerprint" fingerprint NL
       [At most once]
       A fingerprint (a HASH_LEN-byte of asn1 encoded public key, encoded in
       hex, with a single space after every 4 characters) for this router's
       identity key. A descriptor is considered invalid (and MUST be
       rejected) if the fingerprint line does not match the public key.

    "signing-key" NL a public key in PEM format
       [Exactly once]
       The OR's long-term identity key.  It MUST be 1024 bits.

According to the outline, the long-term identity key should be different
from the
signing key, which changes every 3-12 months. Then why should the signing
key
become the identity key in the descriptor format, and fingerprint become
the hash
of the identity key?

Cheers,
Beck

[1]
https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git?a=blob_plain;hb=HEAD;f=dir-spec.txt
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